Railking vs premier freight cars

Premier cars are scale, Railking cars generally are not scale (smaller) although some may be scale or very close to scale. Premier cars offer more details as well although over the past few years, Railking engines and cars have come very close, if to the level of detail seen on Premier products. 

Both. Premier tend to be scale, RailKing (typically) semi-scale. On box cars for example, with Premier you'd expect to see add-on ladders and RailKing molded-in. Premier will usually have nicer trucks too.

 

Gilly 

It it like Railking = 027 and Premier = O in the old Lionel parlance?

Thanks. I am curious to which freight cars are closer to scale than others. It would be able to buy cheaper cars that are the same size with still pretty good detail

Premier are taller about the same length. More detail. Both NYC. Cars I have 12 of the Railking & 1 Premier for sale

I see the premier box car is a bit taller.

It varies depending on the equipment as well.

The differences are greater in newer/Longer model cars. On Steam era cars they are pretty close except the molded versus added ladders.

Cabeese are near identical, lighting or interiors I'm not sure about.

I'm thinking some of the Imperial Railking Engines are retired / replaced old Premier moldings. They are very nice.

I run both at Magic Train World and most of the public deesn't have clue about the differences.  I like the variety in sizes - much like railroads you see today.  I do get questions from the train hobbiests about scale, track scales, etc. on a regular basis.  I even run a 1/54 scale K-Line Allegheny but with that try to stick with the 
smaller cars.

www.magictrainworld.blogspot.com

And wider too.

RailKing Imperial is reserved for steamers--they're still smaller than scale, but with near-Premier-level detailing.

 

RailKing Scale consists of first-generation Premier diesels whose detail levels  (molded grab irons, small fuel tanks, etc) are below the current state of the art.

 

---PCJ

I used to have a mixture of both.  I like the variety of the RK cars but I really prefer the Premier the best.  My wife  all RK M & M cars.  Those are my only non-scale cars now.  Either look great IMHO.

I had a RailKing gondola and it wasn't as wide as a scale gondola.  I ended up cutting off the sides and reusing them on proper width scratchbuilt ends and floor.

 

MTH and Lionel offer scale equipment, you just have to know what you're looking at.

 

Atlas, Weaver, and 3rd Rail (also Rich Yoder) offer scale equipment.

 

One good place to buy from is Public Delivery Track:

 

http://www.publicdeliverytrack.com/servlet/StoreFront

RailKing does make diesels now in the Imperial line, PS 3. Very nice engines. 

I use the Railking boxcars which also look good with 40 foot scale refers.

The scale boxcars don't look good with my structures because of the height. I park some smaller Lionel 6464 boxcars next to a few structures for a better appearance.

 

I also like the size of Railking gondolas and tank cars.

 

I believe the ore cars are scale 90 ton which look good with the lionel 70 ton.

 

Railking Imperial SD70 diesels (the only Imperial diesels so far) are nothing new. The first ones came out in sets in 2008 with PS2. Regardless, VERY nice engines for an excellent price. 

Are the imperial diesels smaller?

Yes they are, primarily in length, but every dimension is "selectively compressed" in varying degrees to keep the overall proportions looking right.

The SD70s are so far, the only Imperial diesels. I believe they are scale in all dimensions EXCEPT length. The RK version is an inch or two at the most shorter than the Premier. My Imperial stretches out to a hair over 17"