Buy anything cool lately?

Now, as to what was in the boxes:

Ore cars. These match the width of the Lionel versions, in case anyone missed the discussion when these were first introduced.

Now, I didn't mean to order two of these. As mentioned above when I moved a bunch of cars from my wishlist to my cart, not all of them moved. So I went back to the wishlist and moved the missing ones. I overlooked selecting the green Menards boxcar a second time and did not notice that the quantity changed to 2 until after I had finalized my order. Oh well, they were cheap.

As for performance # 14366 only needed two axle ends to be popped back into their sideframe divots, after which the car rolls freely. #14271 will however need a date with a wheel puller. Note that the converted 1970's-era 2-rail Atlas switches I use on my test track have had their guard rails removed, and having no other switches on the loop, I don't know if the back-to-back spacing is ok on any of my older Menards boxcars, of which these two are part of.

The reason I ordered such a fanciful car is I have a "theme train" that I call the "O-Gauge Industry Special", comprised entirely of rolling stock that features O-Gauge industry players as a roadname. So, I have a number of freight cars with Lionel, MTH, K-Line, Williams (that one was a challenge to find), Weaver, AtlasO, and now Menards as a roadname. Being part of the O-gauge industry, Ross, OGR and CTT also make appearances .

CSX gondola and boxcar. Being of two different production runs on different years, the shade of blue is different. I'm hardly surprised

CP Rail and Soo Line gondolas. I did find prototype photos of both these paint schemes before buying. The SOO Line gon looks white in the website photos, but it's actually silver.

Southern gondola. I didn't look for a prototype photo for this one. I got it because it's a dead ringer for Bachmann's Southern gondola that appears in so many of their HO and N-scale starter sets. But it has an issue...

See that wheelset hovering above the railhead? I at first thought the truck mount was bent, but looking at this close-up, I see that the axle is just dislodged from its sideframe divot. I didn't look for this at first since the other gondolas were not so hot in the free-rolling department (the autoracks are the complete opposite despite having identical trucks). This irregularity is usually found in the diecast friction-bearing style trucks usually found on the boxcars. After I popped the axle end back in (which took a surprising amount of force, leading me to believe it came out of the factory that way), the car behaves normally on my trackwork.

Something that was asked a number of times when these were first introduced, but I never saw really answered was whether Menards' gondolas were scale width, since they seemed wider than your standard traditional-size gondola. Well, they definitely are wider than usual. Are they of scale width? If you consider a 2.5" width (10 scale feet) to be "scale" then these will probably pass the 3-foot rule, being only 1/16" short of the mark.

By the way, the coupler springs on the gondolas are really strong. You won't be 'kiss' coupling with these. Something must have changed tolerance-wise since these were made, since the performance of the couplers on my two autoracks is more or less spot-on.

And finally, the autoracks. These are very free-rolling, and a tad wobbly. I think a cardstock shim in between the truck bolster and carbody will tame this behavior, but I haven't tried it yet. I wonder if these cars are a test-run before making them in additional roadnames in a subsequent production run. In any case I'll be looking into getting decals to place in the blank panels, and if I'm able to do that, I'd certainly be open to order as many more as suitable roadnames will permit. This despite owning in excess of 50 of the MTH ones