K-Line Milwaukee Road 21" cars

if you decide to get rid of the 15" cars, let me know!!!

I really like them, wish I had more, I have the Milwaukee Road 21"cars in both the Orange and yellow versions. I also have the Chicago & Northwestern and the CZ 21" cars. All you have to do is look at how quickly these cars sell when they are posted on the Sell Board.

All you have to do is look at how quickly these cars sell when they are posted on the Sell Board.

Yep, the K-Line 21 inch passenger cars sell fast for super big bucks.

My buddy has a set he wants to part with. He has the original K-Line Milw. Rd. engine that goes with it, too. Interested?

I think he wants $500 for the set.

sent you email

I really like the K-Line 21" cars, but I thought the Milwaukee colors could have been brighter.  I have strings of UP, B&O, GN, CNW, PRR, and one lonely Zephyr Pullman.  All look great on 2-rail trucks.

Bob2 has a point, the colors are darker and more saturated than the prototype. They match the K-Line F units; the colors are a bit off if you run them with the Atlas Erie Builts. On the other hand, they look great and they are the ONLY scale-size models of the 1948 Milwaukee cars available. Fisch330 has pointed out some of the other flaws, which are real, but it's what there is in 3 rail unless you want to find a set of the old Walthers kits and build them. I have 10 or 11 of them and I am very pleased. 

Jay, did you get my email?

Yes, I can let you know. I have about six of the 15" cars, which includes the Super Dome.

Yes, it sounds like the 21" cars are the way to go. I'd prefer not to use the 18" with the swing out skirts.

Color is always an issue, but like in real life, every batch of paint mixed is going to be slightly different. Even Pullman Green. I do not remember how many versions there are of Pullman Green, but I believe it was more than a dozen. And that doesn't take into account, the same formula, with each batch being slightly different.

I am sure the model RR Companies, have not used the same paints each time, so shades from one manufacturer to another would be different. All in all those cars look great; and you are lucky to own as many as you have. I know after market prices seem to be high.

The Milwaukee Road maroon and orange colors evolved over the years. Old photos suggest that the colors used in the Fifties were somewhat darker and more saturated than those used in the Thirties. Also, weathering of the paint affects the color - I see photos all the time of trains where cars are very different shades according to how long ago they were painted. The color in photos depends on what time of day the picture was taken, what kind of film was used (Kodachrome is the only film likely to show true colors from that long ago), and the condition of the slide or print. Not to mention the question of matching printer's ink to a photo.

All that said, we can still make some observations about the correctness of model paint. The K-Line maroon and orange are very dark, probably darker than any paint the railroad ever used. The orange has a lot of red in it. You do see those colors in photos, but the cars would be weathered or dirty. The colors do work reasonably well with most versions of Milwaukee Road diesels. The Lionel Hiawatha of a few years ago, on the other hand, used a garish, circus-wagon palette that looks good only with itself. I once tried running a set of Lionel cars with an MTH streamlined 4-6-4, and it looked awful. In my opinion the best Milwaukee Road colors come from Weaver. MTH orange tends to be a bit pale and washed-out, as if it were a sun-faded version of the original. Lionel's colors are way too bright and saturated. If you compare the colors on Weaver's Hiawatha cars with the best available photos of the prototypes, they look pretty close. Weaver made all three sets of 1930's Hiawatha cars with the Beaver Tail observation cars, but  never made the 1948 cars.

Here are photos of some of my collection of Hiawathas. The 21" K-Line cars are displayed twice, on one wall with a Weaver Little Joe and on the other with a set of Atlas Fairbanks-Morse Erie Builts.

Here's the first display wall. From the top: Weaver Little Joe with K-Line 21" cars; Weaver #! 4-4-2 with matching arched-window cars; MTH 4-6-4 with Weaver scale ribside cars; Lionel Standard Gauge Hiawatha set. Note the difference in color and width of stripe between the MTH steamer and the Weaver cars.


Full-length image of same wall.

Here's the other display wall. From the top: Lionel 1988 repro of prewar tinplate Hiawatha; Pride Lines tinplate Hiawatha; Atlas Erie Built with K-Line 21" cars; K-Line set with 15" cars in UP yellow. Note the color contrast between the K-Line cars and the Atlas engines. The Atlas is more accurate. Also the K-Line cars have black roofs, rather than grey as they were when they ran behind the Erie Builts.

I have the 10 car set of the 21" B&O version of these and they are very nice. The other good thing about them is they seem to hold there value. Just keep in mind that the 21" cars will have much more overhang than the 15's.

good luck finding those 21 inch cars!!!