Toy Train Time capsule reflecting on the last twenty-five years

@Bill DeBrooke posted:

Up until about six or seven months ago I admit that I paid no attention to K-Line trains.  I bought his book detailing the entire production history up to 1999 I believe.  It made me curious so I started buying some K-Line trains.  It seems to me that K-Line's real strength was in producing introductory train sets.  The ones with company logos appear to be his bread and butter.  I think he owned that market from the late 80's through the mid 2000's.  He, as several before him, made good use of the Kusan dies upgrading them and adding refinements.

K-Line scale passenger cars carry a good rep and a hefty price tag.  The scale freight cars he developed I personally am not that fond of but to each his own.  I thought they did a great job with the 6400 series box cars(kusan).  There were a lot of road names (Lionel could have learned something from them in the postwar period).  Also liked the refinements they made to the Kusan tank car.  

I believe he ultimately produced about 20 scale engines and several more non scale.  Bottom line.  I am not sure it was a good idea to try and move up to scale product where the market was already over populated.

As an aside, my wife has never been interested when I opened up a thousand dollar Williams, Weaver or MTH engine.  "They all look the same".  She is always interested when I open up a $150.00 K-Line set.  She likes the colors and the products pictured.

Opps, sorry, there is an MTH starter set in the last picture.  I put it there to compare quality.  Much better quality but she is correct, by comparison, boring.

Am I to understand from your post that this is all K-line and you bought it all in the past 6-7 months!?

Wow you have been busy!!

@RamblerDon posted:

I will also concur that K-Line doesn't get the love that they deserve.

Agree.  I have several K-line wooden reefers and they are very nice.  The K742 mold is my favorite, but I also have some of the Heinz ones in the K762 mold which are also great. They even include a picture of the prototype in the box.

I LOVE the K Line aluminum passenger cars....they were way ahead of their time with amazing details.

I purchased the two Heavyweight sets some years ago just to see what they were like.  The rest of the items purchased in the past several months.  I have stayed away from the engines that K-Line developed to compete in the scale market because I don't really have an interest in that phase of his business plan.  The sets and the odd small items were where the play value and coolness was.

Bill DeBrooke: OK Bill, you can let the cat out of the bag now - Which one is the MTH starter set?  (I think I know but want to confirm)

Thanks!

@PH1975 posted:

Bill DeBrooke: OK Bill, you can let the cat out of the bag now - Which one is the MTH starter set?  (I think I know but want to confirm)

Thanks!

This set is about the third or fourth set MTH offered in Railking.  The first two sets offered featured a Hudson and a Mohawk.  I have included a picture of the Hudson and the first K-Line steam offering, the retooled Marx steamer.  There is no real comparison. However, MTH and K-Line were aiming at different segments of the market.

  The Hudson and Mohawk are as nice as any engine Lionel put out in the postwar period and certainly nicer than any entry level engine Lionel was doing at that time.

Bill - Just to be clear, your picture shows an NYC 4-6-4 Hudson steamer and a Penn 4-6-2 Pacific although you refer to a Mohawk which would be a 4-8-2.  So am I missing something or is there another engine not in this pic?  Just wondering.

@PH1975 posted:

Bill - Just to be clear, your picture shows an NYC 4-6-4 Hudson steamer and a Penn 4-6-2 Pacific although you refer to a Mohawk which would be a 4-8-2.  So am I missing something or is there another engine not in this pic?  Just wondering.

The Hudson is a MTH Railking engine.  It and the MTH Mohawk were the first MTH Railking releases.  The picture compares the Railking Hudson to the first K-Line steamer release which is the retooled Marx steamer.  I can post a picture of the Mohawk if you would like to see it.  

Bill - Not necessary as that clears it up. Thanks very much and have a nice day!

@Bill DeBrooke posted:

....It seems to me that K-Line's real strength was in producing introductory train sets.

As an aside, my wife has never been interested when I opened up a thousand dollar Williams, Weaver or MTH engine.  "They all look the same".  She is always interested when I open up a $150.00 K-Line set.  She likes the colors and the products pictured.

I did neglect to mention their starter sets.  What made them very interesting (and I'm sure increased their sales), was the tremendous amount of licensing they were involved in for many of their sets.  Here are just a few:

• Nestle
• Hershey
• Campbell's
• Coca-Cola
• Procter & Gamble
• Black & Decker
• Anheuser-Busch
• Dr. Pepper
• Groupe Schneider
• Pepsi
• Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
• Nabisco
• Yuengling
• University of North Carolina Tar Heels

The graphics used for many of these sets was very eye-catching.  After all, many featured famous logos that had been used for years to entice people to buy their products.  It's only natural those same logos would entice customers to buy the trains too!  These graphics also made the trains stand out from all of the other manufacturers who put out similar NYC, BNSF, Conrail, PRR, MoW, and CN products.  That's probably why Bill's wife was interested in the K-Line sets!  I was the same way.  I always preferred the "TOY" aspect of the hobby, so I had no trouble appreciating the colorfulness of a Nestle train set!  The nice thing was K-Line many times offered extra optional cars and/or accessories for many of these sets.  This helped induce customers to add to their introductory set.

btw  I wouldn't be surprised if K-Line's sales staff played competitors off of one another.

"You know Hershey's has put out a few train sets already.  How's it going to look if Nestle doesn't have any?"
"Coca-Cola has always been the leader.  Doesn't Pepsi care enough to not be outdone again by not having their own train?"