Any New Menard's Rolling Stock Coming?

I'll second that ROBMCC. But throw in a single dome tank car.............Paul

The only "Road Name" I have not seen is D&RG. Come on Menards, some of us Model that Road Name too !!!

Fred

Fredstrains posted:

The only "Road Name" I have not seen is D&RG. Come on Menards, some of us Model that Road Name too !!!

Fred

And Grand Trunk Western!

A nice UTLX 8K single dome scale tank car gets my vote. Even full scale small enough for both scale and traditional runners.  A scale gondola would work too.....just not one of those super narrow gons like Lionel offers. 

Mark,

I'm still waiting for a answer to a question I asked you about your track.  Mark, this was the question. Has Menard's taken steps to improve your original track and has all your original track been pulled from your store shelves.

Southern Pacific Tank Cars would make me happy.

jim sutter posted:

Mark,

I'm still waiting for a answer to a question I asked you about your track.  Mark, this was the question. Has Menard's taken steps to improve your original track and has all your original track been pulled from your store shelves.

Jim, not Mark but Bob. All the old stock has left the store and the improved  track is now in stock. Myself, I have all new and there is NO problem with any piece  in menardsville. Hope this helps. BOB

I may be wrong but Menards has a glut of rolling stock and probably wants to reduce it before making anything new.  Perhaps they need a big rolling stock sale - buy 1 and get 2 free.

wasn't there a question about this a few weeks or a month ago? 

Cabinet Bob,

Thank you for the update regarding Menard's track. So, am I to address all my questions and concerns to you?

Thanks to you dad I have learned patience. Also thanks to you I quit drinking so I have no need for a brewery but I would definitely buy more buildings like the last release.............Paul

Oh we don't need to bother Mark anymore, we just need to ask Bob from now on. 

Please trust  me guys, I do communicate  with Mark. There is only so much I can say. All I can say is there are great things coming.  Mark is a Very busy guy at Menards, and only has time to answer  when he has time. We are lucky  to have a major  sponsor  to answer questions  like he does AND when he can... BOB

Jim Berger posted:

wasn't there a question about this a few weeks or a month ago? 

And so what if there was?

Dad, we all know Mark from Menards is a very busy man! That why we have you! LOL One of us that happens to have a BAT phone to Mark the Menards guy! Instead of a bat signal a Jack signal shows up in the sky! 

Great job Dad for being the missing link between us low model train guys and the big wigs at the top!

As far as Menard goes, sometimes I think we all, myself included, sound like spoiled brats! I am confident it will all be good! LOL

Brother don't worry if you forget dad or your brothers will remind you!

I figured Cabinet Bob would have the "inside scoop" for us. Good to hear. I don't think it's a matter of being impatient about new releases, more so out of curiosity.  It just seemed to me that the focus on new product announcements had shifted more to buildings rather than rolling stock.

robmcc posted:

I figured Cabinet Bob would have the "inside scoop" for us. Good to hear. I don't think it's a matter of being impatient about new releases, more so out of curiosity.  It just seemed to me that the focus on new product announcements had shifted more to buildings rather than rolling stock.

Like there isn't enough to decide on at present? 

I see

54 Boxcars

4 cabooses ( okay maybe we could use a few more of them

126 Flat cars

24 Hoppers

23 Tank cars

Okay I know some are duplicates as there dealer packs, and I didn't add buildings, or anything else but this still gives you a choice of 231 Items to decide from in rolling stock alone. 

This is no time to drop back into a prevent defense. A good manufacture or dealer needs to have new product on their selves on a regular basis. Customers love looking at new product. Once you get customers coming to your store, keep them coming back. 

jim sutter posted:

This is no time to drop back into a prevent defense. A good manufacture or dealer needs to have new product on their selves on a regular basis. Customers lone looking at new product. Once you get customers coming to your store, keep them coming back. 

Except, Menards doesn't need trains to bring customers into their stores.  I haven't noticed any difference in the parking lot before or after they started selling train stuff.

Rusty

play trains posted:

As far as Menard goes, sometimes I think we all, myself included, sound like spoiled brats! I am confident it will all be good! LOL

Absolutely what I was thinking but didn't want the backlash that comes with a positive reply. Keep in mind Menards is relatively new to the hobby, do the other 3 rail manufactures come out with an item or announcement a month? They put out a catalog with a lot of replete items twice a year and you wait another 6 months to a year to get your order. I only buy the buildings from Menards as the rolling stock is smaller than what I run but if I were new to the hobby I'd go cheap and buy everything I could from Menards. They are actually a home improvement store with a small side line of trains, this is not their bread and butter.  Also expecting a sponsor to be at your beck and call is a little unrealistic. Just my 2 cents.

