Features: Assembled wood structure, interior illumination (power supply not included), plumbing-related details on exterior
Order online at www.menards.com or visit your local Menards store during the holiday season
What I received was a production prototype for Menards Plumbing Supply. This is the first industrial structure in the firm’s line of wood buildings. This is a good thing, because factories, grocery stores, and plumbing and hardware shops keep your O gauge railroad hauling cargo to train town!
Opening the clamshell
My first impression of the structure was “New England!” The gray paint and white trim said Cabot Cove (you know, Jessica Fletcher, Sheriff Tupper, Dr. Hazlitt and the highest murder rate in Maine). The structure has a universal look that says to me small, friendly, and quaint.
The dark gray building has white window trim, doors, loading dock and stairs. There is a small add-on to one side with external supports that also are white.
The roofing appears to be printed paper with a printed pattern, suggesting weathered corrugated metal. This is affixed to a cardstock roof.
I decided that the side of the structure with a loading dock must be the front. That was mainly because the on/off switch and the receptacle for the power adapter were on the single-door side.
The loading dock features a finely executed set of wood stairs with a handrail. There are wood supports for the deck, and the surface is a printed surface with weathering detail.
I knew this for certain only by running my finger over it to feel for plank texture. It was smooth, but it didn’t look smooth – which is a good thing.
There are several add-on detail points that need to be mentioned. There is a well-done wood crate and two pallets on the dock and one over at the side. These all have wood texture.
There are also a bathroom sink, a toilet, and a worker with wheelbarrow containing a load of short pipes.
Keeping in mind that this is a prototype, these rough pieces, as well as the other worker figures, are place holders for final production figures and detail pieces. The toilet, sink, and wheelbarrow are all items that plumbers would need, probably right on their service truck, “just in case.”
The dock area is packed with things to see. There is a sliding window that I can see business being conducted through it (drivers hand over the manifest, and then Smitty the helper hauls the goods inside).
There is a nice double door with add-on structural supports, and each door has a three-pane window. They look like they would slide open (right or left), but do not. The door does look nice.
There is a mini-attic on the building, and the dockside has a partially opened window and a short crawl-through, or pass-through, hatch. The hatch has support detailing. There is also an overhang. The purpose puzzled me – I’d seen something like it before but couldn’t place it. I have a notion I saw this on a small farm structure somewhere in my travels. I imagine it would be a platform for unloading material – stored in the attic – to someone on a lift truck (or ladder) to hand to someone on a flatbed truck.
There are four add-on advertisements on the front of the building. They were a bit dark, but I suspect they emulate the rusted metal signs you might see the guys on the TV show American Pickers trying to buy. The signs were for Mayfield bathroom fixtures, Standard bathroom fixtures, Moen fixtures, and Sioux Chief Manufacturing plumbing products.
The right side of the structure has two large windows (one partially raised) and a small window in the attic.
At ground level there are two add-on racks for pipe and a few short pipe sections leaning on the side of the building. Faded signage for Menards Plumbing Supply is just above the larger windows.
The rear (single-door side) of the store has plenty of detailing, including a lower level with a small two-step porch with a handrail. The door frame has hinge detailing, and the door had support framing and a simulated door knob. On both sides of the door are partially open windows.
You will find signage for Menards Plumbing Supply and NIBCO plumbing fittings and another, larger advertisement for Sioux Chief fixtures.
Up on the roof there is another cupola; it is a bit smaller than that on the opposite side and has a flat roof.
There is no deck or loading hatch.
There are two plumbing items on the ground: a water pump (looks like a Campbell no. PP2 heavy-duty pitcher pump) and an old hot-water radiator. There are also two figures that seem to be cleaning the Sioux Chief sign.
The fourth side of the plumbing supply is an attached storage shed. This is off-white, compared to the store’s gray. It has the same stressed metal roof. The floor inside the shed is simulated wood planking, and you can see structural supports inside and outside the shed.
There are two sight gags with this feature. First, peer into the shed and you’ll see a white four-legged bathtub.
This is the type of tub everyone had 70 years ago, and the rich and famous use today. You will have to insert your own bather, and I have no doubt many readers will do just that!
But how can you see inside?
Easy, the second sight gag is that the door is off the hinges. The errant door is laying on the ground (and permanently affixed) to the side of the shed. See what I mean about being small-town and friendly?
Oh, next to the shed is a dog that looks surprisingly like our four-legged friend from the Dairy Barn (October 2014 Product Reviews).
All around the wood base of the accessory are tufts of simulated grass (yellow green to dark green). They do a great job of covering the surface. All you need to do is add a parking lot and a few delivery trucks and you have it made!
A new biz for your town?
The Menards Plumbing Supply building is a premium product. It is carefully assembled and nicely decorated. You can easily plunk it down on your O gauge layout or get out some paint and repurpose it as another business (this would be a great Cabot Cove Fish & Chips shop!).
As I’ve said with the previous two Menards preassembled wood structures, the price of the finished product is less than you’d have to pay me to assemble and decorate a similar structure.
The Menards Plumbing Supply building will appeal to layout owners who want a unique structure to tinker with for their train town or for those who (like me) prefer to open a box, take the structure out, and place it on the train table. –
