Broadway Limited vs Kato and Atlas?

[CBQ Fan]

I have never owned, seen or run a BL loco.  I have many, many Kato and Atlas locos.  I run DC.  So it looks like I can buy two BL locos for about the price of 4 Kato/Atlas.  Are they really worth the premium?  Again not interested in DCC or sound.  What say you??

[Catt]

Keep buying the KATO and ATLAS.

[Frisco Larry]

I have a few BLI locos.  The sound is great (though it cuts in and out on plastic frogs)  All run reasonably well.  The design is an odd combination of new and old.  The trucks have the metal cups that receive the axle cones like Kato and Atlas, but have wires soldered to these plates to take the electricity to the circuit board like a 40 year old Life-Like (looks like a future maintenance problem).  The decoder/sound chip runs hotter than any other brand that I have.  They seem to act up after running an hour or so, whether this is heat related I do not know.  But the next time I run them they are fine again (for about an hour). The detailing and art work is top notch.  The ones I have are schemes that have never been offered by the other guys (and probably never will be), thus I was willing to pay a premium for them.  Example; I have BLI Mopac E6s that no one else have done, both BLI and Kato have done UP E8s, I have the Kato ones.  Whether they are worth the extra cost is up to each of us.

[Bob Bufkin]

The details on them are better.  Of course I have the PRR ones which come with the trainphones and other PRR details.  Really the only reason I got a few.  Sound is finicky and does cut in and out except for 1 PA I have which seems to be one of the best running locos I have with or without sound.  Also if you model a road which has the E6, I believe they are the only ones made. 

[wcfn100]

I got the BLI E7 simply because of the CB&Q Red Stripe scheme.  The two things that really bug me are the lower nose headlight which for some reason is larger than the top headlight (when it should be smaller) and the pilot which is way too far off the rail.

But even with those issues, I ordered 2 E8s in the Red Scheme because Kato, after 20 years, obviously isn't going to do them.  I did justify the purchase a bit because of the sound and how much my sons enjoy hearing it and pushing the buttons.

I'm hoping these three units will be able to pull an N scale combined EB/NCL someday. 

Overall, without the sound, I don't see these as a premium over Kato or even the old LL E7 (when you can get one for >$20) but if decals aren't available (like the CB&Q) there could be a premium put on the paint scheme.

Jason

[wcfn100]

  Also if you model a road which has the E6, I believe they are the only ones made.

Life like did an E6.

Jason

[Bob Bufkin]

Life like did an E6.

Jason

I forgot about those.

[SkipGear]

I have some from each run and love them all. The paint and detail is very good and the sound is impressive. I haven't had any issues with sound droping out myself and I run them on N-trak quite a bit.

I have a B&O E7 AA set, B&O E6A, and a CB&Q E8 A/A set.  The CB&Q set pulls my Cal Zephyr and one engine will do just fine but its much more impressive with both. The sounds can be set up so that the trailing unit only has prime mover and brake sounds so you don't get a double horn effect. The metal finish on the CB&Q set is great and really sets them off, it is more than paint but truely nickle plated to look like stainless.

[spookshow]

I've found BLI's earlier releases to be a bit finicky when it comes to dirty track. However, they improved their pickup scheme quite a bit with their E6 release (by adding wheel wipers). It's still pretty klunky and overly complex as compared to the typical Atlas/Kato axle-cup pickup design, but much more reliable than previously. Doing away with the wheel blackening crud (starting with their PA/PB release) also improved things quite a bit.

Old -



New -



I rate all of the PCM/BLI diesels an "A", but with the caveat that one has to be extremely vigilant about keeping ones track clean (at least with the earlier releases).

Cheers,
-Mark

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Is there actually any model overlap? If not, I don't see it as an either or situation. If you want an E7, go BLI, if you want an E8, I think Kato is the only game in town.

[spookshow]

BLI - E6, E7, E8, PA
Kato - E8, PA
Life-Like - E6, E7, E8, PA (although it's been years since these were last run)

And then you have the ancient Atlas/Rivarossi, Con-Cor/Kato and Arnold/Rivarossi E7s and E8s, but those are all pretty irrelevant at this point.

Cheers,
-Mark

[spookshow]

And hey, don't forget Carrera -



It's battery-powered, so no pickup problems at all! 

-Mark

[Bob Bufkin]

You forgot the old Con-Cor PAs.

[VonRyan]

And hey, don't forget Carrera -



It's battery-powered, so no pickup problems at all! 

-Mark

What is that thing?

[rickb773]

Still waiting for the BLI M1 4-8-2!