@bigkid posted:It seems what it is, an attempt to produce a 'toy train' engine at a reasonable price. Lionel once produced the scout set engines, they weren't inherently any better than this *shrug*. It is like Menard's cars, they are designed to be affordable trains to 'play with', they aren't designed to compete with scale equipment. The Menards engine is meant to invoke the old Lionel F3's, whether it is an f3 or f7 or fp9 doesn't matter, some of the comments on here were kind of funny in that regards (I understand people were trying to figure out what Menards used as a base, but still, some were saying how it didn't have this, that, this is a representation, not a scale model
My guess is looking at the 3 rail market there really isn't that much to the 'low end'. Railking is way more expensive than this, lionchief is great but again, is at a higher price point, I don't even know if Atlas has their low end line,williams is expensive for the most part, unless on closeout. Looks to me like a true toy train, designed to give enjoyment, fits kind of in with the three rail traditional trains. The only thing I question is lack of conventional control, but then again it isn't hard to use this with command, no new wiring, turn transformer to like 16 v and you are ready to go.
Considering the prices on the modern loco's, this is a steal even if the price went to $200.00.
I was just in my LHS and the sticker shock is just wearing off......
