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I've been looking for an affordable one for years. They're not very common on eBay anymore. I'm looking for the later version that came with the mp15 engine that had the horn and I believe it had a switch to switch from parallel to series running.  

The $150 set on eBay is the one first version without the horn.

 

IMO $150 plus shipping is steep for what they're offering. Basically you're getting a powered unit, three cars, and an unpowered unit...

I have seen both sets and never noticed interior occupants. 

 K line may have done limited numbers of seated passengers? 

RSJB18, you could have a RARE  set!  

Or hmmm, there might be a possibility that someone altered and inserted seated figures?

Anyway, Let me know if you grow tired of them....lol. 

Question: did you wire the MP 15 in series?  have you weighted down the MP 15 and FA dummy?  

They do look fantastic on the upper level of your layout!

Leroof.

Leeroof- Now that you mention it- the passengers could have been added by the previous owner. I just assumed the set came that way.

I have a pair of Yuengling cars too- same bodies, no passengers

2018-11-24 07.45.49

I rewire all of my K-line locos in series. No other way to run them unless you have a drag strip

Scotie- Yes the MP-15 is big by comparison. I just got a Railking LIRR RS-3 that may look better with the set. The LIRR did use RS-3's on their Scoot trains so it would be period appropriate.

Bob

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  • 2018-11-24 07.45.49

Bob, so I may have solved the  mystery greenport scoot ridership! Lol.

Clue: I looked at enlarged photos of the seated people in your LIRR passenger set.

they appear to be of the same generic molds of the mass produced little people that come in large numbers via Chinese manufacturing as seen on E bay. Not a bad thing if one can remove the roofs on these cars, assuming they have seats.

i recently acquired a LIRR Lionel 3 car  set that only has silhouette and presume no interiors.  They still look cool.  No pictures today, at work. I also agree the MP 15 is a bit big by comparison. The Railking RS 3 is perfect. Also fits the color scheme of my newly acquired Lionel 027 cars.

thanks for helping solve the K line mystery.

I once had the green K line NYC MP15. Yeah, did she run fast! Had I known about the series wiring I may have kept her intact. I tried modifying the motors with resistors and such. No dice.

I used the scale body for a scale engine project (2rail)  back in the day. A great engine for $30 at a train show in the 80's.

those were the days.

 

Concerning the comments pertaining to engine speed - and I've said this before - Yes, most traditional Lionel transformers have a minimal starting voltage to the track of 6 volts. So wiring the engine's motors in series will help if you are using one of those transformers.

I highly recommend one of the Lionel 1033 transformers for running these sorts of engines. With the two settings to the track (A-U, 5-17 volts) (B-U, 0-11 volts) are very useful for either running this type or a postwar/MPC type of engine. With the B-U setting, I can make my engines crawl with no rewiring of the motors.

Also, let's be honest: These are low end starter kinds of locomotives. The Mabuchi motors used by K-Line were not always precisely the same. I've got a couple of the single motor S-2 Southern Pacific DC sets that were once made by K-Line. One of those engines operated just fine out of the box and pulled a suitable length train with no alterations. The other one needed some modifications to do the same thing.

Another observation, K-Line reissued train sets without necessarily cataloging them. There were several MP-15 train sets: A PRR, a Santa Fe and a Burlington Northern. These sets all originally came with 027 track. Later on, without being in a catalog that I know of, these sets were available again but with the new K-Line Shadow Rail track.

As an added observation, RMT used the same basic tooling for their revised/improved S-4 Bang and Buddy RDC locos. BUT these versions had a motor with different specs than the K-Line motors. Using the same B-U setting, the RMT engines will barely pull a train at full throttle.

To be certain whether it was the motor or changes to the circuit board, I stripped down one of the RMT S-4's, removing the circuit board and wiring the motors direct. I have the option of running my layout on DC current also. And sure enough, the stripped down S-4 still needed more power to run. I've also done the same test with K-Line engines and they all run fast with a typical 6 volt minimum transformer, whether they have the circuit board or not.

The one starter set engine exception is the K-Line steam engine, which runs very smoothly and slowly. The two cons of that engine are the Seuthe smoke unit and the plastic eccentric value piece, which is prone to breakage.

 

Last edited by brianel_k-lineguy

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