BLI PRR-P5A In Now

[dem34]

Does indicate to me that we are probably going to see these get firesaled on the bay in a couple months.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The performance of my BLI SW8 after switching to an ESU LokSound with keep-alive is night and day to the original board.  Better sound, better performance.  I also added 4k resistors to the LED light boards.  And yes, I kept the stock speaker. 

Haha, yeah, sounds like it's definitely in the future then...

[narrowminded]

12 hours of flawless speed step 3 running so far. What a terrific model - with the spacers. I hope Mark has his factory cranked up, lol.

-Mark

That's pretty much what my experience was except that my two examples never ran correctly from the start.   And what I saw pretty early on when looking closely at the components was how very light the downward force on the trucks was but only by "feel".  That "feel" was confirmed when I made the test rig for my gram scale, producing the honest numbers confirming that the truck weights were in fact insufficient to ever perform reliably.  That information also provided the data to arrive at an honest, predictable fix with a balanced distribution of all available weight.  I'm glad you were able to test these long enough with clean then not so clean wheels and with both the installed fix and uninstalled to experience the issue as well as the efficacy of the fix. 

What will be most interesting to observe is how BLI handles this.  It can be an opportunity for them or... very not.   They have been advised of these experiences, can test for themselves, and shown at least one way to fix it with the same sample parts sent to them as all of you have received.

[narrowminded]

@spookshow review of this loco is up!  What an asset this is for N Scalers!  

http://www.spookshow.net/loco/blip5a.html

[narrowminded]

Does indicate to me that we are probably going to see these get firesaled on the bay in a couple months.

It may have started.  What a shame.   https://www.broadway-limited.com/nscale.aspx

I might go for a couple of freight units.

[peteski]

It may have started.  What a shame.   https://www.broadway-limited.com/nscale.aspx

I might go for a couple of freight units.

The 13 units listed on BLI website are shown as refurbished.  Not sure if I would call that a "fire sale".

[apudelek]

I grabbed one.  I couldn't resist...  I really want a second lol...  I haven't dealt with their refurbished products before so I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.

[reinhardtjh]

The 13 units listed on BLI website are shown as refurbished.  Not sure if I would call that a "fire sale".

Not exactly a true fire sale but if people who don't know about Mark's fix return them because they don't run well, then BLI will have a LOT of refurbished units to sell.  But having refurbished units is not unusual for BLI, especially on a first run.

[peteski]

Not exactly a true fire sale but if people who don't know about Mark's fix return them because they don't run well, then BLI will have a LOT of refurbished units to sell.  But having refurbished units is not unusual for BLI, especially on a first run.

That brings up some questions.  When someone returns a misbehaving model to BLI, what do they do?  Do they refund the money, or repair or replace the model, then ship it back to the customer?

I suspect that since BLI offers  refurb. units for sale, they do test (and even repair when required) all the returned models.

So for this specific pickup problem, what does BLI do?  Do they test the returns and often find no problem (since it is a not a solid fault), then return them to customers?  Of do they ship another new model to customer (which still has the same pickup problem)?  Since Mark provided information and a fix to BLI, they should certainly be aware of the possible pickup problems on returned models.

I still don't see how this specific problem will lead to BLI offering bunch of refurbished models (which will again have the same problem as new units). Well, unless they have retrofitted them with Mark's fix. 

[randgust]

27 refurbished units, 13 of which are P5's.   

A LONG time ago, I got a Micro-Ace Porter 2-6-0 direct.   It had a multitude of various flaws; I tinkered with it until I got reliable performance, mostly on the tender pickup system.   Then Atlas announced they were importing it and putting US roadnames on it.   I contacted Paul Graf with all the modifications and research I had done on the Micro-Ace, as that was the model they were importing.

Atlas was more than interested, took me seriously, and invited me to join the Atlas forum, starting a long relationship with them and this crew.  They did tweak a couple issues on production, not all of them, but their out-of-the box ran better than the stock Micro-Ace by a long shot.

BLI would well heed the free research that goes on here considering their rather spotty reputation all over the map from really good to borderline unusable.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Super short clip, but it was a pleasure to watch the fixed ones run on Saturday.

[narrowminded]

27 refurbished units, 13 of which are P5's.   

... and in many if not all, there is more than one of each road number.    This is what brought me to say that "the fire sale has begun".

[Lemosteam]

I got one brand new from a dealer on FB for $246.00 shipped, so new was only $16 more than the refurb.  I have not "run" it, but on my short straight line programming track it ran beautifully.  I have not yet added Mark's spacers.

[Altoona]

Are Mark's spacers still available?
Judd Barton

[narrowminded]

Are Mark's spacers still available?
Judd Barton

Send a PM with request and address and we'll go from there.  I'll have to run some as I'm clean out at this point.  Because this took on a life of its own I have resorted to requesting a contribution to defray costs.  I've been sending them in a padded envelope, first class mail, and suggested $10 for the first set and $7 for each additional.  This sort of covers the postage, packaging, and post office trip.  I can take a Paypal F&F or am just as happy with a personal check.  I don't hold shipment for checks to clear.  We can do all of the arrangements through PM's.