K-Line Diesels with Cruise?

Well Sam I can only speak from my own experience.

For it to have cruse it would have to have TMCC. That however

does not mean it has cruse. Where as cruse is already in PS2 engines.

The good news is that cruse can be added to TMCC with a

board swap out and one wire to solder. I did my Kline A5

and it's great. A must if you have any grade on the layout.

K-Line made their own Cruise towards the end. It was factory installed in a few engines and also offered as kit to upgrade older TMCC engines. I have two steam engines with K-Line Cruise and they both run fine but they have a reputation for early failure. Sam, I wasn't aware of any Diesels with cruise but no reason they weren't made as well. It performs like some Lionel Odyssey engines with a slight delay at startup but otherwise run smooth. The steam engines could be programed for 2 or 4 chuffs.

Pete

hey there c sam.......I bought my K Line Sante Fe F7's just before they went out of business. I sure they did NOT have cruise control already installed. I lookede at the k Line ad, it doesn't mention cruise control at all!

  that said, I see the same engine or its' bretheren for sale all the time on da bay; when these sellers advertise theirs has cruise control it must be a mistake on their part; or mis-information; or perhaps as the other post (on this thread states) someone installed an optional part.

  I'll say again that these engines , circa 2005, are GREAT; in detail; in running; in smoking..........ohhhh   yeahhh!

In reading the descriptions on the K-Line site, several of these later engines specify having cruise. The smoke seems more of a confusing issue with some stating "with smoke" in the title and others not but the list of specs never mentions smoke...

Stoshu - all of the ones I was looking at did have TMCC and sound. I realize that the ERR Cruise board could always be added.

I just picked up a PRR F7 B unit with smoke that I'm looking forward to seeing this week. Plans might be to repaint it to run with our Atlas GM&O F3 pair as I've never seen a B unit for these.

Sam, most of the k-Line engines that had cruise have CC at the end of their part number. TMCC only ended with S. Some had CC at the end but were just TMCC without Cruise. All the engines that in fact did have Cruise will end with CC so that should be the first thing to check. Its just not a guarantee. If K-Line Cruise does go south you can easily replace it with a Cruise M board.

Pete

I have had about a dozen K-line locos although I have only two or three now.  And far as I know, I have had only one K-line engine with cruise, or at least one in which it works: the B&A 4-6-6 tank engine that is one of my favorite locos now.

This is from the legacy K-Line site, but I have highlighted the section on cruise.

The 4-6-6T Suburban Tank Engine, was primarily used in commuter service, or other applications where short distances were required and there was little room for the locomotive to turn around. The water and the coal bins were built into the extended frame of the locomotive, so it was possible to these tank engines to go in either direction easily. Built in 1928 for the Boston & Albany to haul commuter trains to and from Boston, these locomotives could accelerate quickly from the closely spaced station stops and operate efficiently in reverse. Later transferred to the New York Central, this workhorse engine continued in commuter service. Other railroads also utilized these versatile tank engines in variety of services, in addition to commuter runs.

K-LINE?s scale model of this engine is the first version of this unique loco in O Scale. This die cast beauty is produced from all new tooling and includes all the separate details you have come to expect in K-LINE?s scale fleet including separate metal handrails, quality die cast construction, brass builder?s plates, decorative whistle and bell with bell pull and a firebox glow. The operational choices of this engine are sure to please with 3 options: conventional with cruise control and K-Sounds; command with cruise control, RailSounds and electrocouplers; and a DC version for 2-Rail scale operation. With a variety of roadnames, this Suburban Tank Engine will definitely find a place on your layout.

Catalog: 2005 1st Edition
Release Date: Fall 05

Sam, the last engine I purchased from K - Line was just when they went out and Lionel actually sent me the engine I had ordered. The engine was part of the Collector club K - Line offered and was a C S X SD70MAC with sound, smoke and cruise. It has been awhile since I have run this engine, but as I remember the cruise worked pretty good. It is a very impressive engine with a price that was fantastic. I think I will have to run it soon.

K-Line made versions 1.0-4.0 of the cruise control. According to various posts on this forum, the first two versions were pretty buggy, 3.0 worked pretty well, and 4.0 was further improved. I've asked more than once for more detail on what the specific problems were and what the specific differences were between versions, but I've never gotten a complete answer. The version number is printed on the board; I don't know if anyone has compiled a list of which engines might have had which version from the factory. 

I understand there is some kind of problem with the cruise and the chuff on the 4-6-6-T, and a fix has been posted. Since I don't have one of those engines, I have not saved the details. 

All the K-Line cruise models that I have had must have been the early versions. They surged like crazy when they ran.

I am not an authority but believe vers. 1 and 2 were released in the kits before K-Line installed them in their engines. Most of those were released around 2005. My 4-6-6T has ver 4. One problem on some of the engines including the Suburban were the vanes on the plastic interupter wheel were closed off due to flash. Check that before replacing the board.

Pete

I had a set and they did have cruise, seemed a bit jerky, don't have them anymore..

I have a K-Line scale Mike with their speed control and a Weaver "Little Joe" which also came with the K-Line control.  No problems with either engine, in fact there are some advantages to it, like a very gentle rate of acceleration from a standing start.  Looks quite realistic. 

One odd characteristic is that somehow, hitting the Aux1 button triggers the reverse headlight feature and, first thing you know, is that the headlight is on in the opposite direction of the train movement.  Easy to fix, however, in that you just trigger through the Aux 1 series one more time and the headlight corrects itself.

Paul Fischer