When I didn’t have too many engines and was building my roster, I went strictly Railking. Now that I do have too many engines, I lean more towards Premier.
In some cases, the difference in price between Railking and Premier is easy to justify. The Alco PA1 is one example. In other cases, the difference in price may not be worth it to everyone.
It’s easy to tell which Railking engines are scale. The catalog describes them as Railking Scale and the website feature list says 1:48 scale proportions. As has been said, some current Railking engines were once Premier.
The RS3 does not have crew figures because there is not enough room for them due to the motor cover. Some RS3s have smoke, others don’t. If an engine has smoke or crew figures, it will generally be included in the catalog and website feature list.
In my observation, MTH engines are priced about 20%-30% less than a comparable Lionel engine.
If you want a really neat little switcher, check out the MTH 44 Tonner.
And yes, we are losing a really nice line of trains.
