Frederick Westing, in the August 1956 issue of Trains Magazine, didn’t proclaim the Pennsylvania Railroad K-4 4-6-2 as “the World’s greatest” for nothing. From 1914 to 1928, 425 of these locomotives were built as the heart and soul of the railroad’s passenger operations, ranging from limiteds to locals. The K-4s kept the trains moving all the way to the end of steam on the Pennsy.
Of the 425 built, two survived. No. 3750 resides at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg. No. 1361 is currently undergoing restoration to operation at the hands of Altoona’s Railroaders Memorial Museum and FMW Solution.
While we wait for the latter’s return to steam, models of various scales fill in the void nicely of a living, breathing Pennsylvania Railroad K-4. This includes the latest round from MTH’s RailKing Imperial line, announced in February 2025 and recently arriving on store shelves and doorsteps, one of which MTH provided to Trains.com and Classic Toy Trains free of charge for review.
Out of the box
MTH rolled out three different roadnames: three for the Pennsy, two for the Long Island Rail Road, and two for the Great Northern Railway. This model is PRR No. 5403 in its prewar version with the early pilot and striped paint scheme on the tender (30-1899-1).
RailKing’s bread-and-butter is semi-scale. And at 1’ 8” in length, this model fits the bill as it doesn’t come close to the 1:48 proportions. The locomotive alone should measure almost 21” by itself. This isn’t a knock, but more of a heads-up to those looking for an O scale K-4 to add to the fleet…