Dakota Minnesota & Eastern entry level set: Lionel or MTH RailKing.

[Andrew Falconer]

It was mentioned that a Lionel train set in the DM&E markings would be great to get at Menards. MENARDS has Lionel make an entry level set each year now. There are only 1500 train sets produced each year as Menards exclusive sets. Could the bright yellow & blue DM&E / ICE scheme sell well enough all across the Northern Midwest. The DM&E and ICE freight cars are seen in freight trains all over the region.

If a Dakota Minnesota & Eastern set were made the only inexpensive enough diesel would be the O Gauge GP38 diesel-electric locomotive model.   

The DM&E GP38 Diesel Locomotive is a given for an entry level set.

Choosing entry level freight cars for the DM&E and ICE cars.

A bright blue DM&E Gondola would look nice.

The Lionel O gauge 4-Bay Covered Hopper in the scheme of a light gray body with bright blue DM&E graphics can be done. 

A bright yellow flat car with DM&E or ICE markings in black. It would have to have some sort of Menards hardware or lumber load.

There might be room for one more car in DM&E or ICE graphics. What other car could be offered beside a Lionel O Gauge 4-Bay Covered Hopper with a bright yellow body and bright blue DM&E graphics, like on the Trinity 5161 3-Bay Covered Hopper.

Perhaps the starter set can be finished out a DM&E center-cupola caboose that matches the GP38 paint scheme of blue sides with a yellow stripe on the side and yellow ends.

The train can not be any larger than that because they would want to keep the costs as low as possible. Some O gauge operators would like to buy a train set that is as low priced as possible.

 

Now if an MTH RailKing DM&E train set were to be offered as a store exclusive by some other retail chain in the Northern Midwest states, then the RailKing 4-Bay Cylindrical Hoppers and PS-2-CD Low-Side Ribbed Hoppers could be produced with the DM&E markings. The RailKing line has covered hoppers that are much closer to the real freight cars in the Dakota Minnesota & Eastern markings. Since the RailKing car bodies are made from a denser plastic and have Die-Cast Metal trucks, they will be more expensive than the Lionel cars.

The RailKing Scale sized GP9 diesel is the only option for a DM&E diesel locomotive.

Andrew Falconer

[Seayakbill]

I don't think a regional RR such as the DM&E would generate enough sales for Menards to create a sell through of 1500 sets. The Menards in Central Ohio sell the Christmas sets but I don't think there would be any inrterest locally for the DM&E. The last thing Menards wants is to send 500 or so Christmas sets back to their DC for storage or blow them out at super low prices to get rid on them.

From what I have heard that was the problem with the Wal-Mart Christmas set from 2 years ago. Not enough sales and unfortunately for Lionel they had to take back all the unsold Wal-Mart sets at their expense for return transportation.

[Andrew Falconer]

Lionel has a minimum 500 train set order for custom run sets. If Menards kept the DM&E GP38 Diesel Set order to the minimum, they would be able to sell all of them in the many store locations in the upper Midwest.

That would be the one and only DM&E starter set that could be offered at a low price.

If somebody wants to get extremely authentic then they will have to custom paint an Atlas O SD40 in Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern colors and buy all the road numbers of the Atlas O  DM&E Trinity 5161 Cu. Ft. Capy 3-Bay Covered Hoppers. That would be the most expensive DM&E train.

A lot of DM&E and ICE freight even cars come through Southern Michigan on the CN/GTW mainline where I live.

Personally I would rather have them make a C&NW FT set first.

A Wisconsin Central GP38 set with a WC High-Cube, a Missabe Ore Car,  Algoma Central Gondola, and a Illinois Central Trailer on Flat Car would be a great modern set with an even wider appeal.

Andrew Falconer

[Andrew Falconer]

Menards could have Lionel produce 500 each of 3 train sets:

First: Indiana & Ohio GP9 Diesel and Porthole caboose with freight cars for the predecessor railroads of GTW and DT&I, as well as CSX and NS.

Second: a set with mix of CN, Missabe, Illinois Central, WC, Algoma Central items. Perhaps a Wisconsin Central GP38-2 Diesel leading the train.

Three: Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern GP38-2 and DM&E, ICE cars.

That way they could cover their entire region with appealing sets for all of the upper Midwest.

Andrew

[kehoesj]

Just visited Menard's yesterday, and on display was a Milwaukee Road Switcher Steam Engine freight consist,   This probably has appeal west of  big Lake Mich.  This appears to be the offering for the 2011 season, besides the Penn Flyer.  They also had a huge selection of 1:43 diecast cars for $5.95.  Did not see a diesel offering though.

[Bob Keller]

As seen in the pages of the December CTT, Menards is running the Milw set, five Menards flatcars w/ differing loads (one is shown), three custom Woodland Scenics structures, and we could not get a large enough digital file to run in Dec or Jan, but a modern Menards store made by Lemax!

[Andrew Falconer]

Then I have to go to Menards tomorrow to see if they are in stock yet.

Andrew

[Andrew Falconer]

For 2014 the people at Menards are working with Kader-Bachmann to produce the O Gauge locomotives and freight cars that are custom painted. You would have to get in your requests to the Menards customer service right now to see if they could ever offer a custom painted, but entry level train set of a Dakota, Minnesota, & Eastern GP38-2, DM&E Covered Hoppers of some type, and a DM&E caboose. They could make them based on old Williams or originally K-Line injection molding tooling.

 

Andrew