Menards has done a wonderful job offering traditional size freight rolling stock. I wonder what the possibility would be to produce traditional size passenger cars at an affordable price?
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
I would be interested depending on the road names released.
Be interested. As long as George Jetson can change the lights without shouting Jane at the top of his voice.
@wild mary posted:Menards has done a wonderful job offering traditional size freight rolling stock. I wonder what the possibility would be to produce traditional size passenger cars at an affordable price?
What do you consider affordable? They wouldn't be 20 bucks, especially if they have to have the builder develop new tooling.
Rusty
@Rusty Traque posted:What do you consider affordable? They wouldn't be 20 bucks, especially if they have to have the builder develop new tooling.
Rusty
The tooling may already be out there especially now that MTH is closing up shop. There is also K Line tooling and maybe even Weaver. I'd be more interested if they could build their cars here in the US..
I just want scale rolling stock..even if Sierra shorties or one of those short SP RPO's (like one of the last, but not at a brass price). There was plenty of prototype passenger equipment less than 80' in length.
Would like silver type passenger cars for my postwar 221. Would like New York Central. Baggage, pull am and observation. Of course the cars would be in sliver and lighted. Also the cars should have seats inside and the roof that can be removed easily. Menards could offer sitting figures for the cars as a addition option to purchase at a fair price for a quantity of figures. What is offered now from other vendors cost to much for only few figures. The cars could be similar in length as the post war Lionel 2400 series. This would be a nice place for Menards to start.
I would imagine that the K-Line cars would be the easiest to produce. I'm sure their manufacturer in China has the molds and dies.
@Rusty Traque posted:What do you consider affordable? They wouldn't be 20 bucks, especially if they have to have the builder develop new tooling.
Rusty
Personally $40.00 would be affordable using existing tooling. 
@jhz563 posted:I am glad to read you are looking into passenger cars. As I stated in another thread, if the cars had easy open roofs it would greatly increase the play value for kids of all ages.
And for George Jetson to change the lights without screaming, JANE, so loud it would awake the terra cotta warriors in China!
I may be Canadian, but I blanch when I see guys unabashedly talking about getting more train stuff from China. Forget China. Bring back good 'ol American ingenuity and know-how and make trains again. Sure, we'll pay more and part of that sting will happen because of relying on foreign manufacturing in the first place. Sheesh!
I have a number of sets of the 15 inch heavyweight K-line cars. I think Menards would have to strip them down, no interior detail, frosted windows, simplified six wheel or four wheel trucks. That would be the only way you could make passenger cars at the price point you guys want. Don
I might be interested if they produced a car not produced before like a 15" version of the MTH open vestibule cars. I think all the other bases have already been covered.
Pete
@Dominic Mazoch posted:And for George Jetson to change the lights without screaming, JANE, so loud it would awake the terra cotta warriors in China!
I honestly have no idea what you mean by this comment.
@jhz563 posted:I honestly have no idea what you mean by this comment.
OH, The Jetsons are a Hanna-Barbera cartoon produced in the 1960's. George was all thumbs. He got so frustrated that he would scream "Jane", at top volume when something went wrong.
You Tube "George Jetson walking Astro". Prime example.
I know what the cartoon is, I watched it as a kid. It's the context of how it relates to the possibility of Menard's making passenger cars that eludes me.
Virginian65 has the right idea. With the continued friction between the U.S. and China today, why don't the manufacturers, who have their trains made "Over Yonder Across the Pacific Ocean", set up shop in the U.S. or Canada? It would not only elminate the trans-Pacific shipping problem, but would also put Americans and Canadians to work, many who lost their jobs when they were lost to the Asian community years ago.
Respect is due to all of the dedicated manufacturers (large and small) in North America who believed that retaining their facilities at home in the U.S. and Canada, was, to qoute the onetime Central of Georgia slogan: The Right Way! Their products aren't that expensive to begin with because they don't have to pay for overseas shipping. It's a win-win situation as I see it!
A Very Special Thank You to all of you!
Godspeed
I could definitely see Menards producing some sort of O27-sized passenger car, and I'm sure a lot of people would buy them (myself included). $40-45 would be a reasonable price. Most likely to keep the cost down there wouldn't be an interior but that isn't really a deal breaker for me. If you frost or tint the windows the right way it wouldn't matter. Making some streamlined passenger cars would be the most versatile design I would think, you could use a multitude of different railroad names and they could represent the 1940's right up through the Amtrak era. They could offer baggage, coach, dome, sleeper, diner, and observation cars. I'd be all for it!
At first I thought using plastic extrusions could be an economical method of producing passenger carbodies, as I watched this:
But then I thought, well then you'd have to source end caps, trucks, lighting, painting, fasteners, assembly and packaging. A company the size of Menards, you'd figure that they have at least some domestically-produced house-brand products of similar complexity which would serve as a start on a domestic supply chain for hypothetical passenger cars, but not living within their corporate footprint, I've never had an opportunity to comb through their offerings to see how much, if any of it was produced that way.
Ultimately if such a thing comes to be, the least disruptive thing (remember, the trains exist as long as they don't become a sticking point within the larger business) would be to let their existing overseas supplier (Golden Wheel) handle it, as so many of us are loathe to admit, the expertise and institutional knowledge needed to do this is already in-place "over there".
---PCJ
