The rise and fall of K line trains

[gregj410]

Interesting video on the K line story I discovered while surfing for superstreet videos.

https://youtu.be/S_tlDJyDFuo?si=R2OMT8Z4rnPghGyy

[healey36]

Thanks for the link, Greg; pretty much lines up with my feeble understanding of how it all went down. That was a messed-up time in the toy train biz, for sure.

I have a few pieces of K-Line rolling stock and a couple of their building kits. I never bought any of their locomotives, although I understand some of them were very nice. A buddy of mine has a few of their top-line steam locos from their last years of production, and those unfortunately have shown signs of zinc-pest. Another friend has had no issues with his. Now that's a real story.

[v8vega]

Yes I saw Murry Kline at Cal Stewart one year. I have several Kline cars and a couple of engines. I never followed the lawsuits exactly.

[jlong]

After litigating everything under the sun, MTH provoked Lionel to become lawsuit happy. So it's really MTH's fault.

[G3750]

After litigating everything under the sun, MTH provoked Lionel to become lawsuit happy. So it's really MTH's fault.

Uh, not really.

One has to question the judgment of Maury Klein in:

• Over-extending himself to the manufacturer on toy train costs; he was never going to be able to pay that off
• Selling very nice scale locomotives and cars at razor thin margins (or even at a loss on some of them)
• Hiring Bob Grubba who was already under a cloud because of the Lionel / MTH locomotive duplication lawsuit. Any way you cut it, bringing him on board was dubious move at best.

This was self-inflicted, pure and simple.

George