Semi-Scale Allegheny Recommendation?

Find a MTH Loco-Sound unit and upgrade.

The K-Line loco is 1/64 scale and too small IMHO.

I have a older Railking and with its 6 wheel rear truck its a long distance from the rear driver to the end of the cab. On my 20" radius or 40" dia. the overhang is so bad it hits a bridge I have so it sits in its box. I refuse to sell it for half of what I paid so I don't know whats going to happen to it.

The MTH Railking Allegheny is a pretty nice looking beast, one thing I'd add is a real coal load.  It's considerably larger than the K-Line Allegheny and still manages O31 curves.  I just did a repair on a PS/1 RK Allegheny, it would be a great candidate for a TMCC upgrade.

I own the rail king, and it is a pretty nice model.  just purchased the K-Line and am waiting for it to ship her, should be here by next week, and look forward to seeing how they compare.  From what I've read and can see in pictures, the rail-king is of more scale size, but the K-line looks more detailed... and comes with TMCC/railsounds.  Both models sell on the big auction site for about $350, plus or minus $75 depending on condition, the alignment of the stars, and which way the birds are leaving their droppings.  if you have the time to wait I'll let you know how they compare side to side once the K-line arrives in a week or so.  Also, might just take some pictures and see if I can't set them next to the real thing for a photo op.  Being a member of The Henry Ford, I've seen 1601 many times, and she is just MASSIVE.  

One side note, one of the worm gears stripped on my rail king, but it was already shot when I bought the engine.  Don't know how common of a problem this might be.  

1/58 not 1/64, but does look small.  G

I own one of the early PS-1 Railking Allegheny's.... As other's posted it's a real nice model.   I don't own the K Line, but it's noticeably smaller... don't know why they chose to make it 1/64 scale...    I upgraded my RK  Allegheny to RS year's ago with Digital Dynamics, then as GRJ suggested, I added real coal in the tender.  also did mild weathering, added piano wire hand rails up front,  shortened the distance between the tender and the locomotive... there's a picture of it below...

What I like most about this loco, is that both sets of drivers pivot which is why it can run on tight curves and really doesn't have a huge overhang problem compared to the articulates that have the rear set of drivers fixed to the boiler...  the photo below shows the articulated going through an 072 curve from my layout back in Maine 10 years ago.   This engine will smoke up your train room in a few laps.  

That looks realy nice Chris. I have the Imperial one and it is a great operating and looking loco, I dislike the whistle though so I don't fire it often up but the rest is fantastic. I also ran it on O54 and O72 and it looks great. I plan to get a premier DMIR one if the price is right.

I hope the OP can find what he's looking for. keep and eye on ebay, I've seen them go for sub $400... about 6 months ago I saw one go for $250 or $280 and it sold in like 4 seconds....

That makes more sense....I had always read that they were 'perfect S scale proportions' running on O 3r. But thought that would look really odd!!! 

I have an early Railking ps1 version. Added coal, blackened the handrails and driver tyres and added a crew. Great engine - would be even better if it had TMCC Living in England upgrade kits are not easily found! LOL

Articulated locomotives like the Allegheny run better through small curves than do the non-articulated wheel steam locomotives.

I also seek a PS 1 Allegheny, but I will have it upgraded to PS2 or PS3.

I have the K-Line one.  I got the K-Line Big Boy first and loved it.  Thought it was so massive (It was the largest locomotive I owned at that point.).  I liked it so much and hunted down the Allegheny even though I wasn't really that big a fan of them.  Both have stock TMCC, and are nice.  Don't have the correct number of chuffs or cruse, but nice runners and both stump pullers, and look great with traditional sized and O27 freight.  Then I got the Rail King PS-1 Cab Forward.  The three of them aren't bad together, but the Cab Forward just does has a better large presence on the rail, nor looks small next to scale reefers.  The Cab Forward also has the worst overhang of all three locomotives.  Then I got a scale Big Boy, and now they all seem so small.

If you don't have any other large steamers or scale ones (Or scale freight), then the K-Line is a great choice.  I've had the K-Line Big Boy run on O27 just fine, so I imagine the Allegheny would too.

If you have scale or other large locomotives (Or scale freight.) get the Rail King version.

Thanks for the inputs.  Based on everyone's input, I'll look for the K-Line.  I run pretty small stuff in general and plan to have it pull a string of traditional/semi-scale 2-bay hoppers.  Sounds like the RailKing would look out of place.

Recently, I sold my K-Line C&O Alleghenny to purchase a RailKing Impearl DM&IR Alleghenny.  Not that I didn't like the K-Line...I loved it.  Just didn't want two and really like the look of the DM&IR.

The K-Line is well proportioned throughout.  Has an awesome whistle too.  It looks great with Traditional sized rolling stock, but I ran it with scale cars as well.  The k-Line Alleghenny is 1/55 scale.  Still a big locomotive.  It came with and without TMCCC, with and without cruise.  Mine was a TMCC a version without cruise that I only ran in conventional.

Here is an old video of mine running in conventional, pulling scale tank cars and scale PS-1 boxcars...

In the photo below, to the left of the Alleghenny is an Atlas scale 55 ton hopper...

Though I don't have a video showing it, the K-Line Alleghenny looked really good pulling the RailKing troop cars.

I have the K-Line Allegheny, mine was purchased with the TMCC electronics removed, and no smoke unit, however the tender still had the RailSounds boards.  I installed the ERR Cruise Commander, an MTH fan driven smoke unit, and of course, the Super-Chuffer.

