Editing K-Line (section)

==Rise to power==

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 made some of the very best mass-produced O scale trains with their detailed models that it released in its latter years. In December 1996, about 20,000 model trains were recalled due to a potential fire hazard from the coil spring overheating if the train derails. <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/1997/CPSC-and-MDK-Inc-Recall-Model-Trains|title=CPSC and MDK Inc. Recall Model Trains|date=2016-07-04}}</ref>

Many collectors consider K-Line's 1:48 scale offerings to be not only the best value, but also the very best mass-produced O gauge trains.  K-Line's heavyweight passenger cars are among those exhibited at The Brandywine River Museum Railroad's annual "A Brandywine Christmas" celebration in Chadds Ford, PA.  Its 21-inch extruded aluminum passenger cars are prized by 3-rail collectors and operators, and are often converted over to 2-rail "scale" operations.  Lionel even began selling them for high dollars in 2010, before its license for K-Line products expired.

K-Line's S gauge offerings provided budget-priced cars as well as the already produced track compatible with [[American Flyer]]-brand trains. Unlike its latest O scale products, K-Line's marketing on its S gauge cars centered its price advantage over the competition. Most of the S gauge products were also made from old Marx O27 molds, with S gauge trucks replacing the O trucks.

The relationship between Lionel and K-Line had generally been more amicable than Lionel's relationship with MTH, before the 2005 legal debacle with Lionel. Lionel had licensed [[Trainmaster Command Control|TMCC]] to K-Line, and K-Line produced a number of repair manuals for postwar-era Lionel. K-Line has also produced commemorative cars celebrating some of Lionel's significant anniversaries, whose graphics has sometimes caused confusion among collectors.

Because K-Line's budget offerings remained almost unchanged from the old Marx designs, Marx collectors sometimes sourced spare parts from K-Line.