Becoming a K-Line fan

C. Sam,

Like you, I left the hobby before K-Line was doing the scale stuff and beautiful passenger cars.  I'm a huge fan of K-Line and have recently added many items.  

 

The aluminum passenger cars are fantastic and a great 'bang for the buck' in most cases. 

 

Overall, K-Line is missed by many of us.

 

 

The Kline Hudson was my first command engine purchased and it changed the way I run my trains. I really liked them and I converted the NYC Hudson and B&O light pacific to Proto 2 for the cruise control.  When I purchased the Rdg Tank, I had it converted to Proto 2 before I took it home.  They are wonderful engines and run beautifully. I recently found the Rdg F3 that had failed and was at Kline when they folded. I got the engine back a year later when they must have cleaned out their warehouse. I had that engine retrofitted with Proto 2 (including slave unit for the training B) and it looks and runs well. Kline changed the industry and got be back into running trains.  It even got be purchasing bill board reefers.  They are some of my favorite cars. Enjoy building your Kline roster. 

The last year K-line was around theirs was the only product I bought. I love the Plymouths, Porters and Superstreets.

I've always liked K-Line products.  By the time I started buying them K-Line had been long out of business.  Some of it I got from the Western Depot LHS (because the bought a lot of it) and the rest from eBay.

SP Berkshire

SP RS-3

B & O K4 Pacific

B & O Heavyweight Passenger Cars

SP Daylight Aluminum Passenger Cars

Napa Valley Wine Train

Matt

I have been saying this for a long time.  "I wish K-line was still around"  I have been focused on buying K-line rolling stock and passenger cars when I can find them. I didn't fully appreciate their stuff when they were still alive and well but I do now!

My first aluminum cars ever were K-Line, the FOM 15" 5 car set, with the same combine as yours.  They came with K-Line's version of the Lowey Torpedo. I hope to fill it out the same way by interspersing 18" cars, if I ever find some.  Although it's hard to tell from your pic, I suppose the length differences won't detract from the overall cohesiveness of the consist.

 

Somewhere in my travels I managed to procure 2 PRR, 21" streamliner RPO and REA head enders.  They definitely look odd with the 15 inchers but might also tie together better by adding 18" cars within the bunch.

 

I don't think Chris and I are the only ones lamenting K-Line's demise, although I must admit I'm having a blast buying some pretty impressive scale K-Line economically.

Bruce

 

 

 

I was a big K-Line fan.K-Line was my main supplier for scale rolling stock when I got back into trains in 2000. I absolutely love the K-Line scale steel and bay window caboose. I've got somewhere around 20-30 of them. I also bought several consists of the 18" aluminum passenger cars when no one else had anything like them.The full 18" Hiawatha consist is incredible! I have a few of their scale locomotives including the Hudson(2).I hated to see them go under,they lost focus of their core market and tried to be too many things to too many people. Anyone remember the awful "husky" series?

I've been a K-Line fan for a long time.  Good quality products at great prices.  I've got an eclectic collection of 21" passenger cars from various roads that I enjoy.  They run well with my GGD cars.  As of late, I've been busy finding my Favorite F-Unit by K-line.  I've been looking for years and now they seem to be appearing again.

 

My plan is to paint the CalTrain one into VIA paint as well to pull my VIA Canadian.  I'll paint it in the older scheme though just for the variety of it.  I've also been surprised by the number of numbers available on the Amtrak models.  I know of three so far; the two pictured below and #322.

 

They were in many respects, way ahead of their time. Over the past couple of years, I have converted most of my passenger train inventory to 21" K-Lines. They look and run very well. Not much not to like.

I only own a few K-Line products, 6 Heavyweight passenger cars I picked up pretty cheap off  the auction site 4 southern crescent , 2 PRR.  these I'm very impressed with.  I'm sure the newer cars from Lionel and MTH are also very nice, but the 'Heavyweight' cars just have a real solid feel to them and they roll along nicely.  

 

I just recently picked up a TMCC+cruse Allegheny locomotive, and despite it's fairly small size, 1:58 scale, it has quickly become my favorite engine.  Really nice detail and solid operation and performance make it a lot of fun to operate.  

