BLI F3 & F7 Rerun

[haasmarc]

I have one F3 and a A-B power combo F7 which I made into Reading.  I like them but I find them slippery with little traction. A little frog snot works and the A-B pulls 36 empty hoppers.  The single A is PRR and I run that with a Bachmann SD-9. That's a good looking set with the same empty hopper consist.  I'll pick up more but I really wish they would give us the Q2. I seen one on Brasstrains for $2495.    I love those T1s now that they have new decoders and are running great.

Hey propmeup1, do you have any pictures of your Reading units?  I have some BLI F7's that I am doing the same thing to but haven't painted them yet.

[asarge]

MMMmmm. Think I'll have to spring for a C&O set.

[Sharky_McSharknose]

My BLI PRR A-B-B-A set run pretty well. They don't have nearly the amount of pickup problems my BLI PAs, E7, and Centipede have. My biggest gripe is that they are too light. I'll only run them as A-B-A or A-B-B dummy-A but even then I noticed some struggling up the Bay State Model Railroad Museum's 3% grade that my IM F-units tackle just fine. I added some tungsten putty to the powered B-unit and removed the motor weight from the dummy B-unit to see if that helps with traction. I don't see any space in the A-units to install more weight.

Hopefully BLI is aware of the weight issues and the F3 grill reversal and fixes them both. I'm all set with NYC lightning stripe F-units but if BLI fixes their issues and releases gold and white NYC cigar band Fs I will give them another look.

[propmeup1]

BLI F7s, Reading painted, microscale decals.  266 A,B.

[propmeup1]

F7

[haasmarc]

BLI F7s, Reading painted, microscale decals.  266 A,B.

Thanks propmeup1!  I think I am going to add etched grills to mine.

[propmeup1]

Everything is stock with mine except the paint.  I may get another set just to have an ABBA.

[Missaberoad]

I emailed BLI and got a response from Matt Williamson, they are correcting the tooling on the N scale F3 shells...

[Sharky_McSharknose]

I emailed BLI and got a response from Matt Williamson, they are correcting the tooling on the N scale F3 shells...

I can confirm they are fixing this issue after speaking to a BLI rep at the Amherst show this past weekend.

[wcfn100]

If you haven't, I'd confirm the b units are getting corrected as well.


Jason

[Cajonpassfan]

Great, that’s progress. It would be so good if one could get replacement shells, at a nominal price (or at all😬).
Otto K.

[basementcalling]

Great, that’s progress. It would be so good if one could get replacement shells, at a nominal price (or at all😬).
Otto K.

That's NOT how the prototype fixed em.

[Cajonpassfan]

Umm, the prototype didn’t come from EMD with body openings in lieu of structural gussets...
Otto K.

[Cajonpassfan]

I emailed BLI and got a response from Matt Williamson, they are correcting the tooling on the N scale F3 shells...

I too got a confirmation from BLI. But today, looking at BLI’s website updated Santa Fe graphics, top two pics (if they are accurate) I see the “correction” involves replacing the early F3 body with a late version virtually identical to their F7. The only difference I see is a dynamic brake blister on the F7, while the F3 presumably has the earlier style “slits”. So this would be correct for ATSF eng. 31, which was a late F3, but doesn’t fix the earlier open mesh/chickewire  version, at least on the ATSF units (some of the graphics in other roadnames don’t have the F7 style grilles).
The bottom pic is the way the early version was supposed to look like, high fans and no grilles...

I guess time will tell...they are supposed to be out late February.
Otto K.

[Wardie]

If BLI did a phase IV F3 I would be definitely interested is several A units of those. I decorated preferably but I will strip and repaint if necessary.