Love Railking scale diesels though most of my stuff is Premier! Have 3 Railking Imperial steam engines which I love! Mix them with the diesels, nobody notices the size issues! Now that I run with the DCS WIFI with access to all the features I am a very happy camper!
I have some RailKing Scale diesels and Premier diesels. I like them all. Most were bought used, but the new ones I bought were RailKing. Very good product for the price. In steam I have several Premier and one RailKing, an 0-8-0 that size wise looks okay next to the Premiers. My rolling stock is all scale or near scale I suppose you could say. I do have two Lionel Legacy diesels, both bought used, so I didn't spend an arm and a leg for them.
MTH Proto 3 Great Northern Diesel with smoke
MTH Proto 1 Jersey Central FM Trainmaster with smoke. It runs oil tanker cars on the tracks along the NJ Turnpike!
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I’m 99% sure both of above diesels are Railking
I think Railking engines look great running 10 to 12 Lionel postwar cars making up unit trains, ie oil tanker unit trains, operating coal/ore dump unit trains, box car unit trains etc., with a caboose as an exclamation point at the end of the train.
Don’t have enough yet, but maybe will also have postwar operating milk car unit trains and log dump unit trains.
I run only Railking, and mine are the originals from 1996, no Protosounds, at all. I love them and would not trade them for anything. They are the newest pieces I run. They are as reliable as my postwar locos.
"Don't forget they offer a good number of scale engines as well in the Railking line."
But primarily in diesel; few 1:48 RK steamers. The USRA 0-6-0 and 0-8-0 are the only ones that come to mind off hand - and there is a nicer Premier version of the USRA 0-6-0 available. The RK looks pretty good, the but the Premier is outstanding.
The RK Triplex is an outstanding loco; parts (cab, cylinders, for example) are 1:48, parts are compressed (boiler) - making for a very impressive, essentially freelance Triplex. I have one. Great for re-lettering.
I do...it's all I can afford !
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taycotrains posted:
I do...it's all I can afford !
Very nice engines, Bob.
george posted:I run only Railking, and mine are the originals from 1996, no Protosounds, at all. I love them and would not trade them for anything. They are the newest pieces I run. They are as reliable as my postwar locos.
I have an early MTH Railking NYC Mohawk, no Proto sounds, that I love.
With all this glowing talk about MTH's RailKing lines, I'll have to look into DCS at some point. I know I said I was going to probably stop at LC+, but you never know ... right?
Deuce:
I wouldn’t wait. Mr Muffin is running what looks like a very good deal on a DCS system plus the Wi Fi unit.
I held off buying a DCS system till early last year; running all my Railking 2.0 and 3.0 engines conventional. I should have had my head examined for waiting so long. The difference in operation is like listening to The Boss on an old album versus seeing him in person. DCS is just a much more complete experience.
Curt
Curt,
I like your analysis however in my case it's Bing, Frank, Hank Jr, Beach Boys, and Patsy, maybe a little Elvis also.
DCS - Great stuff - Especially the Tin Plate Trains!
The Boss, well he is half decent also.
PCRR/Dave
IMO radio control is the new thing. (Bluetooth is radio control) And I think its more affordable. My LC+ engines are awesome and I haven't purchased a single piece of electronics! I can buy a couple more engines instead of a system : )
Jim
I love and buy almost exclusively Railking engines and they are a great value. Lionmaster is great too just more expensive.
I have many RK locomotives. I feel RK is a huge bang for your buck as it has the same boards as Premier. I have an Imperial Big Boy and several RS1 and RS3 locomotives. The majority of my locomotives are scale as a matter of choice. Buy what you like and have fun. All my Lionel engines are scale. No Lionmaster and NO LC+.
The only reason I'll need one Imperial engine is for the mars light. I must have one, and I don't think any Railking engine has them.
I run 2 RK ps3 GE dash 8's (members of a 5 engine mu) https://mthtrains.com/30-20340-1 in my fleet of diesels...I'm fussy about scale length and my other 20 engines are premiere. The RK dash 8 are scale length at 18.5 inches. I lowered the tanks and modified the radiator housings for a more scale appearance. One caveat with the RK diesels..only 2 pickup rollers..initially they struggled over some older atlas turnouts but i modified the turnouts and all is well. Of note..the sound file in the RK GE's has that typical GE engine rattle..sounds authentic to me
"IMO radio control is the new thing"
I love this! Just like the Radio control RC car I got in 1986 for my birthday, radio control was the new thing then too. In early 80's My dad bought me a radio controlled battery powered train set (Tyco brand IIRC) that happened to fit on o gauge rails. Radio control isn't anything new, what's really surprising is that it took this long for RC technology to be adapted in trains.
Bluetooth is radio control
And WiFi isn't "radio" control?
Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15) operates very similarly to WiFi (IEEE 802.11) and within the same 2.4 GHz wireless radio frequency band.
And I think its more affordable.
I bought my MTH Imperial Pacific steam last month, NIB for $280 (Marked down from the original sale price of ($295) from a dealer. I can't find an LC+ Pacific steam for less than $355 (sale price coupon - original price $380) online. If some one finds one cheaper please let me know, I'm interested.
Not sure why you posted here, the thread wasn't titled "Why is LC+ the best?"
I owe a lot to Rail King because it was my first step from pre-war Lionel to scale. My first RK steam engine was the 0-8-0. Loved the sound smoke and looks. It made my old Lionel look small. RK was all I bought for a number of years. The only really bad move they made was that short F-3. If you remember them they looked terrible. I still have a few scale RK diesel dummy Baldwin and Alco engines that look just fine on my layout. Thanks MTH.
Don
