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Reply to "(07/12/21) SOLD OUT! Santa Fe F3 Diesel Locomotive from Menards!"

@Landsteiner posted:

I wasn't specifically referring to the ATSF locomotive, just the LionChief diesel line in general as a direct competitor to the future possible Menards diesels.

LionChief is the standard entry level locomotive in Lionel's sets and they make some separate sale locos in the same price range as Menards.  Neither operate in conventional mode.  Both use essentially command control and come with a remote.  Neither is intended for the rivet counter .  LionChief locos do not have some of the problems seen with decorating, packaging or strange abrupt starts that the prototype Menards loco, so it remains to be seen if Menards fixes these problems.  As for burning up engines and lack of pulling power, these may be unrealistic expectations on the part of buyers and unwise attempts to pull very long trains, but I wouldn't know for sure.

Just thinking out loud about what competition Menards might have for the budget conscious buyer or beginners.

You are right.  My grandson (five) has a UP LionChief set which he got for Christmas.  It's pretty neat and works really well except for an under powered wall wart (which was replaced with a laptop power supply that works really really well).

But I think the design (ATSF) is a winner because in the reasonable price range a lot of people want that model in that color.   Unless you want to spend a lot of money that color Superchief  only seem to be readily available in sets. So Menards chose the right model I think.

John

Last edited by Craftech

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