(09/12/17) New! Bus Maintenance Facility from Menards!

Here's a short video for your viewing pleasure!

-Mark the Menards Train Guy

VERY NICE PIECE. Now where can I fit it?

That would make a perfect fire station...

I quite like this piece. It is something that would be a bit unique to see on a layout. 

Just wish it had the Chinatown School buses, but I'll be picking one up regardless. Nice job. 

Menards had better start working on a basement expander kit!  I'm running out of room!

Menards has created an exceptional line of prebuilt structures at affordable prices. And we don't have to wait a year or two to put them on our layouts. Well done. Please keep it up.

Tony

Up on "The D & H Bridge Line"

Smart idea to repurpose the Power and Light building.  That kind of methodology gets us more buildings and at a lower price.  

And this building can be customized to be all sorts of different things.  Gas station, boat repair facility.  Heck, even restaurants and breweries.  So many of these types of buildings have been turned into coffee shops, etc in real life.  

Nice. Who makes an actual school building that would go great along with this?

towdog posted:

Smart idea to repurpose the Power and Light building.  That kind of methodology gets us more buildings and at a lower price.  

And this building can be customized to be all sorts of different things.  Gas station, boat repair facility.  Heck, even restaurants and breweries.  So many of these types of buildings have been turned into coffee shops, etc in real life.  

I love this building and with a little customizing it's going to be the Emergency Service building for my airport.  I'll offer the buses for sale (cheap) since they don't fit my era. It will be based on this building.

luvindemtrains posted:

Nice. Who makes an actual school building that would go great along with this?

Lionel has a building that works as a school.  Check the past couple of catalogs.

Well that's good that it is district 12. It could have been worse... District 9!

As a veteran, (9 years), school bus driver, this is a must have item for me. I just wish they had done a better job on the bus models. What the heck is the purpose of that goofy roof hatch? There is not a school bus in the entire country that has a roof hatch like that. I will look at scraping those buses, and replacing them with something more realistic. The rest of the model is a keeper.

mowingman posted:

As a veteran, (9 years), school bus driver, this is a must have item for me. I just wish they had done a better job on the bus models. What the heck is the purpose of that goofy roof hatch? There is not a school bus in the entire country that has a roof hatch like that. I will look at scraping those buses, and replacing them with something more realistic. The rest of the model is a keeper.

I'm not using the buses either.  The hatch is sort of funky looking.  Wonder where those buses came from.  Anyway the structure itself is great.

The hatches on the buses are starting to be installed in case of accidents. Just another way to get out if overturned or the like.

I have only seen a few here near Philly.

Btw I like the school garage, I may have to get one. 

Dave 

WOW, what a great value.

david1 posted:

The hatches on the buses are starting to be installed in case of accidents. Just another way to get out if overturned or the like.

I have only seen a few here near Philly.

Btw I like the school garage, I may have to get one. 

Dave 

Roof hatches on school buses have been standard equipment for at least the last 25 or 30 years, probably longer. They all have 2 hatches, one near the front, and one near the rear. The hatches are just large enough for an average size adult to crawl through. I have not measured them, but I am guessing about 24"x24" is the standard hatch opening.

 The ones on these Menards buses will probably scale out at 48"x72". Just a tad oversize.

wild mary posted:

towdog posted:

Smart idea to repurpose the Power and Light building.  That kind of methodology gets us more buildings and at a lower price.  

And this building can be customized to be all sorts of different things.  Gas station, boat repair facility.  Heck, even restaurants and breweries.  So many of these types of buildings have been turned into coffee shops, etc in real life.  

I love this building and with a little customizing it's going to be the Emergency Service building for my airport.  I'll offer the buses for sale (cheap) since they don't fit my era. It will be based on this building.

Nick I love your idea! Get 2 of them for all the fire engines! Keep me in mind when it come time to part with the bus!

This is a great building. But with all the German Shepherds that come with the buildings, we will need a pet supply store or a dog grooming shop!

Interesting comments on the roof hatches for the buses. They do look a bit unrealistic, although I think they will blend in a lot better by simply closing the hatches. I may replace them however if I decide to turn it into a maintenance facility for municipal buses.