When I mentioned Menards track to the owner at my local hobby shop he snorted and said it was junk. He had a 30 inch(I believe) straight which he just gave to me. The pins were loose, the rails felt "weird" even after cleaning. Still, I tightened the pins and rails to the best of my ability, used a needle nose plier-I need a crimping tool. Anyway, I put it on my main line that runs my PW B&O 400 with a Conventional classic 2550, 7 freight cars of various makes and a lighted chessie system caboose. The consist runs fine and there's been no noticeable drop in power or continuity when it runs over the Menards. Have run other PW and modern era engines(from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 90s, 2010s) on it as well without issue.
The ONLY engine that disagrees with the Menards tubular is my prewar 254e. When it hits the Menards track, it slows down and the contact rollers begin to spark- big time. They spark a bit on the Lionel/K-line tubular but nothing like when they run on the Menards. Needless to say, I don't run that engine on Menards track.
That said, considering the majority of my engines run swimmingly on that piece, I've considered ordering a couple more. Goes without saying but long straights just make things run so much more smoothly.
