The early Menards train products were made by Lionel mostly for the Menards racing car. Lionel also had special Menards sets with Menards cars during the Christmas season.
Then Menards started selling the special cars that were not Lionel and came in a plastic clam shell containers a few every Holiday season mostly flatcars with loads.
They must have gotten hooked up with some manufacture that provided ideas of what they can do. Its been great for the hobby and added to my collection big time.