What is the ultimate K-Line item?

Can I qualify for this by saying one man's ultimate is likely to be another's laugher? I'm sure no one will agree with my choice, lol. I've only got about a dozen K-line items. I like their 16-inch passenger cars that I've filled with peeps, but my favorite MDK item (that I have) is their little Plymouth switcher. I got my little Western Pacific guy several years ago and he still runs like a champ, smokes a nice little stream, pulls a few cars - good for 'special assignments', and his lighting lamps are wonderful...

I really like the Plymouths. I have about 10 of them. Half have minor quirks with smoke but otherwise run as they should.  I also collect the diecast hoppers. Great stuff.

Their 21” aluminum passenger cars pulled by their scale K4.

My CNJ 4-6-4T tank locomotive.  Lots of detail, runs great, did not cost 1K like the new version.

I always liked my ATSF operating diner with the rock and roll music. K-line was always being innovated at that time and would always be surprised by some new detail.

Soon to be back on layout.

K-line hit the mark in so many different areas that ultimate truly is up to the individual.  Ahipty appears to be a traditional kind of guy and goes for early K-line of which the Pacific he points out wore some really nice paint schemes and ran well, their Alco FAs of the time were much nicer looking than Lionel's and I always thought the MP15 was sharp.  Ron is a scale PRR guy and like he points out some of K-lines passenger cars and late steam were superb for those with larger layouts and sweeping curves.  The scale Hudson is stunning.  AS for innovative the 4-6-4T and Plymouth were stand out originals unchallenged by any other companies  until Lionel's recent reissue of the 4-6-4T.  And that diner series was wonderful.  "To each his own" the saying goes, this holds true for this topic.

Two of my favorite K-line items are the operating diner mentioned above by Frank and the Ford dealership...I'll take pics and post later...

Boston and Albany Berkshires,  The green one and the black version.

I thought K-Line did a wonderful job bringing the old Marx and Kusan/AMT line of product back into production.  Their sets, the Plasticville line  and accessories they developed created more play value than either Lionel or MTH.  Did they make a mistake by chasing the already overcrowded Scale market?

@coach joe posted:

  Ron is a scale PRR guy and like he points out some of K-lines passenger cars and late steam were superb for those with larger layouts and sweeping curves. 

Nothing wrong with the 60' streamlines and heavyweights that are scale width and height with scale trucks.

Perfect for those with tighter curves yet "scale enough" so they look good behind scale motive power.

In either case. K line seemed to have figured out close coupling passenger cars when Lionel and MTH have never perfected it.

Even Lionels recent K line tooled ESE passenger cars don't look as good as the originals.

Not sure its the ultimate but among their clever releases were the 18" heavyweight passenger cars with fold out steps that allowed running on 031.

Pete

For me, the ultimate K-Line product is the O-72 Super-Snap switch. I run prewar tinplate trains, modern trains, and everything in between, and everything (except Marx with the large drive gears) rolls right through them; I've tried all the major manufacturers, and no other switch will do that.

In terms of value the Ultimate K-Line products seem to be 21" Superliners, El Capitan cars, and the highly sought after transition baggage dorm for the El Cap.

A Superliner single car sold for over $500 a few weeks back on that site and the transition car has sold in the $800 range more than once.

Great thread, to me, their TMCC J1e Scale NYC Hudson, which I’m having the Harmonyards shops totally redo the chassis, ad a high power Pittman motor and unique drive train. He’ll add Gunrunner Johns entire smoke Chuffer system, an MTH fan driven smoke unit, an MTH chassis, ERR Cruise, ERR sound system, a lot better speaker in the tender, a totally beautiful model of the curtains, deck plate, Realistic headlight. It’s going to be a fun to run Steamer. It’s one of the most detailed Hudsons I’ve ever seen.

I also really like the K-Kine Starlight Diner with the juke box sounds, and their scale like passenger cars. They made many fun products. Happy Railroading Everyone.

K-Line loved the Lackawanna, what else is there to say..........oh yeah...

Long Live Miss Phoebe Snow.......

My ultimate from K-Line that I have at present is my F-3 A-B-A all with dual motors and TMCC. When I bought my Allegany I thought it was going to be, but it turns out for some strange reason, I think they used an A.F. mold and made it O gauge at 1/58 scale. It's on the small size, I still like it just a little disappointed in its size. It though seems to fit better with the original O27 freight cars like the 6014 boxcars. I haven't tried O27 passenger cars behind it yet.

For me it's the TMCC scale K4s engine. I added magnets and reed switch to get 4 chuffs. I don't know how accurate all the details are, but have read that it is a very good version.

When I got back into the hobby several years ago, I discovered K-line on the auction sites and was hooked. Since then, I've bought a bunch of MP-15's, S-2's, and Plymouth's. I also like their 13" passenger cars since they fit on my 027 layout. All of their stuff is nicely detailed and looks and runs great.
The fact that they produced several LIRR pieces was a bonus.

Full interiors on their passenger cars too.

The special series with Yuengling is great

The Plymouth's are colorful and fun to run. These little buggers can smoke out a room in no time.

Bob

Here are my favorites in ranked order.

#4 The Porter.------Sure it is probably closer to a 1/35 narrow gauge engine but I have a soft spot for the outline

#3 SuperStreets.------- Just think it is really fun to play with.

#2 The Plymouth. -------Such a great and useful engine.

#1 The 2 Trucked Shay-----This one is over looked gold. Both Lionel and MTH chose to do a odd-ball one off prototype, the over sized Western MD #6 that looks like nothing else. Adding a 4 two truck tender does not make a different engine MTH. The 2 truck Shay K-line made is a closer to match to many, many more engines. I have a 3 rail one that I am holding onto while waiting for a two rail version (or two). Lionel is making the K-line Shay again which should say something.

it's this one for me:

All of the 18” aluminum passenger cars.

