American Freedom Train

Think the K--Line version is a semi scale engine. The MTH versions can be either Premier, RailKing or Bantam IIRC. That and do you prefer DCS or TMCC. Final choice should be whatever you enjoy and can run.

Max,

I do not have the K-Line engine, but I do have the early MTH scale PS2 one.  The MTH is a nice engine and has good pulling power. Here is a video of it on the NCT display at Celebrate Fairfax (VA).

The cars in the video are MTH, but have no resemblance to the real AFT cars.  MTH just used its standard 8 car passenger set painted for the AFT, while the real AFT used converted baggage cars for most of the train's display and storage cars.  Getting either the K-Line AFT cars or the new Lionel AFT cars will be very expensive.  However, 4449 was repainted into its AFT colors in the 90s (I think) and pulled a variety of cars (none painted in AFT colors) you can probably find.

Back to the K-L vs MTH.  Based on pictures and comments here on the forum, the K-L GS4 is really nice but it is smaller than O scale size (traditional size).  As Bob mentioned, MTH made several sizes.  So I guess it depends a lot on what you are going to pull with it.

Just my opinion but, I would go with the MTH Premier AFT version of 4449, as it is very correct, and also has the correct whistle.

I have the Proto 3 AFT. I found it on the Buy Sell Forum for under $575.00. Shop around there will be people that will sell their MTH to buy the Lionel (a mistake in my opinion).

Scott Smith

Marty had an new MTH version in the For Sale thread a couple weeks ago.

The new Legacy model is okay, but if you strive for realism it may not be the model you should be looking at, however it looks nice and sounds nice regardless of having a different whistle than the real one