MTH Rail King versus Premier.

Pete;

 

Mixing scale sized and traditional size equipment is an age old quandry.  It all boils down to your tolerance for 'suspension of disbelief'.

 

If you don't mind the size disparity, by all means mix away.  I have found if you run separate loops i.e. not side by side, it's not that big of an issue.  To me is when you mix the two styles in the same train that gets awkward.  All that said, I got completely out of RK and run 100% scale.  That's my choice.  I have less rolling stock ($$), but everything works good together.  I did retain some traditional size items, but run them as trainsets and that's mostly older (PW & MPC) Lionel.

 

By the way, the scale Ace's are AWESOME.

Thanks Cliff. I agree that mixing scales within the same train does appear odd. I would not, for example, mix a RK with Premier SD because it looks just odd too me. However, I don't speak for everyone, but was curious what others might think about this. I miss the set, but in reality, I am knee deep in scaled locomotives now.

 

It's too late to turn back now. LOL

 

Thanks and Merry Christmas to you.

 

 

Pete

MTH does some interesting things with the Rail King line. The Rail King Imperial line is what I find interesting as they offer near Premier detail and features in an O-31 size.

 

The SD70ACe intermodal sets seemed to do pretty well and I see quite a few of the set break-ups on eBay periodically.

 

Some of the older Premier tooling went into the Rail King Scale line (affectionately known as "Scale King") with Proto-2 and now Proto-3 sound/command. I've bought several Scale King locomotives and run them with scale-sized cars. I'm looking at upgrading some of the details on them and fixing the pilots. The one thing to watch out for, though, is fantasy decorations, but there's plenty of reference material out there.

 

 

Hello Matt and Merry Christmas.

 

The RK line is not bad for the price actually. One gets a pretty well detailed locomotive and the cars in the inter modal were indeed awesome looking. I am torn between MTH and Lionel though as far as detailing. Both have some very remarkable detailing, but I seriously doubt I would mix RK with Premier on my layout in the future. However, I would not hesitate to put a RK set under a tree or as a separate set in the house for fun.

 

The SD70 in that set was actually real loud and boy she sure smoked. LOL

 

Pete

 

Not all models designated as RailKing are "compressed in size.  There are some Railking "scale' engines and many cars that are true scale or very near true scale.  Some RailKing engines are reissued Premier models.

 

 

Premier and RailKing versions of the same car. MTH photos were obtained from their web site.

 

 

Another interesting tidbit about Rail King is that some of the rolling stock items are scale sized models of smaller prototypes, so mixing them with other scale items is not an issue.

 

As Pro Hobby posted, some of the old Premier items are now sold in the Rail King line. Several cabooses come to mind. Several Proto-2 and Proto-3 equpped Rail King diesel locomotives (GP7/GP9, SD9. RS27, C30-7, SD45, FP45, GP20, GP30, SD60) are former Premier as they originally could all handle O-31 curves.

Hi All !

 

Rail King is what I started with back in 1995 or 96 !

 

It had a electronic whistle & fan driven smoke ! NYC Hudson Cab #5405  !  I still have the engine I twisted the Draw bar to avoid tripping over my dog ! Long story !

 

I love the Rail king stuff !  I have bought more over the years !  It runs great on lionel fast Track  0-36 curves !

 

I have just ordered  the Imperial 0-6-0 in NYC out of the 2015 catalog ! 

I also have a MTH NYC RS-1 in RAIL KING SCALE coming ! 

The Rail king trains allow me to have more for less !

I also have two complete Christmas sets ! both Loco sound ! 

I agree. I have a RK SW1500 switcher from the 90's and a Premier Alco S2 from last year. Other than the S2 has more detail, the SW1500 is slightly bigger.

It is a matter of choice like so many things about this hobby. Personally, I like RK as well, but now that I have scaled locomotives, I will not mix them with the RK stuff when I do my layout. That's just me. No doubt both are wonderful, but my thread was speaking more to the mixing of these locomotives when one wants prototypical type accuracy.

 

 

Pete

Railking Scale is best deal in O gauge and Railking cabooses are excellent as well.

Harold

As others have said, I don't think you can find a better value in O gauge than RailKing anything, Scale, Imperial or other. Also as others have said, many pieces of rolling stock are difficult to tell whether they are scale size or not unless you have a Premier and RailKing car of the same type to compare.

 

I mix them all on my layout, but I am now leaning more towards more scale size items. I also have some operating cars for my grandson and I to play with for just plain old fun. I am not that prototypically motivated and sometimes we just put a bunch of stuff together and run it, no matter if it's scale or RK sized.  

