K-line/Lionel 0-4-0T Porter

They are great little locomotives. I got one last March and mine still runs great today, here's a video of mine when I first got it on my old layout.

Liam,

is your porter O gauge scale or semi scale?

I'm not sure of how much difference there is between scale & semi scale

or if it really matters on a locomotive this diminutive.

Dave 

The K-Line and K-Line by Lionel Porters are really not all that diminutive.  If anything, they may be a bit on the large size, for a Porter.  I have four of them and do like them for logging or mining train use.  Mine don't see much run time these days, but I have one in a display case with a Lionel 2-truck Shay and they look pretty darn good together.  I am considering buying one more, in a different road name, for a "special purpose" train I may put together.

I have one sitting on my shelf that I'm going to stick the ERR Mini Commander 2 into.

Thanks for your replies guys.

Liam, your video gives a good view of  what they can do.

Alan, when I said diminutive, i was referring to the Porter in real life,

they are a very small locomotive.

I have a couple HLW 0-4-0T's, they're my favorites & get the most run time.

I do like small steam locomotives and the Porter would fit my want's for a small switcher/short line locomotive.

Dave

Does anyone know who ended up with the molds for this engine? After the Kline break up it was hard to follow the ball. I like this engine and have a project idea in mind for it. It is a really great smoker too.

The loco is probably way too large; the piston rods enter the cylinders at an angle,

do they not? (That's got to hurt.)

 

However, I like them in an ugly-puppy sort of way. If I ever find one cheap enough,

I'll let it follow me home. Cheap enough, I can forgive some stuff.

 

Buy it; good Moto-Tool fodder.

Keep in mind that they don't have traction tires, so they won't pull a ton.

No traction tires is a plus, our club layout only has one hot outside rail, so traction tires on a four-wheel locomotive are a liability!

Well Guy's, thanks for your input.

I just got off the phone from talking with Pat of Pat's Trains,

and ordered one from him.

I'll certainly be doing business with him in the future.  He gave me the

information that I needed to make my decision on the purchase and 

is shipping by my preferred shipper, USPS Priority Mail. 

I can't ask for better service than what he provided and would certainly

recommend Pat's Trains to anyone that asks about an online trains dealer.

Last summer while on a bus trip that took us thru Lancaster, Pa. I found a Lionel K-Line Pennsylvana 0-4-0 switch engine with a tender and TMCC in one of the hobby shops.  Smooth operation, good sounds and a great smoker.  I had been looking for one of these for years and snatched it up.  This engine is scale and quite heavy. I don't want to steal this thread, just to inform you of a good engine.

P.S.  Should we have a crappy layout contest?

Al

Was that Porter a custom conversion?  I've never seen one with TMCC, and I can't find any listing for it in K-Line resources.

 

Does anyone know why you might find a really small tender or coal car to pull behind it?  I have one that I'm going to convert, and having an extra pickup for reliability going over switches would be a nice addition.

I gave mine a tender. It was the tender that Lionel made for their original plastic dockside switcher back in the early 70s. (As far as I know, it only came with the engine in the "Pioneer Dockside Switcher" set.) 

 

My Porter came with both scale and traditional couplers. I put the scale coupler on the back of the engine and mounted the other one on the front of the tender. I put the remaining traditional coupler on the back of the tender. A new coal load (and some added weight) finished it out.

 

I could probably make a decent one from an old General tender, they're about the right size and shape.

I received the Porter  from Pat the other day & I'm quite happy with it! 

Here's a link to a video of it pulling a Marx Tinplate High Side Gondola & 2 Hoppers

on an oval of track laid down to give it a test run.

(forgive the lousy camera work)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPR5mLTsofQ

 

I do like the gondola following it and the hoppers will probably

be hooked to the front end, which would be prototypical.

Dave

 

If you look closely, you'll see that, as on the prototype, the cylinders are not parallel to the ground.

 

It's been my impression that this locomotive, like the MTH "Lilly Belle" 4-6-0, is not 1:48 scale, but closer to 1:32... maybe GN30?

Hi Galley,

I just picked up a complete Pioneer set ($25) specifically for that tender to go with my Raritan version.

Now  based on the online manual I am suspecting that it will have plastic wheels. Did you change yours out to metal or are they plastic?

Thanks

Fred

Hi Folks,

 

   OGR published my project of making a tender and cowcatcher for the Porter, Run 227, Feb./March 2008.  I am surprised Allan forgot to mention it.

 

Take care, Joe.

 

 

I've got 4 of the things: A War Dept Porter, pulling 3 RMT green and black "Peeps".  A West Side Lumber Co Porter with some Atlas Short skeleton log cars.  A Western Pacific porter and K-Line WP Mine cars, and a Keystone Coal & Coke #1, with the tank replaced with a  blank tank, so its just a generic Porter.  This one gets to pull KCC and CPR mine cars, as well as various K-line Christmas cars, beer barrel cars, and colored Coca Cola cars, All these being small K-Line 2 axle cars found in various handcar sets.

 

The two operating steam engines on our island started life as tank engines built by Porter. I think they did a great job adding a tender, new cab and many other things to make them into nice narrow gauge engines. Wonder how hard it would be to do the  same with the K-line Porters. Don

I'd love to find an appropriate tender for mine.

Hi John, Another set. Just reduced. Tender looks intact. Look at this on eBay: Vintage Lionel Pioneer Dockside Switcher Railroad Train Set 027 O Gauge Org Box http://bit.ly/12lyrRt

I also ordered the Grandtline Porter cowcatcher for $2.98. I will post pic when it arrives.

I don't think I want the whole set, just a tender for my K-Line Porter.

I only wanted the tender also. Cost me $25 for a new set. And I will probably use the bumper . Give the rest to my kid to play with. The set advertised will not sell for asking. I would watch it and make a low offer. A lot of times if something does not sell I email the seller after the fact. I get some great deals that way. FMH

I put a watch on it, I'll see if it sells.