BLI Pennsylvania M1a/b

[mike_lawyer]

That stinks with regard to the traction tire driver not being geared.  Part of the genius of the Kato Mikado design was the fact that the fourth driver was geared and you could really weigh down the boiler for tremendous pulling power (for example, with a GHQ metal shell).

[Cajonpassfan]

The coupler issue is interesting and a bit a head scratcher.  The manual has an entire section on DCC easy consist set up.

That's for if you wanted to run them back to back
Otto K.

[eric220]

That's for if you wanted to run them back to back
Otto K.

M1 double fairlie edition?

 

[Lemosteam]

Speaking of which, who ( @eric220 ) wants to be a tester?

[eric220]

Speaking of which, who ( @eric220 ) wants to be a tester?

You, sir have piqued my curiosity.

[peteski]

Speaking of which, who ( @eric220 ) wants to be a tester?

Ah, 3D printing to the rescue. 
 But why not make it look less like an Accumate, and more like prototype coupler? I very much dislike the Accumate robotic-like appearance.  Or is that something that might happen once this concept works?

[Lemosteam]

@peteski , at this point i just want to see if they will mate to the pilot, be pulled on and not break under load. there is no movement in this piece and I'll tell everybody, after popping out the OEM version, there might be some major surgery to install even a 905.  not a lot of meat there.

[Bob Bufkin]

Use them as helpers in front of your K4.

[mmagliaro]

That stinks with regard to the traction tire driver not being geared.  Part of the genius of the Kato Mikado design was the fact that the fourth driver was geared and you could really weigh down the boiler for tremendous pulling power (for example, with a GHQ metal shell).

I spotted this on the preproduction samples they showed at the Portland NMRA last summer, and I specifically pointed out the possibly folly of the non-geared driver having the tire on it.  The rep was polite while he listened to me, but I could tell he wasn't going to do a thing about it.  No way were they going to make design change that late in the game unless it was causing the engine to fail outright.

I will say, however, that if those rods and the crankpins are stainless steel, they will probably hold up. 

[peteski]

I will say, however, that if those rods and the crankpins are stainless steel, they will probably hold up.

Just make sure you put a tiny drop of lube around the crank pins.  I favor the Woodland Scenics gear lube.  It is a consistency of thick oil, but it is really sticky and it stays put wherever you apply it.

[AlanJ3A]

I just picked one up at an LHS and had it test run.  The sound is close to an HO loco
Nice detail.  I'll leave it to Pennsylvania model ears for fine points but I
Ll hook it up to my IM FOM consist to see how it does with a dozen passenger cars

Good luck
Alan J3A

[strummer]

Just make sure you put a tiny drop of lube around the crank pins.  I favor the Woodland Scenics gear lube.  It is a consistency of thick oil, but it is really sticky and it stays put wherever you apply it.

That's good to know...

Mark in Oregon

[nscaleSPF2]

If I may add my 2 cents,

This is a really, really nice model, and is worth the money (if you can afford it). 

Lots of nice detail, well finished, and very smooth running after it is broken in.  Mine had a little bit of black coating on the driver tires that would cause very short and annoying electrical interruptions, until the coating wore off after about 1 hour.

Speaking of annoying, the sound was way too loud out of the box, until I reset the CV's to about 70.  How loud was it before I turned it down?  Loud enough to give me a headache after about 5 minutes.  Another curious thing about the sound is that the chuffs seem to get quieter after the engine reaches a steady, constant speed.  This may be a prototype thing, I don't know.  The effect is to give the impression of the engine fading into the distance, as it moves away from you.  Which is ok, except that I have a tethered throttle, and like to walk alongside the engine.

The slowest speed I measured without any cars in tow was 3.5 mph, using speed step 1/128.  I could probably get it to run slower, if I reprogrammed the speed profile in the decoder.

The dummy front coupler is not a problem for me, as I don't plan to double head this baby.  There may be enough room in the pilot for a functional coupler, not sure.  Myself, I wouldn't try to experiment without a spare pilot from BLI, though.  Or unless I could persuade Keystone_Details to print a pilot that would accommodate an MTL 905.  (What say you, John?)

The tender coal looks good in the photos, but it looks fake in person.  I sprinkled on some "real" coal, and held it in place with matt medium.

The biggest modification was to move the tender coupler forward, by about 0.070in.  This required removing part of the coupler pocket with a dremel and drilling a new hole to mount the coupler.  Please excuse this one obsession of mine.  Typical N scale car-to-car coupling distance looks too Lionel for me, but replacing all of my couplers with Z scale would be too expensive.  So I typically body mount all the couplers, and locate them about 0.070in from their original location.

That's all I've got.

[Mike C]

Got mine today also . And I have to say that it is one of the best running locos I've ever seen . As good if not better than Kato's 2-8-2 ! 
 Agree on the coal load , It needs a bit of help , shouldn't be too hard to fix that .
 Headlight , wayyyyyyyy to bright , but easy to dial down .
 Sound .....well its OK after it's adjusted down and you mess with the various CV's . The whistle is though excellent ! My only real complaints are the exhaust tone , to me it sounds muddy , needs more high end . Or maybe I'm used to the speakers that normally go into a N scale steamer .   The other thing is there is no drifting mode , the chuff is on all of the time . Unless there is a CV i'm missing somewhere .
 I wonder if I should get another one ........

[peteski]

IAnother curious thing about the sound is that the chuffs seem to get quieter after the engine reaches a steady, constant speed.  This may be a prototype thing, I don't know.  The effect is to give the impression of the engine fading into the distance, as it moves away from you.  Which is ok, except that I have a tethered throttle, and like to walk alongside the engine.

That is actually a very desired feature, missing from some sound decoders.  When a steam loco accelerates, the chuffs will be "labored" (sharper and louder sounding).  Then whe the loco's speed steadies, the chuffs will fade and become quieter.  This is very similar to how your car sounds: When you are accelerating, the engine sounds louder than when you are driving on a flat road at a steady speed.