K-Line
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This article refers to a model railway company. For other meanings, see K-line (disambiguation).
K-Line Electric Trains is a brand name of O gauge and S gauge model railway locomotives, rolling stock, and buildings.
Its parent company, MDK Inc., based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was founded in 1975 by Maury D. Klein. Like competitor MTH Electric Trains, MDK was a large Lionel dealer, and its mail-order ads appeared in magazines such as Model Railroader in the late 1970s. MDK first used the K-Line name on a line of aftermarket Lionel-compatible tubular track.
Louis Marx and Company's final demise in 1978 led to MDK increasing the K-Line product line. In 1980, MDK purchased the tooling for Marx's Plasticville-like Marxville buildings and accessories for train sets at bankruptcy. K-Line was able to acquire additional Marx tooling by scavenging through old factories and warehouses. In an oft-repeated story, Maury Klein and his plant manager, Brent Chambers, found the molds for the Marx model 333 and 1829 4-6-2 locomotives in a Fisher-Price warehouse near Buffalo, New York in 1984. The warehouse was unlighted, unheated, and was missing part of its roof.
By 1985, K-Line was producing O27 locomotives, cars, and figures from former Marx and Kusan tooling, and, with minor changes, began marketing them under the K-Line brand, competing with Lionel at the low end of the market. The dies mostly remained unchanged, with only the branding changing--for example, "Marxville" plastic buildings became "K-Lineville". K-Line changed the couplers on the Marx-derived trains to make the cars compatible with Lionel, and, eventually, improving the graphics.
During the 1980s, K-Line filled much the same role that Marx had in the model railroading arena, supplying similar trains at a lower price than Lionel, but with less prestige. In the 1990s, K-Line was able to purchase more disused tooling from other manufacturers, allowing it to offer full-size O gauge for the first time, which it supplemented with pricier O gauge locomotives and rolling stock of its own design, shifting its emphasis away from its budget offerings.
K-Line's S gauge offerings are a recent entry, providing budget-priced cars and track compatible with American Flyer-brand trains. Unlike its current O gauge products, K-Line's marketing on its S gauge cars centers its price advantage over the competition. Most of the S gauge products are made from old Marx O27 molds, with S gauge trucks replacing the O trucks.
Although K-Line and Lionel criticize one another's offerings in print advertisements and sometimes also lash out at MTH, the relationship between Lionel and K-Line is more amicable than Lionel's relationship with MTH. Lionel has licensed TMCC to K-Line, and K-Line produces a number of repair manuals for postwar-era Lionel. K-Line has also produced commemorative cars celebrating some of Lionel's significant anniversaries, which has sometimes caused confusion among collectors.
Because K-Line's budget offerings remain almost unchanged from the old Marx designs, Marx collectors sometimes source spare parts from K-Line.
External Links
Official website (http://www.k-linetrains.com)