Which SP loco for 15" K-line Passenger Cars looks Best

The Lionel GS2 from the 90's may be a good candidate for those cars as it proportionately correct, but just smaller than than full 1:48 one.  It is similar in scale to the postwar J.  If you can live with a conventional locomotive, it is a decent option.  The colors won't match if that is important to you.  K-line's colors are way off.  I have 18 of these in the 21" size and they are just too dark.  My locomotives don't match color wise.  That doesn't bother me though.

Another option might be the Lionel Daylight painted Atlantic.  It is 1:48 proportion, but as a 4-4-2 it is shorter and may look better with the 15" cars. 

Finally RK E8s and PAs might work for you as well if you can live with a diesel.

Good luck!

Any of the various F3's would probably look decent as well. Lionel made some conventional units in the 1980s that come up for sale often as well as K-Line. Both made some of the non-scale Alco FA's but as Jonathan mentioned above, the K-Line cars don't really match anyone's diesels in color.

Thanks GG1 4877 for the ideas.   I only run conventional.

I would probably go with a GS-4 over the GS-2.   Are those going to look better than my bantam SP? 

Your SP Atlantic idea seems like a good one too.  I purchased that loco a couple of years ago online through Trainz and but I've never seen it.   I'm embarrased to say it's been swallowed up by the train boxes under the layout, or it never got delivered.

Railking GS4 nice locos

K-line made a nice semi scale Daylight GS4 that would look great with your cars. It 's not down sized all that much. Also they made a nice SP semi-scale steam engine with lots of detail. Don

Thanks C. Sam for the response.   The colors for the K-line cars are quite a bit darker than my MTH loco.  

Would be great to find a K-line loco to go with them but haven't found much through dealers or online.

Any specific ones that you recommend?

What about the Williams Brass gs-4s?    Would that look okay or size and color not a good match either?

I had the Williams brass GS4, it would be to large for your cars. Don

The K-Line cars are short but are the same height and width as their 21" cars. You could use a scale GS4 but I would go with Scale Rail's suggestion. The K-Line GS4 is the nicest semi scale engine out there.

Pete

K-line also made a nice semi-sclae E-9 diesel. Don

Glad to help!   In researching photos, I ran across this thread that might be helpful. 

https://ogrforum.com/...t-engines-comparison

My opinion only, but I find the Bantam locomotives to be too out of proportion or scale to take very seriously.  I have a RK CNJ Pacific that is fairly complementary to the full O scale version and and Bantam RK CNJ Pacific that is not even close.  Again my opinion only. 

I had to move my trains recently.  Now they are all swallowed up in a room I can barely get into.  I feel your pain!

Here is a fun video of my Williams scale brass one pulling a some of my K-Line 21" cars.

I use the Williams PA's.  Not exactly what SP had, but got it at a good price.

I would concur with Don and Jonathan above about the K-Line GS4 or as a 2nd choice suggested by Tim Lewis would be the RK GS4 which is similar in size.

Railking GS2/GS4 would work, the "full size" one. I have a Railking GS2 with Locosounds from the early 2000s. It's been a reliable runner.

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions.   You guys are awesome.

Well, I went back and looked at my inventory list.  I DO have the MTH 30-1119 GS-4 (it's not a bantam) but it sure looks small with the passenger cars.   Did MTH make a bigger version in RK or Imperial sized?

The K-line semi-scale sounds perfect.   Does anyone have an product # or suggestion for where to find one?

Dominic, thanks for the PA suggestion.   I have a pair of Rio Grande Alco-PAs by Williams.   They look fantastic.  That's an idea worth pursuing.

I'll probably end up buying everything!

Thanks Lou 1985.   Great pic.  Nice looking engines.

Great video Jonathan/GG1 4877.   That GS-4 looks sharp.   I've seen them before on Youtube but your video really shows how nice it is.   Thanks for sharing.   I'm afraid it might dwarf my 15" cars.  (But I want one!)

Santa Fe VA posted:

Great video Jonathan/GG1 4877.   That GS-4 looks sharp.   I've seen them before on Youtube but your video really shows how nice it is.   Thanks for sharing.   I'm afraid it might dwarf my 15" cars.  (But I want one!)

I think it's the best GS4 for the money as one can be had for under $300 if you are patient.  You might be surprised how it would look with the 15" cars considering the only difference between the 15" cars and 21" cars is the length.  The extrusion is the same and just cut to different sizes.  However, it requires 072 curves.

I use MTH F-3s with my 15 inch K Liners.

Lew Schneider

Very nice Lew!   Great pic.

Those would look nice on my layout!

They come up on E-Bay every few weeks. I really think this would be your best choice. Here is a little video. 

I have both the K-line GS-4 and the 15 inch cars. Overall the Gs-4 is a pretty good match, but the tender and orange strip is slightly lower than the one on the cars so they don't align as well as I would like. I probably should post a picture for you. Oddly the orange color on the engine is not as muted or dark as the cars, but that is a good thing since the orange is so far off on the cars. It is almost as if they used old faded photos to match the paint. The K-line GS-4 is much closer to scale than the rail king so it overall looks appropriately sized. It think it is 25 inches long and I think the rail king is something like 21 inches.  I also have the K-line E9 AA set . Someone said these are semi-scale, but the are actually scale and about 17 inches each. They are longer than the cars so it looks a little weird , but overall a very good size match. The striping is actually wider on the E9s than on the cars because it pulled the shasta cars which had very large windows and as a result the orange stripe was also much taller. The K-line windows are pretty large relative to other daylight passenger cars so they are pretty close to the Shasta cars in that regard.

Here's some better pictutes of my Railking GS2 with 60' (16") Railking passenger cars. Run by video as well. It visually looks sized correctly, at least to me.

The K-Line E-9s are 17.5 inches each, too long for the 15-inch passenger cars.  K-line made F-series diesels for most lines, but for Southern Pacific, I only recall seeing them in the Black Widow paint scheme, not the Daylight scheme. 

I agree with the other guys above who recommended the K-line GS-4, which is larger than semi-scale but not full 1:48, perhaps closer to 1:58 like their slightly compressed Big Boy and Alleghaney, to go with these cars.  It came in a conventional version and a loaded one with the following features:

K3688-4449CC  The most distinctive features of the GS-4 are replicated in this model version, including the curved steps leading up to an enclosed all-weather cab and operating MARS light installed above the headlight on the aluminum smokebox door. The K-LINE engine also features an opening cab roof hatch and pilot truck detail unlike any other GS-4 model. Plus it has Cruise Control, TrainMaster Command Control, Lionel RailSounds and Electrocouplers.

I found one a few months ago, reasonably priced, and have seen a few more for sale since. The only catch is that K-Line cruise control is notoriously bad, so plan on disabling it.

The conventional model # is K3688-4449W.  See the K-Line Legacy site for more details on both versions.

Best of luck!

David

Here are a couple shots of the K-line GS-4 with the 15 inch cars. 

Thanks WCDaylight for the suggestion and the pictures.   The engine looks very proportional with the passenger cars.   Very helpful.

Thanks David for the recommendation and information about the K-line engines.  

It seems like a good match.

Thanks Lou for the pictures of your GS-2.  

It really does look nice pulling passenger cars.  

So many good options, you guys are great!!