 

I look forward to purchasing many more KLine products in the future, and am saddened that there will be no more.  

GG1 4877, 

I like your CalTrain engine.  I have one by MTH, but it is in the old paint scheme that was used till 1997.

Matt

I was lucky enough to purchase a K-line C&NW GP-38 and a matching 4-car set of 21" bi-levels a few years back.  As The MIZ says:  AWESOME!

Whats not to love????

 

 

NOS for less than $20 delivered........kinda happy not everyone likes it.....yet....

Gentlemen,

   K-Line not only made some great rolling stock and engines, they also made fantastic track & Super Snap low voltage Switches, which accommodated even the old original Lionel Tin Plate Trains.  Our hobby lost a great company, when K-line was forced to sell to Lionel. I simply do not understand Lionel's business move to sell off the K-Line Track & Super Snap Switches to RMT, this was a business move I will never really understand.

Lionel thru the years has made some foolish business decisions, this I believe was another major business mistake.

PCRR/Dave

 

Sam, welcome to the BIG K Club. Don

 I think K-Line started becoming a big influence to O scale. Although they got pushed out, their innovations seen to guide where many directions went. I've got to believe it led Lionel to their higher detailed Aluminum hoppers for example. Maybe even the future large tankers after that?

 I don't know the whole history. I do know that they even released some G scale stuff. I got some of their power trucks into my scratch built MP15AC switcher, and it pulls just about anything. I'm also a fan.

 I went on a hunt for a twin pulmore post war GG-1, and instead came home with a Single Pulmore MPC, a K-line dual can motor, a dummy Williams I had a full intension on restoring, and the K-line plastic FoM BL cars as a consolation prize.

  I sold the Lionel because the K-line, while maybe not a twin pulmore with magnetraction's equal, it was definitely the single motors superior. It tracked better than any other GG-1 I ran as a kid, and started out of the hole like 8 pulmores with 20+ heavies (and you learned each GG quick with the jackrabbit starts)

 The K-line and is the strongest, smoothest thing I've owned outside of a Hudson, and I paid under $100 bucks.     

 The plastic Broadway Limited cars took some time to appreciate, but I like every inch now. I have a bit of an anti-plastic bias, but its overall looks, and window stenciling, made me forget to notice a long time ago. I'd pulled enough heavy aluminum cars as a kid to know I liked the lighter passenger cars enough to stay with them now too. Especially if I grow that "set" to its single loco potential.  

 I cut the Williams dummy right in half with a band saw. In a good way, for snow MOW, but G () that's what happens when you know It'll more likely be another matching K-line next, than a greenish black twin, 1st year Lionel.

 Yea, I wish I would have been willing to "jump ship" sooner. They really did shake things up again for a while.         

I remember driving to a K-Line Super Store, in Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Several times a year. I believe it was called Train X-Press

No longer around. If you know the name let me know......

Gary

 

I currently own just over a dozen K-Line products (three locomotives, seven freight cars, and a awesome Southern Pacific extended vision caboose with a smoke unit), and I am very pleased with the quality and detail on each piece. The locomotives I own from K-Line (Reading Company F7 Powered A-B set, Wabash O-27 FA-2 A unit) are great pullers, perform well, and look pretty sharp when I do get to run them around. It is a shame that K-Line went away after selling to Lionel, for the more I look into K-Line's locomotives from the early 2000's up until the bitter end, there are some great options to choose from!  

 

Thankfully, the train store that I go to (The Western Depot) still has a good-sized collection of K-Line product (mostly freight cars, including some special-run sets exclusive to the WD) to look into whenever I do make the trek to Yuba City. Got my eye on some of the cabooses with the fantastic detailing and operating smoke units!

I was fortunate enough to find a NIB K-Line spine car set of five cars and containers.  I've been looking for one of these sets for a while and finally found one for a reasonable price at The York Show this past weekend.  I like these much better than the MTH set I currently have.  I snagged a few K-Line Die Cast 4 bay hoppers as well.  I've also got the Boscov's Department Store Pennsylvania Railroad Liberty Limited Passenger set with all of the cars, including the separate sale express box car, passenger cars and the FB which complements the 2 FA's that came with the set.  The set included track and transformer.  The track is similar to the old LIONEL "Super O" track.  Did I mention I LOVE K-Line stuff.   Too bad they're gone.