While it seems the OP made up their mind, as promised, here's my take after setting them side by side.  

I really like the Rail King allegheny, but I love the K-Line version and here's the break down:  when thinking of what to write here what it really came down to was that for models that cost about the same on the secondary market, the K-Line version offers more detail and more features.  if you run conventional only it may be less important, but having TMCC and railsounds is a plus for me over the proto 1 on the Rail King version.  Electronics aside, the k-line model is much better detailed, especially in the pilot and front of the boiler area, but it also features cab figures and a glowing firebox that looks better than the glow on any of my Lionel locomotives.  The K-Line model, while it fells lighter, also feels more sturdy in my hand when picking it up, with the RailKing I've alway felt I needed two hands, one under to keep the trucks from hanging free when lifting it, whereas on the K-Line model I am comfortable lifting with one hand on the boiler casting. Nothing is wiggling, hanging limp, or swinging about.  The box reads 1:58 scale on the K-line model and it seems pretty true to scale there, though I didn't compare to the measurements of the prototype.  At this size the model does look a little small, especially having seen the real thing up close.  In my thinking this is the only real advantage to the Rail-King model.  It is not scale to anything in length, but the width and height appear to be proper 1:48 O scale or at least close enough for me. This gives the model a more massive, prototypical look when running beside other o gauge locomotives or heavyweight passenger cars.  

All that said, here are some pictures.  

Note:  The boiler casting on the Rail King model was not screwed in place as I have it apart for repair at the moment. It doesn't affect most of the pictures, but as I was uploading to the computer I noticed in the shots head on of the locomotives that the boiler is cocked to the side.  It's not a fault of the model, just of it not being properly attached, sorry about that.  

Note 2:  right click on pics and open in new window to see full size.  

It's interesting that the large difference is the RK is wider and higher, the length is less obvious.

I should have taken comparison pictures of all three when I had them here, the K-Line, RK, and the Lionel scale TMCC locomotive.  Next time an RK comes in for repair, I'll see if I can remember.

The length appears to be exactly the same to me, though the RK version's coupler sticks out about 1/2 - 3/4 inch further.  from tip of the pilot to back of the tender, they are within 1/8 inch of being the same.  

Hard to tell from the photos, but the length does look pretty close.  The length of the Lionel scale Allegheny is just under 32" total.  I actually like the closer spacing of the tender coupler on the K-Line over the RK, it just looks a bit more realistic.

The K-Line is certainly nicer in detailing than the RK, I'm glad I have that one and the Lionel.

I'd love to pick up the Lionel, but they are still a bit out of my budget at the moment.  Maybe next year I'll get just that.  

I have to sell a lot of Super-Chuffers to make the payments.

I love my 1:58 K-line 2-6-6-6; it is actually a "scale" model, while the RK is a compressed

model, even though it is larger. It is also a nice piece; I don't own one.

The K-line detailing is generally crisper and nicer.

My TMCC/Cruise/RS K-line Allegheny runs and sounds very nice; it has run side-by-side 

with a Lionel scale piece on a large club layout. The Lionel was "nicer", but the K-line

looked/acted nice enough that I wasn't wanting to trade it in.

The K-line version, loco and tender, is about the same length as the Lionel 1:48 USRA

2-6-6-2 Mallet, loco and tender, so it is a substantial piece of equipment.

I just wish that the firebox sides could have hung down much lower (like the real one),

but those tight curves would be out for many, I guess. 

My K-Line got the ERR Cruise Commander, my Super-Chuffer, a flickering firebox, LED lighting, etc.  It is indeed a good looking locomotive, and as you say, quite substantial.

The K-Line version looks pretty small with scale cars, but seems like it would be a fine engine for pulling traditional-sized rolling stock. Might have to keep an eye out for one.

I have the Virginian that came TMCC/RS4.0 and fan driven smoke.  I purchased a K-line Cruise kit an installed it.  Runs and smoke great.  I have a friend who has the C&O that came factory with TMCC Cruise. 

Here are some pictures against a set of PE passenger cars and pulling PW N&W hoppers.  Also have a 28000 series Lionel TMCC Hudson in front.  This is the 2000 version very similar to the PW 2056.  The K-line could be a little taller, but it certainly is a nice fit on an O-27 layout.   G

Lionel's Allegheny in Virginian livery was #28028 and came out in the mid-nineties.

I don't have the catalog in front of me, so date is approximate.  It was advertised

as Lionel's first articulated and ran on 054 diameter curves.  I've seen them in

magazine ads for $700-800.  They had the Chesapeake and Ohio version also, but

I don't recall the catalog number.

     Hoppy

I have two of the PS-1 rail king Alleghenies's. I removed the front pilot trucks on one of the engines and installed a knuckle coupler and run them double headed. Here is a video of them in action. They still run great. In recent years I have moved to more towards scale/premiere and might be willing to sell the pair.  They were just re-lubed and I had new traction tires installed on both. (they might be 4-sale in the near future

enjoy the video  STEVE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzLR-Keaffc

I think the 6-28028 must have come out a bit later than that, here's the features list.  RS4 and wireless tether puts it a bit later than that.  I suspect more like around 2000.

Great video!

GRJ is about on track (hated to do that worn-out pun) -- the 28028 Virginian Allegheny was cataloged in 1999, and I know some got it in 2000, so it may not have hit the shelves until 2000. 

That sounds about right, I know it was one of the earlier modular electronics models.  I don't have the old catalogs, so I couldn't look it up, and it's not on the Lionel site in the Product information area.  There's a link to the parts...