Can somebody please tell me the difference between K-Line and O gauge? Are the train cars, accessories, etc the same size and interchangeable with O gauge?
K-line made both “toy-like” 027 and scale O gauge trains before they were run out of business and bought by lionel, K-line is now lionels low end line of O trains and some of k-lines better scale offerings will more then likely show up under the lionel name brand. The short answer is that yes k-line is O gauge except for the few S gauge trains they made as well.
K-line is O guage. Guage refers to the space inbetween the rails. If you are concerned with the compatability of Lionel trains, the two will work together just fine.
Thank you, I thought they were the same “size” but I was wondering about the compatibility of the cars between the two of them.
All the manufactures make big and small cars in O gauge. A scale box car will look funny next to a “tradtional” box car which might look funny next to an “027” box car. Still, they will all mate and work together. The size difference will become less apparent if you run different car types (flat, tank, gondolla) between differntly sized box cars.
Unfortunately, other than “scale” in the advertisement…there is no good way to say how big a car is without seeing it.
Jim H
As a long-time K-Line buyer, let’s make a correction here. K-Line was not run out of business by Lionel. K-Line decided to play alongside the “big boys” making an announcement that they planned to be the number one train maker within 5 years. And thus began the production of many totally new scale high end pieces from completely new tooling. Some of these new locomotives were also foolishly premiered via the K-Line Collectors Club at rock bottom prices considering their cost of development.
While this was a good move no doubt to entice customers to try K-Line products, they also began building up a massive debt with their Chinese vendor. It got to the point where K-Line was no longer able to receive product without cash up front. K-Line had a multi-million dollar debt when the fiasco over the stolen Lionel technology happened. And even at that point there was an initial agreement with Lionel that would have allowed K-Line to remain in business.
K-Line made the huge mistake of ignoring their original customer base of tradtional 0/027 buyers in favor of newer scale buyers. To put it in comparision, when K-Line offered the KCC MP-15 diesel, I was told by K-Line direct that over 10,000 had been sold by late spring/early summer. Many more were obviously sold during the rest of the year. According to OGR magazine, only 3,000 were sold of the last KCC locomotive offering, the scale sized SD70MAC. K-Line had always been a niche player with annual sales of around $8-10M so I’ve been told.
It certainly was admirable of K-Line to want to expand their market share. They just did too much, too fast - with too much emphasis on the high end. Some of their neatest, best received innovations like the re-engineered 027 switch track and the “Super Streets” products should have been given priority and made much sooner. Same goes for the Porter steam switcher and the Plymouth diesel switcher.
Alright, now to give some pointers on compatibility. Size-wise all the non-scale