Assessing K-Line product

I have some early stuff that came in blue and yellow boxes. I think it is their earliest stuff and is toy like. The later releases were in red and white boxes and although semi-scale, they were better quality with painted bodies and die-cast trucks. The stuff they were producing before they went under were in black and yellow boxes and were better quality all around and they had scale and semi-scale items in the line-up.

This topic has been previously discussed. May I suggest you use the "search" feature .

Everything on the forum has been discussed before. Maybe Rich should just shut the whole thing down and we should all just use the search feature for everything.

Here is some useful information for you. A link to the Legacy K-Line site .

Still love those later K-Line scale steamers. Like the Mikados, Hudsons, Berks and tank engines.

Great detail and great runners, especially when converted to PS-2.

Rod

Just a word of caution about the K-line Legacy site-though it's nice to have the info on items, there are some major errors, especially in the passenger car section.

Lionel has produced multiple grades of product for a very long time now. You got your cheap stuff, you got your midpriced stuff, and you got your expensive stuff. They are trying to appeal to the widest audience.

Is it a stretch to think that K-line was trying to do the same thing?

Their SD70mac was by far the best I've seen in 3-rail.  But it was coming out right as they went out of business, so only one run was done and now the tooling has gone to the black hole that is Kader.

Thanks to everyone for your replies!

Rod Stewart posted:

Still love those later K-Line scale steamers. Like the Mikados, Hudsons, Berks and tank engines.

Great detail and great runners, especially when converted to PS-2.

Rod

I should have clarified that the PS-2 conversion is great for non-TMCC engines. The K-Line TMCC engines run just great as is.

Rod

Does Lionel own the tooling for the K-line scale Hudsons?

Rod Stewart posted:

Still love those later K-Line scale steamers. Like the Mikados, Hudsons, Berks and tank engines.

Great detail and great runners, especially when converted to PS-2.

Rod

I concur and have the B&O Lt. Pacific, NYC Hudson, and Rdg Tank all converted to PS 2.  My RDG F3 had a bad slave board in the trailing A and got caught up in the closing of Kline.  A year later, I got the units back in the mail and had the unit converted to PS2 with a PS 2 slave A. Cost more than the AA unit are worth; however, it was my first command diesel and my wife went to school in Reading so sentimental value far exceeds the market value.  I did thin out by collection by selling 11 PS2  engines at 50% of list last year for a benchmark. I also sold my Vision BBoy for $300 more than I paid for it last month.  I really like my command Kline engines (enough to convert them to PS2 to have cruise control.)

Yes, Randy asks a good question - anyone actually know who owns/has access to the K-line scale J1e tooling? This may have been discussed previously, but I don't care.

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Yeah, Rod, I was about to question that PS2 idea...! For the already-command-versions, that is. Not that PS2 is a bad thing - far from it. I miss K-line, a lot. Some of the best steam tool-and-die work around. Among other things.

Distinguishing K-line "quality" just takes familiarity, the timeline, features and common sense. Some early K-line plastic freight trucks - the bad copy of a Lionel truck that has it's own issues - had wheelsets that didn't want to roll. But, that was a long time ago If a piece looks cheesy, it usually is. If it is detailed, and especially if it is die-cast, it is very nice. Be aware of some of the Intermountain cars that were marketed with K-line high-bolster trucks; they are OK, well-proportioned, a little delicate (not bad), but ride way too high on the "traditional design" trucks. I removed the molded-in plastic bolsters under the car, re-attached the trucks, and they look quite nice. 15 minutes of Moto-Tool work.

The K-Line Hudson  J1E tooling was not owned by Lionel.  I believe it was owned by another company, but not owned by Kader.

Will have to do more research to make sure who owned the tooling.

Ed Boyle

Prior thread on distinguishing K-line scale vs. traditional.

And another thread.

Bob