Recommendation Needed – Amtrak Superliners

K-Line did make Amtrak Superliners--I have four coaches. Lionel did as well (also have four coaches)

Except for the half-dozen 15" Williams units in my possession, all of mine (27 in total, mostly MTH) are 18".

Williams also made 20" versions, but no one to my knowledge has made 21" Superliners for 3-rail 'O'. Closest thing would be GGD Hi-Levels.

---PCJ

I have 12 of the K-Line 21" Amtrak Superliners, which are very nice cars- these are in Phase IV paint. 

I knew about the Surfliners, but somehow missed the Superliners -- I only see three 2 car sets on legacy k-line, are there more or is this just a duplication of same cars to get a good size train issue?

One other question on the K-line cars -- plated or painted finish?

Did K-Line offer the Superliners in just coach configurations or also do the sleeping cars and the diner?  Were they only offered in phase IV paint? I know they did not offer the Sightseer Lounge.  I have the GGD El Capitan high levels in Amtrak, but only about a dozen sets were made total, if that.  I see the K-Line versions come up every now and then and they hold their value well.

The Williams 20" versions might be an option to upgrade. They were offered in phase II paint, but I haven't been willing to take the plunge on a set as my list of projects is already too long.  I've believe Overland did them in 2 rail brass, but they are unpainted.  As for MTH and Lionel, they just look too short to me at 18", but that's just my opinion.

A while back Atlas made some Amtrak 21 inch passenger cars, I had a set for a few months but sold them as I wanted to be able to run freight trains on my layout as well. The Atlas passenger cars were very nice and had end of unit lights on each car like the real trains have.

Lee Fritz

K-Line offered these cars in coach, sleeper, and dining car configurations, along with the harder to find step-down coach- this car was a full-height coach but the end diaphragms were placed at one high, for matching other Superliners, and one low to line up with standard passenger cars. I believe these were only offered in Phase IV, which is the only cars I've ever seen anyway..

These were painted Amtrak "Platinum Mist" silver which is correct. 

I have a set of the Williams 20" cars. Very nice for the price, but lame trucks.

The Williams superliner are minimal detailed at best. The best detailed cars are hands down the 18" Lionel superliners followed by the MTH superliners and the K-Line 21" superliners( if you can find them).

I have about 30K miles on Amtrak over the past 8 years. I wanted a set of Superliners and ended up with a nice set of Williams 15" cars. There is not a lounge car so I bought MTH lounge car. I'd love a set of K-Line scale cars but $$$ is an issue....I have about $200 invested in my set.

rex desilets posted:

I have a set of the Williams 20" cars. Very nice for the price, but lame trucks.

Seems that the early Williams before Bachmann passenger cars had some issues with their wheelsets. I have 2 sets of Crown Edition passenger cars and the first set has no uncoupler on it and I had to replace all the truck assemblies(all 6 passenger cars or 12 trucks) on that set. My later purchased set of the same passenger cars but with opening knuckle couplers work great, the couplers look more like K-Line couplers then Williams couplers.

Lee Fritz

To keep costs down, Williams used the 1950's streamliner trucks on the superliners. There are only holes where the red marker lenses are to be. That was on my two sets back in the early 2000's. I sold them off when mth came out with their sets.