 

Chief Bob (Retired)

Yeah! I still love my K-line pieces!

  

 

With many of these pieces still holding up to today's super detailed models too!

I always get a chuckle out of these threads.

 

I REALLY was a K-Line fan from the VERY beginning - long before they put their emphasis on the scale products. The love-fest for K-Line products wasn't the same years ago as it is now. There was a lot of backlash when K-Line moved production to China. I remember being at YORK and having people say things like, Lionel is made in America... K-Line is made in China and is Chinese junk. That was something I heard constantly, even over the phone from train dealers.

 

When I got back into trains it was with a Lionel 4-4-2 set. My next several sets were K-Line, which were just a better value. I learned early on that running the early K-Line diesels with a Lionel 1033 transformer with the B-U setting allowed the engines to absolutely run slowly... NO jack-rabbit starts: another criticism of the K-Line products.

 

K-Line always wanted to be bigger than they were. When K-Line started offering the new higher end locos through their KCC club offering, that's when folks first started taking notice. I don't know if anyone remembers, but even on this forum, there were MANY posts saying Why should I buy a regular K-Line cataloged engine when I can wait for the next $100 KCC offering. Again, another memory: There were many threads here criticizing K-Line for misrepresentation with the labeling of their scale end products. Not to mention the grumble-fest here over the KCC A5 switcher.

 

Those KCC locos opened the door for many to consider K-Line, but also closed a door in another way: The low cost KCC offerings set a bar for what people wanted to pay for a K-Line engine. There were lots of blowouts on K-Line products, even when K-Line was around... prices that many wish they could still find.

 

K-Line absolutely raised the bar and even set the bar for many of their scale proportioned products. And the company sure did have fans with their products. There were many of us though, that had supported K-Line from the VERY beginning, who felt forgotten when K-Line switched the emphasis to the scale end.

 

The company had money problems even before the final blow came with the Lionel settlement. Towards the end, K-Line couldn't get product from overseas without it being paid for in advance. Whether K-Line could have paid their vendor debts and survived their cash flow troubles, we will never know. Knowing the management at K-Line, they sure would have given it one heck of an effort to do so.

 

The K-Line saga reminds me of the old saying "you don't know what you got until you lose it." Unfortunately it took the loss of K-Line for many people to realize what they had missed out on.

 

And the hard learned lessons of the K-Line story, still have ramifications today. I'm certain train companies today consider what happened to K-Line when they plan how much new product to bring out and the pace of that product. I've heard Mike Wolf say it and Scott Mann recently said it: What people say what products they want to see made - and what they are willing to spend their dollars on, are not always the same.

K-Line made some other nice passenger sets, the Interurbans; a nice set of two electric passenger cars for intra city travel. I think they were either 16 or 18 inch passenger cars.

K-Line also made some nice size passenger cars that were sort of 027 size, but were good for use on smaller radius curves, some were sold in the K-Line collector's Club.

I also liked the K-Line version of Super Streets, which is now carried by Bachmann in their Williams line as E Z Streets.

 

Like somebody else mentioned Lionel got to acquire K-Line but then could not gather the finances to keep the K-Line name going, so things went sour for Lionel. Let's just say there was more to the deal with Lionel then Lionel selling off the K-Line track to RMT, it went through a holding company that owned the patent rights to most of K-Line stuff, Sanda Kan.

 

Lee Fritz

The K-Line Collector Club was terrific, I bought most of the KLCC locomotives at super good prices. At York, at their booth, show your KLCC membership card and receive a free piece of rolling stock. Say what you want about Maury but he knew how to market his trains.

 

   Bill T

Maury Klein was an innovator!!!. With his attention to detail and going scale I feel he pushed the O-Scale business and really got the competitive juices flowing. I have a few K-Line products and they look and perform well. Sure wish he was still around.

Add my name to the list of those who miss the K-Line brand products. The first K-Line item I bought was the Proctor & Gamble set. Although I thought the set contents were inferior to Lionel products, there was still something I liked about them. As the years went by, I found their products had improved to the point where I all but stopped purchasing Lionel.  The Kennecott Copper Corporation and Pensylvania GG-1 engines and cars that I aquired through my membership in the K-Line Collector's Club are still among the top favorites in my train collection. K-Line was a viable alternative to Lionel that offered a good product at a lower price.  

