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Wow...rave review in OGR about Menards F unit, with what look like affordable fixes...gear material and flywheel additions.  Can steam be far behind? (I hope not!). Seems to be an eye-opener on pricing..puh-lease make me a #90, and a McKeen car, and several gas electrics such as the Edwards, GE's, and Brill's.  And small logging engines, less complicated, like a Heisler or Climax.  The ATSF F looks like  a reiteration of the Marx #21, low cost and durable, but much more capable.  Hmmm .... think Williams was once known for that.  Also like the back pages spread of Menards buildings, but wonder if the "Tampa Towers" is realistically operating?  Push a button and it collapses into rubble?  The "County Hotel" looks like just the one to bash into the hotel in Idaho the trains  ran through.  Great issue!

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To be completely honest, and this is nothing I did not send to Menards, as a beta tester I was underwhelmed by my sample.  Scuff marks on the roof, the sound functions did not work properly, the remote is easily broken and I handle brass cars all the time, and it took some work just to get it to run.

Perhaps I got one of the poorer ones, but my feedback concluded with" make sure it works well with little to no modification if the goal is to bring new people into the hobby at an affordable price point."

My example did not meet that expectation.  I hope that the production run version does as the hobby needs decent trains at that price point. 

Mine is going to be gutted with a new control system and I plan on repainting it to make it a more useable part of my fleet.

Wow...rave review in OGR about Menards F unit, with what look like affordable fixes...gear material and flywheel additions.  Can steam be far behind? (I hope not!). Seems to be an eye-opener on pricing..puh-lease make me a #90, and a McKeen car, and several gas electrics such as the Edwards, GE's, and Brill's.  And small logging engines, less complicated, like a Heisler or Climax.

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Really?  Menards hasn't even made it official that they're going to implement any of the suggestions from the Beta testers, let along produce an actual production run (which would likely be at a higher price.)

Time will tell.

If or when they do a production run, I just hope they call it what it is, an FP7.

Rusty

I’m fairly certain Menards will do a full production run, but only the company knows which of the often competing suggestions will be implemented in the final product.

Oh, and one final bit of info. The limited run model is actually an FP9, not an FP7. The position of the first porthole further back away from the cab is the telltale spotting sign. Which makes this choice even more interesting since no U.S. railroads ordered FP9 units (though C&NW had several FP9s converted from FTs).

@Jim R. posted:

I’m fairly certain Menards will do a full production run, but only the company knows which of the often competing suggestions will be implemented in the final product.

Oh, and one final bit of info. The limited run model is actually an FP9, not an FP7. The position of the first porthole further back away from the cab is the telltale spotting sign. Which makes this choice even more interesting since no U.S. railroads ordered FP9 units (though C&NW had several FP9s converted from FTs).

I missed that.  FP7-FP9... One thing for sure is, it ain't an F3.  One other little odd detail the Menards loco has is a drip strip above the nose door, something pretty much unique to Ontario Northland and some CN/Via FP's.

Image crop from my photo.

Rusty

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@Jim R. posted:

I’m fairly certain Menards will do a full production run, but only the company knows which of the often competing suggestions will be implemented in the final product.

Oh, and one final bit of info. The limited run model is actually an FP9, not an FP7. The position of the first porthole further back away from the cab is the telltale spotting sign. Which makes this choice even more interesting since no U.S. railroads ordered FP9 units (though C&NW had several FP9s converted from FTs).

We'll I'll be!  It sure is an FP9.  I had to go back to my FP7 drawings to confirm the window location.  The drip over the nose door makes it even more interesting considering the details it is missing such as the louvers between the porthole windows, the class lights, and several others.  

Not to derail this thread, but a shout out to Putnam division (Peter) and his crew for a great article on their club, which is also in this new edition.  

If you liked the River City 3 Railers article in Run 320, you'll find more of Peter Condro and Tom Gilsdorf's fine work in Run 321, which will feature a new Christmas/winter module those fellows have created.

If you liked the River City 3 Railers article in Run 320, you'll find more of Peter Condro and Tom Gilsdorf's fine work in Run 321, which will feature a new Christmas/winter module those fellows have created.

Excellent! Looking forward to it, Allan. Man, this year has flown.  I can't believe that  we are already talking about Christmas - my favorite train time of year.

Thanx. Thread came up right on the heels of the 20th year since 9/11.

@MartyE posted:

I agree with you. The comment was uncalled for in my opinion regardless if the building was made before or after the event.

I totally agree with both of you.   I was just commenting on the Menard aspect.

Colorado HiRailer's comment was totally uncalled for given the timing of it as well as the tragedy of the towers falling in Miami with people killed and some still missing.

I found the back to back reviews of Menards and Vision line articles very thought provoking.   What does one really want in their collection? To me the costly Vision line GS-4 set was much more appealing to me. I would simply run it more often. But I see that the tide is turning and I don’t have to like it.

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