K-Line Aluminum

I have one K-Line aluminum tank car and it fits right in with the scale cars. Note that it has been two-railed. I can not speak for the stock cars.

Could you be talking about diecast rolling stock? The cars that are labelled aluminum are the larger streamlined passenger cars. At least that's what I am aware of.

I know they did a run of aluminum cylindrical hoppers but not sure if scale

  In my experience, the plastic is for semi-scale passenger cars, aluminum is full scale. There is a box difference with the metal having a silver metal graphic and I think a line name for each. I can't really get at where those boxes are at the moment.

Overall I'd bet there are some exceptions

The K-Line aluminum hoppers are ACF hoppers. They were all scale-proportioned.

As for their aluminum passenger cars, they were all scale width. Some were 15", some were 18", and there were also 21" cars. First is obviously traditional despite their width, the second is close enough for some but not quite there, and the last is generally considered scale, although you will find some nowadays who will argue this depending on specific fidelity to a particular railroad's "quirks and features".

---PCJ

K-Line's aluminum rolling stock measure close to standard O. I have a DuPont tank car which is pretty sharp. The quality is on par - the graphics are pretty good, although it doesn't have the scale fidelity of Atlas.

High-end rolling stock is almost always 1:48, regardless of the brand. K-line typically said so on the box, didn't they? 

Most things that you are actually going to want (unless you are a toy train guy - which is fine, too) that have been produced in the last 20 years are 1:48 or nominally so. We "scale" guys pretty much pulled a 3RO coup years ago.

D500 posted:

High-end rolling stock is almost always 1:48, regardless of the brand. K-line typically said so on the box, didn't they? 

Most things that you are actually going to want (unless you are a toy train guy - which is fine, too) that have been produced in the last 20 years are 1:48 or nominally so. We "scale" guys pretty much pulled a 3RO coup years ago.

Yes, at least on the Black and Yellow boxes for Diecast and Aluminum.  In the upper right corner will have either O/O-27 or O Scale.  K-Line has used a couple of different designs over the years but I can only refer to the Black and Yellow boxed items.  I agree with DaveP on the details, not at Atlas Trinity hopper level, but they are nice aluminum hoppers.