Menards sells Lionel sets, and other non Lionel O scale. I have two of the box trucks and one F350 flatbed trucks that Menards advertises as 1:48 but my receipt at checkout listed them all as 1:43. Sorry, 1:43 is to big for my liking. I’d like to buy buildings but my budget and layout are both lacking. I do have the beautiful Alaska blue flat car with load, CN box car, Wisconsin Central and Soo flat cars. I emailed Menards in the last year suggesting a DM&E train set with an SD40-2 but never got a reply.
Agreed - Lionel certainly has produced their share of “marginal” product over the years (an MPC-era dump car is my current nemesis…). For fun, I took a look at the closest thing I have to the Menards $4.99 flatcar in my rolling stock: an MPC #6-9021 work caboose / flat car. Definitely not a high point. By comparison, though, it has very smooth wheels and axles that are nicely fixed into some sort of bearing in the truck. However, by the sticker on the box it appears that it cost my dad $3.50 sometime in the early 1970s. Don’t need an inflation calculator to say that the Menards cars are relatively speaking significantly less expensive than this was.
OK. So I found an inflation calculator and it said that $3.50 in 1973 is now about $18. Something to think about in its own right…
I take it you’re more of a scale guy than a toy train guy. I can appreciate layouts that are designed with strict scaling in mind through out. However I like operating cars and accessories, and many of them vary widely in scales despite all being designed for use with O gauge trains. That’s why you’ll see Thomas the Tank Engine pulling the pig car as its sweeper and TV camerman roll past the gateman. You may even see Mickey and Minnie outrace him down the parallel straightaways. Oftentimes, I set up Large Scale or HO trains alongside the O gauge track. My Large Scale James does have a tendency to allow Barbie and her friends to ride his Troublesome Trucks from time to time. I don’t think Barbie is 1/48 scale (more like 1/6), but James doesn’t seem to mind.
I wonder how many different scales Lionel has used for all of their railroad related cars and accessories. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a list detailing the approximate scale of each one. Surely the Gate Man must be a giant compared to many of the others—gang car, barrel loader, cherry picker, etc.
I think the Lionel Gateman is a direct relative of the K-Line speeder guys. [(-D]
I have MPC cars with plactic pins that hold the trucks to the car body. Now that is cheap. But they work great for the grand-kids use. Also helps me keep my BP down what that are at the controls. [;)]
[quote user=“fifedog”]
One thing we can all agree on, Menard’s certainly has stepped into the hobby in a big way, filling the void left from the exit of some long time manufacturers. They certainly are not the same-ol-same-ol with the their product line. Are they collector quality? Heck no. Do they have play value? Yep. (Gotta love the military and rocket flats). Do you get what you pay for? Of course. Can you tinker with them and make them better? With a little effort, yes. (And you’ll probably read it on future threads.)
K-Line certainly got better over time.