Yes, there's lots of rolling stock to choose from, but a good portion of those are 1-2+ years old by now.  My original post was wondering about NEW releases. I would imagine those who collect/operate Menard's already have the ones they are interested in. I get it, this is a niche part of their business and Menard's won't go bankrupt if they stop offering trains. They've definitely been a breath of fresh air for our hobby! Don't get me wrong, the new building releases are great. It just gets a little tricky for most folks having enough "real estate" for them on their layouts.

Rusty,

You are right about Menard's. About not needing trains to bring people in. However, there are two things that bug me when I'm in any store. The sales person not knowing their product nor caring enough to learn it.

The one thing about M is that they do not announce something unless it in the stores or can get on line.  That dog can hunt!

Plus they might not be putting product out until it is upgraded?

As Mark the Menards Train Guy has stated in a recent post, the train division within Menards is actually just a small group of dedicated O gaugers who initiated the idea of train production by the home improvement chain. The corporate leaders’ guideline was that was OK as long as it didn’t interfere with the rest of Menards’ business operations.

There has been a noticeable change in the volume of new freight cars so far this year compared to 2016 and 2017. Whether that’s because of other work priorities is something we aren’t privy to, but we can assume Mark and company simply couldn’t maintain what was an incredible pace of new products at this point last year.

And, yes, I also assume that someone at corporate noticed the amount of stock in inventory and might have asked the company’s train enthusiasts to back off for a few months.

I take Cabinet Bob at his word that new freight cars are in the pipeline. He is the closest inside contact we have aside from Mark himself.

Meanwhile, Menards is still producing new buildings, which require a heck of a lot more design steps. So Menards hasn’t exactly disappeared from the toy train scene.

Isn't all the Menards rolling stock issued from existing molds or tooling formerly used by other manufacturers? That's one of the reasons the pricing is so good. Has Menards ever done their own rolling stock tooling? If so, I've missed it.  Some of the items being requested may require new tooling.

I could be wrong, but I believe most of the freight cars came in in a couple of shipments. Then Menard's put them out one at a time. There's no way they were paying freight for one car once a week. 

The wood-top flatcars with various loads were all new. Also, Menards cars appear to be based on other companies’ designs, not necessarily from their actual tooling.

But I do sometimes wonder if Kader/Bachmann decided to jettison the Williams boxcar and hopper tooling and it ended up in the hands of the Menards factory, or if the tooling was instead cloned from existing designs.

Also, there is frequently speculation here that Menards us using the same factory and tooling as RMT. That’s highly unlikely. Walt Matuch would have to confirm this, but I suspect RMT still has access to toolingband molds within the old Sanda Kan production facility. The higher cost for RMT products can be explained by Kader’s decision to increase production costs from that factory. 

Menards prices were too low to have come from that factory. And the trucks are completely different than either Williams and RMT.

We’ll know more if we no longer see any more of those familiar boxcars and hoppers and instead see all new designs. 

rtraincollector posted:

Oh we don't need to bother Mark anymore, we just need to ask Bob from now on. 

Conspiracy Theory: Bob and Mark are actually the same person! 

There's definitely been speculation since the get go that the boxcar was of Williams lineage.  Besides the wood decked flatcar, the container car and the auto carrier also look original to me, at least I haven't seen anything similar. 

SouthernMike posted:

rtraincollector posted:

Oh we don't need to bother Mark anymore, we just need to ask Bob from now on. 

Conspiracy Theory: Bob and Mark are actually the same person! 

I've thought the same thing for some time.

wild mary posted:

SouthernMike posted:

rtraincollector posted:

Oh we don't need to bother Mark anymore, we just need to ask Bob from now on. 

Conspiracy Theory: Bob and Mark are actually the same person! 

I've thought the same thing for some time.

As they say.. Trust Me...

robmcc posted:

There's definitely been speculation since the get go that the boxcar was of Williams lineage.  Besides the wood decked flatcar, the container car and the auto carrier also look original to me, at least I haven't seen anything similar. 

I agree about the boxcars being former Williams. I wish they could get ahold of the Williams reefer tooling.  That would open up a lot of possibilities, from PFE cars to billboard reefers. Also the covered hoppers look exactly like the Lionel MPC cars. 

cabinet Bob posted:

wild mary posted:

SouthernMike posted:

rtraincollector posted:

Oh we don't need to bother Mark anymore, we just need to ask Bob from now on. 

Conspiracy Theory: Bob and Mark are actually the same person! 

I've thought the same thing for some time.

As they say.. Trust Me...

jim sutter posted:

I could be wrong, but I believe most of the freight cars came in in a couple of shipments. Then Menard's put them out one at a time. There's no way they were paying freight for one car once a week. 

Menards is so huge they most likely are using numerous consolidators throughout China. The consolidators are filling containers with whatever is being transported to them from the manufactures per Menards Transportation guidelines. Once the container is full off to the port, probably numerous times per day.

   Bill