Comparison

This particular car is closer to RailKing in size. Next to Premier cars, it will be noticeably narrower when viewed from above.

---PCJ

Width, now. 

Hey Suess Christmas 

Do they do this crap on purpose?

i just want to buy a train or car and have them look esthetically pleasing and similar.

Why is that so much to ask for?

Its like they said-WHEELS-THATS ALL THAT MATTERS -slap anything on top and we shall call it O... 

3-rail 'O' is NOT finescale. You want that, Proto:48 is over there-->.

"Traditional"-sized stuff originated from mid-20th century models intended to be toys. Nobody's going to scrap all that tooling for the sake of artistic purity when the product made from it still sells.

Modern-day product is still made to that (lack) of standard because (Oh, the horror!) people, for better or worse, actually buy it. In greater numbers than the stuff pretending to be "serious" models, as absurd as that would seem.

---PCJ

Sometimes I wonder why these questions come up so often. By the time I was in this hobby long enough to arrive at the "scale" and degree of realism I preferred I was able to figure this stuff out for myself. Perhaps so many buy online rather than from a shop or show they no longer have an opportunity to actually look at what they are buying before plunking down the cash or card?

The K-Line 6xxx O-27 boxcars are the same size as postwar/MPC Lionel 6464 types, but the K-line cars have more added on details.

These are smaller than RailKing and Williams boxcars.

Comparison to other cars is like telling a blind man the color of the sky is like the color of water🤪

Anyone have actual dimensions?

It is useful to remember that there are real boxcars in many sizes . . . . .

palallin posted:

It is useful to remember that there are real boxcars in many sizes . . . . .

I accept that reality

I just want to know that if I buy this K-Line, it will look reasonably good with my other MTH and Lionel stuff

Most freight cars are (in real life) about 10' wide, which is 2.5 inches in O scale. You put a scale boxcar next to a "traditional" sized car and look at them  from the end, the scale car becomes obvious by the amount of overhang past the truck sideframes. 

As for heights, there is no uniform one. Even among perfectly scaled boxcars representing mid-20th century prototypes, their heights were all over the map. Look at photos of freight trains in the era of 40 and 50-foot boxcars, their rooflines were not consistent. Some people don't like the look of varying roof heights in their trains, but that is purely individual taste. The real thing did not look like that.

---PCJ

All I want to find out is if that K-Line car will be reasonably sized to my MTH premier-or if it’s railking size. 

If its railking-size, I won’t buy it

 Production and identification of scale products in 3rO among the large mfg.s hasn't ever been a huge part of the game. It was a collectors/operators market with "scale" being another segment in themselves for decades. Consider yourself lucky it became more prevalent and happy there are less day-glow mpc to taunt you.   

The cars vary, mostly 8-1/2", 9-1/2", 10-1/2".  Most 8.5" are going to be semi-scale/0-27.  Most 10.5" will be closer to scale.  The 9.5? Use your best judgement and research as to if the car existed anyhow.  A prototypically short car at 9.5" would be near scale, etc.. Eyeballing these to "flow" visually really isnt hard imo; forced perspesctive/ "exaggerated" but no more so than total uniformity, no deviation in car size and builds, etc..

Boxcars didn't all have exactly the same width, length, & heights, etc. Close, not exact. Builders don't all "compress" the same measurements in thier efforts to be more visually pleasing than scale accurate, and die freindly too.

  If being extremely true to scale is important to you, you're only going to be frustrated by most mass produced 3r offering's by label. 

  Nitch phrase marketing, purposely broad & vague; a "line" today is more likely produced in the same office than actually have exacting traights car to car

I’m not concerned about scale

I’m concerned with the appearance of the K-Line car. 

I only own one and it’s a flat car-and pretty close to the size of my other MTH Flat cars- it is a Budweiser car with two Panel Vans. 