 

I think layout size is also a consideration. If you have a layout with smaller curves, then RailKing anything is the way to go. Although not scale, they even have the big steamers that will run on O-31 curves. Folks can have items on a smaller layout with all the looks and detail of the larger scale items and at a much lower cost as well.

 

I have only diesels, but if I were ever to have any steamers on my layout the RailKing steamers are much more in line with my budget than the Premier ones are. I think they are roughly about half the price of the Premier steamers and look just as good, just a little smaller. My track is all O-54 & O-63 so they fit in well with my layout too. Not sure what it would look like with a RK steamer pulling Premier rolling stock though? May not be that bad looking either?

The new RK NW-2 and its calf are scale size.  Not highly detailed, but scale size.  Nice locos.

Greetings. I own and like RK's Imperial line...for detail...for price...for ability to handle tighter curves. My layout consists of 3 main lines with the outer line having a 54" radius with a 10" straight, the next line has a 54" radius, and the inner, inner loop has a 36" radius. My 54" radius allows me to run quite a number of engines, but those requiring 72" OR MORE are for my trains and layout just TOO large.

I know this is nit picky but I won't buy anymore RK do to the fact that RK and some older MTH Premiers don't have lit number boards.

I'm happy with the Railing line from MTH as it allows me to have nice looking equipment that will run fine on small layouts like mine where I can only use Realtrax 0-31 & Fastrack 0-36 curves. It may not be scale but for us that either don't have the space or money, or both, to have large layouts it works for us, I'm glad that Mike Wolf and MTH thinks of us small layouts owners and that everyone can't or don't want $1500 engines that can only run on O-72 or larger curves. I think Lionel has now realized that and came out with the Lionchief line that can run command or conventional.  They may be what some refer to as starter set quality but mine still run fine for me. I have a MTH Railking 2-8-0 PS-2 Protosounds Engine & 2 Lionel Starter Sets, the Wegmans & NASCAR sets but most of my rolling stock are MTH Railking as I like their looks better than compatible Lionel rolling stock for the money but that's only my opinion.  To each their own opinion,  that's what Freedom gives us! God Bless our military past & present,  thank you for 238 years of Freedom!

I have 4 railking locomotives, 2 of which are imperial and one premiere locomotive. I love the railking and imperial lines, they look and run very nicely. The one premiere locomotive I have is a PRR h-3 and I have to say its a gorgeous model. It really depends on what you are looking for.

You know, this is a funny topic for me because I had a completely different opinion on this subject just a few weeks ago 

 

I like Railking;  I really do.  In fact - every engine I have is Railking at the moment, and only one (The F3 ABA set) is scale.   As I've added Railking engines, I have become more and more aware of the size disparity - the F3's just seem enormous to me when they are on the layout.  It never used to bother me, but as I have grown somewhat in the hobby, it starts to bother me more.  When I see a RK steam engine next to a Premier steam engine on a dealer shelf, it gets really weird.  I'm finding that even the differences in size with rolling stock has become noticeable.   By all means, mix away if it doesn't bother you - for many/most it won't ever be an issue.  Just be aware that some engines compress better than others visually - I've never been able to wrap my brain around a semi-scale GG-1 for example.  The Railking PRR Turbine didn't do it for me either.  That's just me; the engines are fantastic for the money IMO!   

 

However...

 

I have begun to tire of semi-scale.  The offerings don't excite me as much anymore, and I  feel like I'm missing out on a number of things I'd really like to run but can't for lack of O-72 curves.   I'm currently exploring methods to get an O-72 loop into my layout.  My fear is that if I am successful, I will start moving more and more towards the scale offerings.  This is bad for me financially, because as I mentioned above, mixing semi-scale and scale steam is really strange for me.  I realize that there are plenty of Premier/Scale engines that do not require O-72, and that in a way that's not even part of this discussion, but for me it is because at the end of the day, it's about what I WANT to run, which is what this hobby should be 

 

So that's kind of my take - Railking ROCKS, but beware!  It may very well be the "hit" that pushes you over the edge to full-scale (pun intended...) addiction!

RailKing has the advantage over Premiere when space is an issue.  The differences between scale and semi-scale/traditional are noticeable, but don't bother me.  Although I do have a couple of scale locomotives, my RailKing Dreyfuss Hudson is still the biggest engine in my fleet, and towers over the Lionel O27 streamlined coaches it shares with my Lionel 4-4-2 (the runt of the fleet) and soon RMT GG1.

There are some Premiere items I want, but that's mainly because they're not available in the RailKing line.

I already have HO for true-scale trains--and even then I don't mind mixing with British OO.