CharlesH. said:
They're quite well done. If I had the coin, their Pennsy T1 and GG1 would be in my stable. Their sound systen is beautiful.
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They're quite well done. If I had the coin, their Pennsy T1 and GG1 would be in my stable. Their sound systen is beautiful.
CharlesH. said:
I bought their first run of the J1e Hudson and it's a beauty!! The sound is excellent - synchronized chuff, steam let off, and the bell and whistle both come with a doppler effect feature.
That's the plus side. On the minus side, something went wrong with the circuit board. The resident expert at my LHS couldn't fix it so they sent it to BLI. That was 4 months ago and I still haven't gotten my engine back!!!
BLI couldn't find the problem either, so they replaced the board and shipped it back, but it seems USPS lost the package. Not BLI's fault but I had to call them at my expense to find this out. I told them that they should send me a replacement unit, they agreed, but since there's nothing in stock I am still waiting.
Nevertheless, I still plan to buy their NW2/SW7 when it comes out. Having factory installed DCC and sound right out of the box is a major plus IMO.
Val
I also bought the first release Hudson, two in fact. I'm less than thrilled. They look beautiful, the sound is great, but they suffer from a couple problems. One of them derailed constantly, upon insprction I found virtually no side to side play on the fron and rear drivers. The other loco did not have this problem. I took the loco apart and found that plastic bushings on the axles were too long. Unfortunately I saw no way to disassemble the mech. So I called BLI (after receiving no reply to an email) and the person I spoke to obviously knew nothing about the mech, but repeatedly told me they just replace them, they do not repair them. I suppose the method of assy where it can't be taken apart must be a cost savings. You know how expensive screws are. Just some ill natured kidding, I'm aware that the cost savings are there, so many items come that way now. Anyway, they did offer to replace the loco, I asked if I could just return the mech for replacement as the shell and tender were nicely weathered, no good. So I used a chisel exacto blade to cut the bushing while the drivers turned under their own power and then sliced it to remoce it, problem fixed. Now both locos ran without derailing, but that wasn't all the problems. I was having intermittant problems such as occasional pauses, the loco just stopped for a second then continued. Sometimes the loco kept going but the sound shut off for a second or two. Sometimes the light went out but the sound and motion weren't affected. In my typical way, I just put them aside and forgot about them. A couple months ago I read that the new release (hope you get one of those, Val) had several improvements, amoung them drivers made out of a different material, apparently all the other locs since the Hudson have them as well. the Hudson wheels, whatever they are made of, apparently attract dirt like a magnet. I can verify this, when the wheels are cleaned (and track) the Hudson will do about 4 laps of my main, perhaps 1000', before the light/sound/motion problems reoccur. With freshly cleaned wheels, these problems don't exist. I plan on trying to plate the wheels with a plating kit from MicroMark. Hopefully that will help. Still, one of the Hudsons has developed a jerky run, when I switch the tenders, it became obvious the problem is in the decoder in the tender, as both locos run ok. So now I will take the tender apart, reset it and play with the cv's to see if I can get it back to normal. I'll contact BLI if I fail, and hope they agree to replace the deocder, I don't expect them too. I may at that time agree to send the loco back for replacement, if I can get the new version. I hope it won't take 4 months! Although I may just install a Soundtraxx Tsunami if they ever come out. I'm not much for returning locos. My roster is pretty well full and I don't thnk I'll be buying anymore BLI, tho I know my experience is probably a minority.
Hope you get your loco back soon Val!
Hope you get your loco back soon Val!
***************************************************************MasonJar said:I am hoping it will be a 2-8-0 or a 4-6-0 Bachmann spectrum (or maybe both
Andrew
Andrew, If you are running DCC and are looking at the Spectrum 4-6-0, I would like to suggest you buy one of the models with "high boiler" and "62" drivers", as the model I purchased is one with a "low boiler" and "53" drivers" and that only comes with a very small tender... so small, in fact, it is almost prototypical of one of the old SMALL "wood burner" tenders. The problem comes when you try to put a "sound decoder" in it. It has to be hard-wired, and is a real "bear" of a job.
I love my "ten wheeler"! It is a beauty, and a good runner for my purposes....
Good luck in your choice. Bob