This is one heck of a bargain. I often joke: "That would be cheap at half the price." But these are half the price.
I bought three, expecting it to be a good deal. Given how good a bargain they are, I am particularly pleased with myself now!
The whole thing - flatcar, truck, trailer, etc., is very good looking. Quite detailed, nicely weathered. The wood surface of the flatcar, and its wheels, are tooshiny, but a few moments with some fine steel wool to dull the flatcar surface, and some neolube on the wheels . . . As with the boxcars, the couplers are a bit stiff due to having too much "flash" along the mold lines on the inside, but a stroke or two of a tiny rat-tail file takes care of that.
As with the other Menards cars I have, each flatcar is separately numbered (you can see the number, small, toward the right end). However, all three trucks have the same tiny number printed on their hood, and the tank cars all have the same number, too. I'm not complaining - at this price it strikes me as remarkable that the trucks even come with the flatcars, much less that they have crisp numbers and letters stenciled on their hoods, etc. Very nice.
I particularly like the full load of fuel cans and the refueling barrel and pump, etc. (Two of the three had the pump loose in the box, haviing been knocked free during shipment, but it was there. I just have to glue it back . . . .
The flatcar looks scale size, or big enough to pass for it, for sure. Here it is with a scale MTH or Lionel piggyback car: same width.
The truck may not be 1:48. Here it is (left) with a Corgi model, which I think is 1:48 or 1:50, for comparison, on the right. I'm not sure they are models of the same truck but I think so - not sure the US had two different size 6 x 6s. Anyway, the Menards model is as nicely detailed and is big enough to pass for scale when on the flatcar: I will just put it nearer something else, not near the Corgi trucks. and I do not know if the Menard's trucks are removeable (easily) and I suspect they don't have moving wheels and all, but they and the trailer are so nicely done and detailed . . .
Here it is with a Jeep and M3 . . .
I am quite pleased with these.
Each flatcar came in a heavy transparent plastic container that seemed to protect it pretty well, where it was displayed on this (see below) very thin vacuum-formed roadbed with rails and ties - the rails are raised maybe 1/8 inch, not quite, etc. While I threw the plastic containers away it struck me these are worth keeping (put them in some building where the rails are supposed to run inside but you never actually will run a train, etc.) so I just tossed them in my spare parts bin.
