Broadway Limited M1a/M1b

[gkoproske]

Has anyone other than myself noticed the problem of "skips" with the BLI M1a/M1b?  In other words, an interruption to its pickup as it traverses your layout.  It either sits there  with the light out or it re-starts the sound's startup sequence.   Not so much on my test loop but on the layout it does not run smoothly.  What I am asking is whether anyone has been so bold as to add a keep-alive circuit in the tender, or even added weight to the tender.
Thank you for your consideration.  I know this locomotive is not a current issue, but I got it out to run at a show and it performed disappointingly.

[djconway]

I've got 6 of them, they are very sensitive to dirty track.
I suspect that on your test loop the track is fairly clean, where as when its on the layout its seeing track that is not as clean.

[Dave V]

I always felt my M1bs would be perfect candidates for current keepers, but there's not a lot of room to work with.

[Mark5]

I always felt my M1bs would be perfect candidates for current keepers, but there's not a lot of room to work with.

I find that surprising. http://www.broadway-limited2.com/support/N%20M1ab%20Tender%20Expl%20View.pdf

Is all of the space in that big tender really occupied?

[Cajonpassfan]

I bought one to be a "project mechanism" for another engine and had a similar problem. On mine, I was able to isolate the pickup issues by flipping her upside down and and testing conductivity on each wheel set. Surprisingly, given the number of wheels, there were multiple wheels on both loco and tender with zero connectivity on both left and right sides. Rather than trying to fix the problem, I sent her back for a refund. You may want to try a similar test...
Good luck, Otto K.

[propmeup1]

I have six and only really had an issue with one. I sent it to BLI and got it back in about 8 weeks and they all run fine except the one that launched off the layout to the hard floor. Parts are on order but it still runs.....    However I haven't been that lucky with the four PRR T1s and about half my diesels. Not a happy camper with their diesels.

[Cajonpassfan]

I have six and only really had an issue with one. I sent it to BLI and got it back in about 8 weeks and they all run fine except the one that launched off the layout to the hard floor. Parts are on order but it still runs.....    However I haven't been that lucky with the four PRR T1s and about half my diesels. Not a happy camper with their diesels.

For what it's worth, I experience very few if any cutouts on the Paragon 4 equipped diesels...
Otto

[Dave V]

I find that surprising. http://www.broadway-limited2.com/support/N%20M1ab%20Tender%20Expl%20View.pdf

Is all of the space in that big tender really occupied?

I haven’t dabbled with these in 5 years. Current keepers have gotten smaller since then for sure.

[reinhardtjh]

I find that surprising. http://www.broadway-limited2.com/support/N%20M1ab%20Tender%20Expl%20View.pdf

Is all of the space in that big tender really occupied?

The first run (or two?) of the M1a/b used the Paragon 2 decoder, which was adapted from the HO version and fairly large.  It took up most of the space in the tender.  That's the model I have.  The last run got the Paragon3 decoder and it was somewhat smaller so there is more space available.  However, neither is terrific on handling dropouts like the Paragon4 apparently does.