K-Line

The licensing arrangement for "K-Line by Lionel" has expired and will not be continued. Some dealers still have stocks of K-Line items; beyond that you'll just have to find things in the secondary market>

If you like that "K-Line by Lionel" stuff than by all means  you should look into the Williams by Bachmann line. The connection? Sanda Kan (now owned by Kader).

WBB is equivalent to the lower-end, conventional, non-scale part of K-Line's product line. There is nothing in the WBB line equivalent to K-Line's E and F unit scale diesels, their scale Hudsons and Mikados, the aluminum passenger cars, tank cars, and covered hoppers, or the other items at the high end of K-Line.

Did anyone license the high-end K-Line items? 

K-Line tooling was split up when the Lionel license expired.  Most went back to Kader/Sanda Kan that produced the majority of it.  Some of the tooling was done by Korean interests and some of that (mostly steam) Lionel has access to.  I don't know who really "owns" it.

As far as the steamers go Lionel seems to have there hands on much of the K Line tooling. 

The recent releases of K Line tooled legacy items are:

              A1 berkshires

             PRR k4s

             Mikados

             2 truck shays

 I addition,I think the recent conventional 0-4-0's may be K line tooling, and the drivers on the  Lionel VL 700e hudson are from the K Line J1e tooling as well. One wonders if Lionel will make use of the rest of the K Line hudson tooling, we shall see.

Lionel has also adopted K Lines steam loco motor/ gearbox design with the secondary reduction gear.

I think thats it, I may have missed something.

To the point of C.Sam's recent thread/question about the K-LineE-8s, could the new Lionel Legacy E-9s also be derived from the K-Line?  Their text claims new tooling - maybe they mean new for them?

The tooling for a  good number of K-Line's mid-line products wound up at Ready Made Toys.

This includes the rolling stock that was made from original Marx tooling, as well as K-Line creations like the MP-15 engines and the Streamliner passenger cars.

http://www.readymadetoys.com/

Ken

Does Lionel own the tools, or are these tools owned by the SK, or who ever contracts them to produce a model?  Would seem like only manufacturers who own the factory own the tools?  G

The dies probably stay at Kadar. Who has access to them may change.

I really like the 21 and 18 inch passenger cars K line use to make.

Who owns the rights to these? Not sure, but I am sure that they will be run again, its just a matter of time and market price, with the 21 inch cars fetching 200 a piece, the time may be sooner than you think.

The K-Line break-up is a very interesting one. Some items like Super Streets went to Williams by Bachmann and now called E Z Streets. WBB may have got a few pieces of rolling stock with remote control operating features but I don't know of any engines going to WBB from K-Line.

Other items like 031 & 072 switches and Snap Track went to RMT.

Some online dealerships may show they have left-over K-Line items, so if interested then you better buy before they disappear.

Lee Fritz

Just to expand on this, Kader owns the K-Line tooling, and "will grant rights to utilize select tooling that fits with existing product lines of the (3) train companies that made requests (RMT, Atlas O, and WBB).

The article went on to say that Atlas and WBB were not sure if they would in fact seek right to these tools but they wanted to know their options.

The exception to this is that some of the tools are owned RMT. When K-Line was still in business RMT acquired some of the tolling for items that K-Line was no longer making.

Examples of this are the RDC rolling (original Marx molds) and the stubby diesel engine that RMT calls the "Buddy" (this a Kusan mold that K-Line never used).

Ken      

...to which I can only add a conversation I had with a WBB rep at a York meet a few years ago shortly after K-lines demise re the K-Line aluminum passenger cars.  He said WBB ran a cost/price analysis at that time, all details, 'bells-and-whistles' as K-Line last made them, finding that those cars (my inquiry was re the 15" versions) would have to be priced around $200 each to be a part of the WBB line...segregated to a premium category, such as 'Spectrum', or not.  Marketing could not justify it...dropped from discussion.

There's been several thread discussions re these benchmark passenger cars.  Lots of speculation, not much to grab hold of.  However, there are two alternative arenas of hope.  First, the Neil Young Texas Special and PRR passenger sets in the latest catalog seem to offer some hope from Lionel for the 15" versions, anyway.  And GDD's continuing projects....ATSF El Capitan hi-levels, the latest...in the full-scale (21") versions are good news for that crowd.  The Atlas CZ, a sterling achievement that seemed to be in the midst of a breached birth, at times, is also noteworthy.

And, yet, I'm part of a less vocal/blogging crowd, apparently, still pining for solid commitment to the 15" and 18" versions of K-Line's aluminum passenger cars.  I just think they're a better fit for the tighter curves of this hobby segment.  And, IMHO, they have never been equaled...smooth-sided versions, especially. 

But, never say never.  Benchmarks can't languish in obscurity forever before someone figures out how to pick the lock on the door.

KD