I want to know how close to 6” in height the car is.  

thanks for all the tangential information. 

rattler21 posted:

1drummer posted:

I’m not concerned about scale

I’m concerned with the appearance of the K-Line car. 

I only own one and it’s a flat car-and pretty close to the size of my other MTH Flat cars- it is a Budweiser car with two Panel Vans. 

I want to know how close to 6” in height the car is.  

thanks for all the tangential information. 

You lost me when you wrote about 6" in height.  That's twenty-four scale feet tall.  John

6 real inches is the clearance on my Railroad. 

And I have a couple of cars that require that REAL clearance. 

German posted:

Sometimes I wonder why these questions come up so often. By the time I was in this hobby long enough to arrive at the "scale" and degree of realism I preferred I was able to figure this stuff out for myself. Perhaps so many buy online rather than from a shop or show they no longer have an opportunity to actually look at what they are buying before plunking down the cash or card?

Super helpful information for the OP.  Apparently not all of us can catch on (or caught on) that quick.... 

The forum is here for those types of questions.

1drummer posted:

All I want to find out is if that K-Line car will be reasonably sized to my MTH premier-or if it’s railking size. 

Railking.

Charlie

1drummer posted:

I saw this  K642-5605 car-

and I’m wondering, since it’s O-27 -

and its K-Line, will it be closer to Railking or MTH Premiere in actual size.

RoyBoy posted:

The K-Line 6xxx O-27 boxcars are the same size as postwar/MPC Lionel 6464 types, but the K-line cars have more added on details.

These are smaller than RailKing and Williams boxcars.

It seems to me that you got your answer. The boxcar you are asking about is in the K-Line 600-series, and is Railking-sized, or even a little smaller.

The 6464 boxcar, its derivatives and clones, have been made almost continuously for over 65 years now. Since most people have seen them, comparison to a 6464-type is every bit as commonplace as "is it bigger than a breadbox?" and maybe more so.

Regarding the 6" height limit, no boxcar in O is going to get anywhere near that. Boxcars just aren't that tall. A full 1:48 scale double-stack car or auto rack might get up there, but boxcars won't. If you have a 1:48 boxcar (what I believe all the MTH Premier to be), then it will, perforce, look "right" next to a 1:48 double-stack or auto rack, because both are modeled to scale. But it won't look uniform, because the real thing is not uniform.

Long story short, whatever you have that needs 6" clearance will not look right with the K-Line car for two reasons.

1. Your 6" tall cars are almost certainly 1:48 scale, but the K-Line car (being a 6464 clone) is only about 1:53.

2. Your 6" tall cars are almost certainly modeled after modern prototypes, while the K-Line car is modeled after a 40 foot boxcar, which is tiny by modern standards, and which went the way of the dodo long before modern container and auto cars showed up.

RoyBoy posted:

The K-Line 6xxx O-27 boxcars are the same size as postwar/MPC Lionel 6464 types, but the K-line cars have more added on details.

These are smaller than RailKing and Williams boxcars.

RoyBoy is right, K-Line 6xxx cars are the same size as Lionel 6464 type boxcars. All these boxcars are 10" long (40 scale feet) but vary in width and height. Railking, Williams, Menards are a little narrower and shorter than Premier boxcars and 6464 type and K-Line are slightly narrower and shorter than Railking, Williams and Menards and considerably shorter than Premier boxcars.

The Kline car is essentially the same size as the 81197 Santa Fe you have (or had) according to your 01/06/2017 for sale ad. This Santa Fe car is a 6464 clone, as is the Kline car you want to know about. They are slightly smaller in all meaningful dimensions versus a regular Railking boxcar.

Überstationmeister posted:

The Kline car is essentially the same size as the 81197 Santa Fe you have (or had) according to your 01/06/2017 for sale ad. This Santa Fe car is a 6464 clone, as is the Kline car you want to know about. They are slightly smaller in all meaningful dimensions versus a regular Railking boxcar.

Now that’s information I can use

thanks