Railking Hiawatha vs Premier

The first series of Railking 4-6-4 Hudson locomotive, the ones with PS-1, have a known zinc pest problem with the drive wheels and there are no replacements, so avoid that one.

My Premier 4-6-4 Hudson locomotive has had the circuit board that the wire tether attaches to go bad under the cab, but that may just be a one off situation.

What cars will you be pulling with this loco?

Thanks for the reply. I would be pulling the passenger cars if I can find them.

I have the Lionel 1988 set and would like to get the MTH version. I am not sure how many times they have been made. My 1988 set was unused when I got it a month ago and has a few minor paint issues.

so I will search for the newer MTH version, what ever that is.

Rich

Which Hiawatha is being discussed?  @RoyBoy's comment sounds like he's talking about one of the many Hiawatha steam engines that MTH produced, but @Richyb1's initial comment about track diameter and latest comment about paint issues makes it sound like he's talking about the remake of the tinplate Hiawatha.

Item numbers would be helpful for giving correct answers. 

It was the Railking versus Premier question that I responded to.

The reproductions of the 1937 articulated train were never Premier models.

Also, the articulated cars need O72 track, even though the locomotives themselves can operate on O54.

@Richyb1 posted:

Thanks for the reply. I would be pulling the passenger cars if I can find them.

I have the Lionel 1988 set and would like to get the MTH version. I am not sure how many times they have been made. My 1988 set was unused when I got it a month ago and has a few minor paint issues.

so I will search for the newer MTH version, what ever that is.

Rich

The 1988 Lionel Set (1987 actually I believe) was produced by MTH and has developed a lot of paint issues on the die cast engine related to outgassing( it is called).  Appears as a bunch of micro bubbles on the casting under the paint.  Personally I am not sure I would repaint.

If you’re looking at a more modern than 1988 tinplate reproductions, I have had both a premeir ps2 5v board and railking imperial ps2 3v board and the railking imperial was my favorite due to the better sound. It also was like 3 or 4 inches shorter but not enough that any general public visitor would notice. The imperial detailing fit great with the premeir 70’ passenger cars.
If my memory serves me correct MTH’s 4-6-4 wheelbase navigates O-54 though IMHO it looks a little funny—I would recommend the railking size

There’s no comparison between the two!…….this is like comparing apples to oranges,…….the Premier is a very close representation of the Hiawatha in scale. The Railking is traditional sized. No where’s near a scale model. If you already have the cars, you really need to know what you have that’s going to look appropriate ( if that sort of thing bothers you ) ………. A Premier, or scale proportion locomotive will look appropriate if you have Premier Hiawatha cars, …..the Premier will navigate O54 just fine ……

Pat

We need to differentiate this discussion between locomotives and passenger cars and full sets of both.

The model that is a reproduction of the 1937 Lionel articulated passenger car train, has a full size locomotive. It's the 4-4-2 class A Atlantic. Both the Lionel/MTH tinplate versions and the Lionel scale version from 2007 are full size locomotives.

It's the 4-6-4 Hudson locomotive that MTH made in both RailKing and Premier. The Premier loco is full size and the RailKing is "traditional" size.

The articulated passenger cars from the 1937 version, the 1988 version, and the MTH RailKing version are not accurate models of any Milwaukee Road train. They are copies of the oversized Lionel M-10,000 cars from Lionel in 1937.

I think this confusion all started because the OP mentioned RailKing or Premier, then said he was looking for the passenger cars (the articulated ones that went with the reproduction set) which were never in the Premier line.