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I have a number of early K Line (C&O) Heavyweight (green packing box) passenger cars that I would like to add interiors.  I have checked Brasseur's K Line list and found some plastic interiors, but not sure if they are for heavyweights.  Is there any way to determine what size K Line car the K 4505A (Observation Interior Kit) and the K 4506A (Pullman interior kit) are for?

As an alternative, I am trying to learn if the Lionel plastic interiors for their newer 18" heavyweight passenger cars  will fit the older K line heavyweights.

 

Thanks

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Your best bet may be to ask Brasseurs what cars those kits were meant to fit and/or what their dimensions are. They are not listed in the online K-Line legacy catalog, which is normally the best source for this kind of info. 

I don't know but I imagine your cars are sub-scale - are they 15" long? I do know that in later years K-Line's passenger car interiors were pretty generic in that they used the same plastic base for both 18" and 21" cars with individual seats, tables etc. manually installed and glued solidly in place (unlike the passengers, which do have a tendency to come loose and rattle around).  

P.S. I just had a look at Brasseur's site as I know that they have some illustrations of their parts. One is of the K-4505A set you mention:

K4505A

That looks like a 15" interior to me but more importantly it's for one of their boat-tail streamliner cars, not a heavyweight. Nicely detailed to be sure but the floor plan isn't  a match for a heavyweight. Can't say if the same applies to the other interior kits they offer but they all look like they are made for 15" cars. 

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  • K4505A
Last edited by Hancock52

The K Line Chesapeake and Ohio Madison heavy weights that I have are all 18" (the length and car style are two things that I forgot to include in my original message), but I have a set of K Line (presumably of later manufacture) Chicago and Alton 18" Madison heavy weights that have full plastic interiors, ceiling lights, and clear plastic windows.  A couple of years ago at the York Meet I bought a Lionel 18" Chicago and Alton Madison coach that was probably manufactured within the last five years.  It has the full interior and the Lionel car body appears to be about 1/8" longer that the K Line.  I have heard rumors, but never really confirmed, that the newer Lionel  18" Madison cars with full interiors/ceiling lights, and clear plastic windows were made from the old K Line molds.  But given the length of the Lionel car and the fact that it will not fit into the K Line packing styrofoam, I am not sure this is true.  

I am replacing the diaphragms in the Chesapeake and Ohio K Line heavyweight cars as the originals have pretty much disintegrated and are beyond my repair capabilities.  

Once the interiors/diaphragm questions concerning the K Line C&O heavyweights are settled, I plan to install ceiling lights similar to the lighting in the Chicago and Alton K line 18" cars or possibly the Lionel Chicago and Alton car.  This will be a new area of expertise that I will address at a later date.

I primarily model the railroads that operated in Central Illinois from 1930-1950.  The C&O cars are for a young relative who has recently become interested in O scale 3-rail and wanted the K line passenger cars.  I am trying to further this interest into a hobby - thus, the attempts to convert the passenger cars.

Thanks for the assistance.

 

Well for 18" cars, why not use the lioneL heavyweight car interiors? The Lionel heavyweight cars are all 18" to begin with.

For the lightning, you will have to ditch the light bulbs and install Gunrunner John's led circuit to power those led strip reels that are sold on the auction sites.

Wether you use a K-Line interior, lionel interior, an old walthers interior, or a custom interior, you are altering the o.e.m. car from a collector's standpoint therefore the value goes down anyway.

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