BLI PRR P70’s are in at TrainWorld.

[Mark5]

The "poltergeist" lighting seems to be a BLI thing - my SD40-2s have the same problem  (easy fix for me since I must take em apart anyway).

BTW, MBK has them in stock now - I picked up one to run behind my K4.

Mark

[ChristianJDavis1]

This is not about pleasing everyone. You missed my point. I was not talking about nitpicking and wanting to add some obscure details  - I'm talking about having someone evaluate how sound it the basic mechanical/electrical design  (like brightness of the illumination, or coupling distance).  That sort of evaluation and change recommendations would go a long way towards a better executed model (which you would not have to spend time on modifying to bring it to a standard under which it should have been built in the first place).  There should really be no reason to manufacture a great looking model with lots of details, then make it have long coupling distance or lights which glow like a nuclear reactor. Manufacturers make more and more super-detailed models, but they seem miss properly executing the basic stuff.

I mean, I thought I did, but I was thinking more along the lines of somebody probably does like the spacing and lights. Not every one is a proto-modeler; some just want the previously-mentioned 9_3/4 roundy-round, and I am almost sure that is the market BLI is trying to appease, because if they only catered to us like-minded individuals, they would probably sell a lot less; not everyone has room for prototypical coupling. Did it need to be that far out? Probably not. And the atomic lighting? No clue, really; I guess if it lights up at all, that's good enough. If BLI really wanted to appease everybody, then the lights would be controllable for brightness, and another screw hole provided to move the coupler boxes back, but that obviously wasn't something they wanted to go through with.

[Chris333]

I'd bet some good money I can close those coupler gaps a whole lot and still go around 9.75" curves. 

[cbroughton67]

Here's an honest question: How many people with layouts having 9 3/4" radius (obviously code 80) curves are going to drop $60 (okay, $48 street price) on a single 80' passenger car? Or buy 80' passenger cars at all? Are they trying to accommodate a market segment that might not exist when all things are taken into consideration? I assume they've done their market research, but it makes me wonder.

[dem34]

Here's an honest question: How many people with layouts having 9 3/4" radius (obviously code 80) curves are going to drop $60 (okay, $48 street price) on a single 80' passenger car? Or buy 80' passenger cars at all? Are they trying to accommodate a market segment that might not exist when all things are taken into consideration? I assume they've done their market research, but it makes me wonder.

On one hand i see that but. Nah they may be right in accommodating it. One of the things that irked me away from the more """Casual""" circles was the amount of times somebody would be like.

"I want to run long Doublestacks pulled by big diesels over mountain scenery."

"But you only have a 1.5' by 3' area, and your plan has 8" curves and %6 grades, maybe try to model a short line for the time being. Or turn the clock back so the rolling stock is smaller."

"You're wrong you elitist."

"K"

1 month later "screw N scale, it never works! So much of my money wasted!"

It may be more sound from a product support standpoint since they wont keep getting calls to support after the train derailed on a Set Track turnout.

[reinhardtjh]

I got word that my 10 cars (2 4-pk A/C and 2 single "hot" cars) are shipped.  I just want to thank @cbroughton67 for posting the pictures of his coupler work on the PRR N Scale Facebook page and I would suggest he post a thread here with the same information which is more likely to be accessible for the SPF posterity than is possible on Facebook.

FaceBook link (Probably only visible if you already belong to the PRR N-Scale group)  https://www.facebook.com/groups/PRR.N.Scale.Modeling/permalink/1150010671873735/

[Mark5]

I got word that my 10 cars (2 4-pk A/C and 2 single "hot" cars) are shipped.  I just want to thank @cbroughton67 for posting the pictures of his coupler work on the PRR N Scale Facebook page and I would suggest he post a thread here with the same information which is more likely to be accessible for the SPF posterity than is possible on Facebook.

Seconded!

[peteski]

I'd bet some good money I can close those coupler gaps a whole lot and still go around 9.75" curves. 

No kidding!  Seriously, as-is, the coupling distance goes would work way below 9.75" curve!  For goodness sake, you could put each car on one leg of a 90 degree crossing and they would remain without the ends of the cars touching.  Well, I might be exaggerating slightly, but  they would easily stay coupled without interference from the ends or diaphragms way past the point of the couplers uncoupling! 

[peteski]

I got word that my 10 cars (2 4-pk A/C and 2 single "hot" cars) are shipped.  I just want to thank @cbroughton67 for posting the pictures of his coupler work on the PRR N Scale Facebook page and I would suggest he post a thread here with the same information which is more likely to be accessible for the SPF posterity than is possible on Facebook.

If he does upload photos here, I strongly discourage uploading the photos as attachments to the post. Instead, upload them to the gallery.  Post attachments get lost (it happened probably twice) already, and once they disappear, they are gone forever (I tried to get them back, to no avail). The gallery is more reliable - haven't lost a photo there yet.

[Point353]

Giraffe car will just make thumping sounds because they molded the roof shut. 

The thumping sounds will stop once the giraffe suffocates from lack of ventilation because the sides of the car are solid, as with the previous BLI stock cars.

[learmoia]

... nevermind.. beat me to it.

[Point353]

Well, we could tell from advance ad photos that the coupling distance was excessive. And I agree that major surgery isn’t expected at that price point. But the coupler spacing is easily resolved by body-mounting 1016s, ...

Apparently BLI hasn't examined some of the Rapido passenger cars, which offer two different coupler mounting locations to allow for either closer coupling distance or the ability to traverse tighter radius curves.

[dem34]

The thumping sounds will stop once the giraffe suffocates from lack of ventilation because the sides of the car are solid, as with the previous BLI stock cars.

Finally, a reason to have a stock car with a sound decoder!

[Cajonpassfan]

That truly is sad. Beautiful models, but...😜
They seem to focus on making a model “car” and lose track of the fact the cars ran in a “train”. What a joke, especially at that price point. Come ON BLI! I’m a fan; you make some great stuff, and then you blow it with silly sh!t like this😬
One could drive a ‘53 Buick between these cars...
Erghhh..
Otto K. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[cbroughton67]

I got word that my 10 cars (2 4-pk A/C and 2 single "hot" cars) are shipped.  I just want to thank @cbroughton67 for posting the pictures of his coupler work on the PRR N Scale Facebook page and I would suggest he post a thread here with the same information which is more likely to be accessible for the SPF posterity than is possible on Facebook.

FaceBook link (Probably only visible if you already belong to the PRR N-Scale group)  https://www.facebook.com/groups/PRR.N.Scale.Modeling/permalink/1150010671873735/

I've mounted a single coupler so far. Let me "refine" the process, and I'll post pics to a new thread.

Chris