 

Wonderful thread, Sam. There are many of us who love their products. Came home from the York Meet with two K-Line 21" passenger cars. Very happy to find them.

Brian,

   K-line also made some serious freight cars for my NASA Train set, that nobody else produced, the detailed LO & LH dual tanker car with the Due Not Stack signs & painted in realistic colors, is one of my favorite pieces of rolling stock. A K-Line Original for sure!

PCRR/Dave

That was the first K-Line item I ever bought. An odd set for first....but could not pass it up. 

When I first changed from HO to O I went to a local O scale train show. The K-Line Spline car set was a door prize at the show. The show was 99.9% folks into pre-war, Std ans PS Lionel. Winner of the K-Line Spline car set didn't want it....so they decided to auction it off. I was the only bid....$20.....didn't even know much about it....but knew it was worth $20!!! It's a set with K-Line promo containers.....

For AMC DAVE:

 

Where didd you find the NYC BW Caboose, that is pretty sharp....If anyone else knows feel free to chime in...Thanks,

 

Marty

 

It was in a O scale lot on ebay. A few other cars.....with a very generic description.....part of why it went cheap! 

I was fortunate to find a guy selling his entire K-Line collection.  Very nice indeed!

I miss them as well.  They were producing some really great stuff just before the end.

 

George

The K-Line Collectors Club offered some really nice stuff.  They did a Rock Island E8 A-A that was ahead of it's time along with that set of red and gray passenger cars--really neat.  The Kennecott Set is pretty cool also.  My favorite diesel is a Pennsy E8 A-A in tuscan with a wide stripe with PENNSYLVANIA in large lettering on each unit.  I miss K-Line products

 

Norm 

I forgot I had this lurking in my collection.  At the time it was the best available and affordable Trainmaster in O.  Unless 3rd Rail announces a Trainmaster, I'll be converting this to CNJ and 2 rail. 

 

 

 

After all the discussion, I've forgotten how much K-Line I do have in addition to what I've shown photos of.  It's not a lot, but what I have I enjoy.  I am in the process of figuring out how to reduce my 3 rail collection to the items I really plan on operating regularly, or simply to enjoy on the shelf.  I plan on selling several K-Line pieces eventually but I am still a fan.

 

The F40PHs I posted earlier are interesting as they have one glaring inaccuracy and one minor one.  MTH's version is close in those two areas, yet has it's own inaccuracies that K-Line did capture correctly.  Go figure.  I still like them though.

 

I have about a dozen 21" cars as I sold most of my 18" ones (I have a few to still sell), two PRR black cast hoppers which I'll likely sell due to their weight (they are beautiful though), a few bay window cabooses picked up at auction, and untold numbers of 027 style boxcars and reefers that I also picked up at auction for eventual resale.  I also have the single stripe tuscan E8s.  Look for those to come up for sale at some point when I upgrade next year to a better quality version. Still great locos for their time and great pullers. 

 

I would like to find a New Haven EP5 at some time, but I'm in no hurry. It is the only one done accurately in plastic O scale.  Also the CNJ GP38-2 is interesting as while it was never built, CNJ did request from the bankruptcy courts permission to order them and were denied.    

 

Personally I'm not a fan of the early stuff in that I am a scale modeler first.  However, I will say that the reworking of the Marx tooling, the Kusan tooling and others was always well done even if it was not what I collect. 

 

Overall a good company, but as others have mentioned, perhaps they tried to serve too many interests at once.  I don't personally see how the business model would have been sustainable at the prices these originally went for regardless of the whole law suit issue. 

Matt,

 

Yes, I really like it as well.  I purchased it for a repaint project, but I may decide to keep it as is unless I find another one someday.  It is a very modern and clean paint scheme.  There is an MTH set on that auction site now and I agree, the new look is more with the times.  There's also a full set of the K-line 21" commuter cars and a CalTrain F40ph on that auction site now, but at $1000, It's a little out of my range for something I don't personally model.