The ultra rare swinging bell Mikado. I believe only one has been made like this.

Pete

The CNW Bi-Level set.  Shoulda got the extra cars when I had the chance.  RICH

I like the Plymouth locomotive also. I have one in NYC  colors and it does smoke up a storm. 

I don't have any other locomotives but my favorite k-line cars are the scale sized ore cars.  Have a bunch in CNW  and Milwaukee Road. Bought them at a train show from a guy who changed the trucks to diecast and sold them for under $25 each.

Next would be the remakes of the Lionel operating hopper that k-line made before they went out and Lionel picked up. Boxes are labeled "K-line ", then "K-line by Lionel ". Have ones lettered for N&W and Erie plus a couple of Frisco and B&O. They're a little narrow for O scale but not displeasing to the eyes.

Locomotives, the NH EP-5:

Passenger cars, the Bombardier tri-levels:

Freight cars, the Schnabel car;

    My favorite is much more simple: I run my trains on K-Line's tinplate 042 curves and 36" straights, because I like the look of the closer ties - reminds me of prewar Lionel 072 (I use Williams 031 curves for the same reason).

    I admire the Shay, wish I could afford one. I too have the 027 NH passenger cars, but would have preferred silhouettes instead of interiors (I'm a traditionalist ).

    While speaking of the silhouettes, the paperwork that came with the set said the strips were enclosed as an option. Does anyone here have those? I've tried dealers, all I got were strips that don't fit any car I've ever seen.

Their 2-truck Shay was a thing of beauty and really captured the backwoods soul of that technology. Wish I'd bought one! And their NH EP-5 captured the look of that engine perfectly -- at least that one I have.

And who can forget their amazing $100 deals every York -- that was always something to look forward to. It's shame they seemed to live by an unsustainable business model: offer great bargains, but lose money on each item and hope to make it up in quantity!

I'll second the Hudson 4-6-4. I bought one last winter and it's a beaut!

GP38 and E8.  Both hold their own against the other manufacturers.

Tom

the scale steam loco's and the best looking EP-5 ever!

Here is what is the problem with this thread . . .yesterdays advancements are today's standards.

I would have said K-Lines 21" bi-level passenger cars except NOW Sunset makes better ones.

I really like their scale extended vision cabeese.   So much that I bought the Reading RR version as well.  

@AlanRail posted:

Here is what is the problem with this thread . . .yesterdays advancements are today's standards.

I would have said K-Lines 21" bi-level passenger cars except NOW Sunset makes better ones.

While I generally agree.  Sunset's bi-level cars are based on the 1956-1958 Budd built El Capitan cars for the Santa Fe that continued to see service up through 1993 for Amtrak.

K-Lines Superliner cars are based on the Pullman Standard Superliner I's of 1979 and they are not the same cars in terms of the fluting profile, roof profile, or height.  I'd like to see Sunset do Superliners someday.  The K-line Amtrak ones are in the unobtanium range these days so I've resorted to taking a Williams 20" version and making it into a more accurate car with new trucks, adjustments to the skirting and placing real interiors in them.  I'm up to get trucks replaced....

@artyoung posted:

    My favorite is much more simple: I run my trains on K-Line's tinplate 042 curves and 36" straights, because I like the look of the closer ties - reminds me of prewar Lionel 072 (I use Williams 031 curves for the same reason).

    I admire the Shay, wish I could afford one. I too have the 027 NH passenger cars, but would have preferred silhouettes instead of interiors (I'm a traditionalist ).

    While speaking of the silhouettes, the paperwork that came with the set said the strips were enclosed as an option. Does anyone here have those? I've tried dealers, all I got were strips that don't fit any car I've ever seen.

I think I got strips with either the LIRR or Yuengling cars I have. Not exactly sure without digging the boxes out of my attic.

Gotta love the EP-5. A few days late for halloween but here's a spooky image of mine on the old layout.

My other answer to the ultimate K-line item is any former K-line scale steam loco that Lionel has re-issued. It says a lot about the quality of MDK's now 16+ year old tooling.

Not as rare as the ultra rare swinging bell Mikado, but the somewhat rare large motored Kline Hudsons take the cake for me.....had to be at the dealership with brochure in hand ......only 4 known to exist, and a 5th has just surfaced....🤣🤣

Pat

I was mostly unaware of the existence of K-Line until about 5 years ago when I was able to obtain a fairly large supply of K-Line supersnap track in 30" and 40" lengths at bargain prices. I preferred its look to the old Lionel tubular track and the new Lionel fasttrack. I proceeded to replace all the tubular and fast track track  on my 9' by 12' layout that runs 3 trains. The supersnap come together more easily than fast track. I was able to obtain switches from Trainz but the biggest problem has been obtaining sufficient curves bigger than 031. I finally found a source for the supersnap 042 but this quickly dried up. My efforts to obtain 054 have been fruitless and it looks that the supply of supersnap track is slowly giving out. I wonder if some Chinese company have the ability to produce more.

John

I really like k-LINE equipment. I have all their scale engines, some times many of the same model. For me they are a great fit. The price and detail are just right for my eye. Alan, yes of course I know there are better cars and engines available today but many folks can't or won't pay Sunset's prices. Nothing wrong with that. To answer the original question...I can't. I like them all. Don

In my personal opinion, the K-Line Reading Crusader is the rarest and most definitive of model railroading train sets.

Click on the attached image to ENLARGE.