Wondering if these K-Line cars actually ever existed in the wild.
I have yet to find even an old expired auction or eBay listing let alone a single picture of these K-Line aluminum Alaska cars. Can anyone with better knowledge tell me if they were ever actually produced?
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I've never seen these produced. Looking at the release date of 2006 this would have been right about the time K-Line was no longer, so it is very likely they were cataloged and not produced. The only scale length passenger cars I've seen for Alaska RR are the Atlas domes that came off the CA Zephyr.
@GG1 4877 posted:I've never seen these produced. Looking at the release date of 2006 this would have been right about the time K-Line was no longer, so it is very likely they were cataloged and not produced. The only scale length passenger cars I've seen for Alaska RR are the Atlas domes that came off the CA Zephyr.
Thanks for that information. That's a shame but also what I figured since there seemed to be zero trace of them anywhere.
@AKnorth posted:Wondering if these K-Line cars actually ever existed in the wild.
I have yet to find even an old expired auction or eBay listing let alone a single picture of these K-Line aluminum Alaska cars. Can anyone with better knowledge tell me if they were ever actually produced?
Lionel released Alaska cars (bi-level) with Sn SD 80 Mack the cars are K Line just manufactured by Lionel.
@ThatGuy posted:Lionel released Alaska cats (bi-level) with Sn SD 80 Mack the cars are K Line just manufactured by Lionel.
By cats do you mean the super liners?
@AKnorth posted:By cats do you mean the super liners?
Miss spelled…….cats=cats lmao
When Lionel took over K-Line some Cars were produced, some weren't. I to believe these weren't.
The closest thing I am aware of is these.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVO_TU8yq6w
BTW - I actually have a K-Line Accessory where the box has Lionel 6-##### Label pasted over the original K-Line identification.
@MainLine Steam posted:When Lionel took over K-Line some Cars were produced, some weren't. I to believe these weren't.
The closest thing I am aware of is these.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVO_TU8yq6w
BTW - I actually have a K-Line Accessory where the box has Lionel 6-##### Label pasted over the original K-Line identification.
Yeah makes sense as they are also 21" inch. Fortunately I have tracked down all of these Lionel ABS ones, they're nice but not extruded aluminum nice! Thanks for all of the info.
Agreed I have lots of K-Line aluminum cars, some are K-Line by Lionel. No Lionel plastic cars.
@MainLine Steam posted:When Lionel took over K-Line some Cars were produced, some weren't. I to believe these weren't.
The closest thing I am aware of is these.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVO_TU8yq6w
BTW - I actually have a K-Line Accessory where the box has Lionel 6-##### Label pasted over the original K-Line identification.
Actually your wrong, Lionel produced aluminum Alaska view liner bi level cars
I'll be the odd one out and say that I actually like the Lionel 21" cars quite a bit. They are more or less ABS copies of the K-Line tooling and generic, but for the price they are a decent value. I'm up to 23 of the Lionel cars between Amtrak phase I, phase III, and ATSF. They fill out my passenger trainsets nicely. I consider them "background" cars that allow the road specific ones to stand out. On my ATSF train, I mix them with GGD heavyweights which makes for a very nice secondary train behind my E8s, E6s, and E1s.
On the Heritage Amtrak cars, I need to cut some skirts off, add some underbody detail, and decorate the interiors. However, at the price I have been getting them for, that is not a huge burden. Lionel got me 2/3 of the way to a correct 1988 Broadway Limited so no complaints from me.
I still enjoy the K-Line aluminum cars and have probably 40 plus in multiple roads. When the price is right in the roads I collect, I don't hesitate to pick them up. Great cars for their time and they still hold their own in many ways. I have K-Line in NYC, PRR, Amtrak, SP, and a lone ATSF 21" business obs.
In plastic, the Atlas CZ cars are the gold standard for streamlined cars and the Alaska ones are very nice and prototypical. In general, the CZ cars were long lived and many still exist in private ownership. For aluminum you really can't do better than GGD for fidelity to the prototype. We haven't done Alaska yet, but it would be interesting to see what tooling has been done by GGD that matches the cars that Alaska purchased.
Alaska railroad has a really interesting history that is certainly worth learning more about and they still provide a necessary service to a remote part of the US. Great stuff!
Actually some of the Lionel 21” cars are based on prototype. Two I am familiar with are the NYC Empire State Express cars and the Union Pacific Heritage Fleet. The NYC cars match up favorably with the GGD cars and the color is much closer to the actual cars than GGDs. They loose points on the interiors though.
Pete
@Norton posted:Actually some of the Lionel 21” cars are based on prototype. Two I am familiar with are the NYC Empire State Express cars and the Union Pacific Heritage Fleet. The NYC cars match up favorably with the GGD cars and the color is much closer to the actual cars than GGDs. They loose points on the interiors though.
Pete
I totally agree that Lionel 21" cars are based on specific prototypes. The Budd RPO/Baggage, the chair-coach, the baggage-lounge, the diner, and the observation are based on the ESE cars. The corrugated dome is based on the ATSF Super Chief dome while the smooth side cars are largely based on UP prototypes. Again, good value for the quality of the car to fill in a fleet.
@ThatGuy posted:Actually your wrong, Lionel produced aluminum Alaska view liner bi level cars
Okee Dokee!!
Not quite sure why you thought I wasn't aware of the Cars in your video? Just so you know, I was.
Well being in AK i love all thinks ARR. I've slowly collected all i can over the past few years. I have just about every Scale or close to scale passenger car made both MTH Premier and Lionel. The MTH cars are not scale and are 18 inches, but nicely done. I agree, the 21 inch Lionel ABS cars blow the MTH 18 inch cars away if you're into more proto which I am. I also have the full compliment of Superliners that were produced. Some reason I avoid cars and Locos Alaska never actually ran. They never ran superliners, they run Colorado Ultradomes which are incredible cars. A minority wish list, but if Lionel were to produce these cars it would be sick. Private owners such as Princess Cruises have their own cars painted up as well which are really sharp and interesting. I'm tempted to paint the roof's of my superliners blue to somewhat match as ARR doesn't have silver roof's. I missed out on a rarely seen MTH 5 car Blue set the other day here. I have many of the 2 car/1car sets.
NOTE from OGR: photos of prototype were removed due to potential copyright since poster did not follow the copyright guidelines as stated in the OGR TOS.
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