Lionel 21" passenger cars v. K Line 21"

Have many k-line engines, passenger sets and freight all from before Lionel took over. Imo they are very good quality and I would never sell them, although  don't have any Amtrak in k-line or any of the newer Lionel/k-line. They also had great customer service back in the day at Chapel Hill, NC.

I have a set of 21" Milwaukee Road KLine cars and I love them.  They look great and run well.  I'm planning to put more people in them but other than that I'll run them as is.

K-Line cars are good, the problem is they are wider and taller than the Lionel cars. They don’t mix well. Its up to you if that matters.

K-Line on the left, Lionel right.

Pete

That's a great point about the size.  I never measured them.  Which ones are closer to scale, K Line or Lionel?

I can't speak to the size accuracy, but overall K Line passenger cars are some of the best in O guage to this day.

I'm not sure which Lionel cars have the kinematic coupler assembly, but K Lines non kinematic versions actually couple closer defeating the purpose.

They both have their plusses and minuses. K-Lines are mostly generic. Most Lionel cars are based on specific prototypes. Lionel looses big points on the cheesy interiors though and you have to pay extra for figures. Detailing Lionel interiors can be very time consuming. Given a choice I would take K-Lines.

Pete

Thanks for all the input...

@Norton posted:

They both have their plusses and minuses. K-Lines are mostly generic. Most Lionel cars are based on specific prototypes. Lionel looses big points on the cheesy interiors though and you have to pay extra for figures. Detailing Lionel interiors can be very time consuming. Given a choice I would take K-Lines.

Pete

You can say that again. I have some before Lionel buy out Kline rolling stock. I love them.
obx

Great topic.
I have to dink with everything I buy, and lately I have redone observation cars by Lionel, K-Line, and GGD.  The superior outward detail and interior lighting is by Lionel. As already mentioned, the better interior detail is by GGD.  I do not like to make inflammatory comments on this forum, yet my opinion of K-Line vs. GGD is there is not a dimes worth of difference.  In fairness to GGD, the cars I have been redoing are older production models of Empire State Express cars…do not know the production year.
This evening while working on a GGD car, I was thinking about doing a thread similar to this one.
I bought this car at auction. It was in pitiful condition, and it will not win any prizes when it’s done.  I just wanted to find out what is like to work on a Golden Gate product. The previous owner(s) of this car did it no favors.
From this point forward I will only buy Lionel.  

In the debate standard coupler vs kinematic couplers. Which do you prefer? GGD and Kline are tops for me Lionel third.

@Dougklink posted:

That's a great point about the size.  I never measured them.  Which ones are closer to scale, K Line or Lionel?

I think the Lionel Union Pacific cars are a little bit smaller than scale in terms of height and width.  K-line and Golden Gate Depot streamlined 21” cars are almost exactly the same height and width.  I am guessing that GGD got it right, so the K-line cars must be the right size too.  But the Lionel UP cars have a lot of the correct details compared to the K-line cars and the Lionel UP cars are a good representation of the Excursion cars (less so for the Challenger cars).

I have both Lionel and K-Line and like them both, but K-Line is the best.  i have K-Line in 18" and 21" and Lionel in just 18".  K-Line just runs well, looks right, and never causes any problems, hard to beat.

Art

Just finished a couple of projects and noticed this:

The streamliner is GGD. The hvyweight is Atlas (former MTH). It is a good thing these two will never be coupled together.  

I bought the GGD used (abused actually) and the previous owner had actually raised the frame above the trucks with two washers. I undid that nonsense, but you can still see the glaring difference.

Is there any chance this "difference" is prototypical based on the relative ages (in real life) of the cars being modeled?

Chuck

@PRR1950 posted:

Is there any chance this "difference" is prototypical based on the relative ages (in real life) of the cars being modeled?

Chuck

I am reasonably sure that real cars of any era would mate up at the couplers and diapragms at the same height.  This actually occurred on many passenger/mail/express trains. In regard to the GGD car posted above, I removed the original cheapo diaphragm, and replaced it with a realistic one at the proper height. The difference between it and the Atlas/MTH is still quite far apart. This must be a matter of differing modeling standards between manufacturers.

Don't have any Passenger cars other than a few Atlas CZ and LOTS of K-Line.  So can't actually answer the original question, but just wanted to echo what others have mentioned.

K-Line cars aren't 100% prototypically correct, unlike the Atlas CZ but.....In my opinion they are gorgeous!  I love the the fact they are aluminum (weight and sound), and particularly the shiny finish used on some of their cars.  Prototypical Fluted Stainless Steel streamlined cars are Shiny as long as they go thru a car washer on a somewhat regular basis.  Silver painted plastic just doesn't come close.  Also K-line Cars all are "skirted".  While often not prototypical, it helps to visually lower the car, and helps hide "oversized" 3R Track and Wheels.

So for me it is K-Line 4600 series all the way!

BTW K-Line 4500 series 18" Heavyweights are really nice, and though plastic, make sense.  You can't put rivet details into an aluminum extrusion.  Plus Heavyweights were always painted.