BLI 2016-2017 Product Guide

[peteski]

Attention BLI: Put you $ into developing N scale Little Joes, instead of GG1s. Now THAT would be a coup ($$$$$$$$$$$$$) for you!!!!

You should have recommended that to them about 10 years ago when they were deciding which electric loco to model.  At this time it is too late. We will have another GG1

[sirenwerks]

Good luck with $230 F units. 

+1 Are they nuts? Price competition is obviously not their forte

[Mike C]

I'll go for a T1 , guessing the street price will be around 260-280 bucks .

[jagged ben]

Street price on the F units will be much lower, maybe $160.    Sound doesn't really need to cost that much.

[CodyO]

The F Units have a lower MSRP than Intermountain.

I`m going to wait till both come out to decide what to get as with BLI I "should" be getting road specific details IE Trainphone

[eric220]

I'm in for a GG1, since they're all unique road numbers. If it tests well, I might be in for all four five-stripe "Roman lettering" versions. I'm sorely torn on the T1. I'm going to do my best to hold out and hope that they do an "as delivered" version. I may or may not have the willpower.

[peteski]

I'm in for a GG1, since they're all unique road numbers. If it tests well, I might be in for all four five-stripe "Roman lettering" versions. I'm sorely torn on the T1. I'm going to do my best to hold out and hope that they do an "as delivered" version. I may or may not have the willpower.

Couldn't you just re-letter and/or repaint the Kato GG1s to get what you want?  I picked up some Penn Central units for $60 last year from Trainworld. Even now they are available for just $75.  Strip and repaint.  They are good and smooth-running locos.

[eric220]

Couldn't you just re-letter and/or repaint the Kato GG1s to get what you want?  I picked up some Penn Central units for $60 last year from Trainworld. Even now they are available for just $75.  Strip and repaint.  They are good and smooth-running locos.

I've got three of them, including one that needs renumbering. They don't have sound. And I want to support BLI. That said, I'm going to start with one and thoroughly evaluate it before I plunge deeper.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I'm in for a CSX AC6000. These were assigned to the Boston line after Conrail and they were pretty impressive. I always liked the yellow CSX with blue outline bright future scheme which I think was exclusive to this engine.

That T1... Yeah, this is by far my favorite steam engine and I'll end up with one. I head always wanted to build a Bowser T1 kit in HO.

Not sure why they decided we need yet another F unit. Or SD70ACe. Or ES44.

[wcfn100]

Not sure why they decided we need yet another F unit.

We do need another F unit, but not one that just duplicates current offerings and has only a high end price tag.  There's a 20+ year modeling period that's never been covered with nose grabs and MU hatches, and locomotives that were deskirted.  Also, many F3's didn't have roller bearing journals.

And before anyone pontificates about where are the modelers have gone, of course these are things we can model.  But if your going to bring another F unit to market, you could certainly make your own market share (or maybe even create one that wasn't there) by doing something different.

Jason

[reinhardtjh]

Noticed that the F3/7 sets are that the A is powered and the B is unpowered with different road # that the single A's & B's. I say break up the A/B set so the buyer has the option to buy powered A/A, A/B/A and not a unnecessary dummy B unit.

Judd Barton

This is there sales model.  Their ALCo PA's, EMD E9, E8, E7's have all been sold like this.  A Powered A/Dummy B combo or A's and B's singly.  It's annoying, I agree if you want something other than an A or AB or ABA set.

Is this "in addition to" their AC6000s? Or did they drop those?

The AC6000's are still there. I just mentioned what was new in the catalog.  Also listed where the PRR M1a/b's, the K7 stock cars and water towers, but those were already either delivered or known about.

I too an totally uniterested in spending over $120 on a sound board I won't use as part of a locomotive's price. Manufacturers are going to learn the hard way that not EVERYONE wants sound in a loco. DCC folks had no trouble understanding that they still had to offer a DC version of their loco, but Bachmann and now BLI will leave sales on the table if they only offer sound versions at those prices.

Not that I disagree with you, but I wouldn't be surprised if BLI's position was that sound is their specialty.  If you want a non-sound or non-DCC then there are other places to go for that.  I can see their point.  Maybe their aim isn't to be able to sell to everyone, but to sell to those that want the kind of sound "experience" they are known for delivering.  i.e. playing to their strengths.  Just a thought.

[reinhardtjh]

Attention BLI: Put you $ into developing N scale Little Joes, instead of GG1s. Now THAT would be a coup ($$$$$$$$$$$$$) for you!!!!

They probably did a Two-fer on the research $$$ because they are doing both HO and N GG1's.  There is a discussion going on in the PRR Modeling Yahoo group that has some interesting info.  I personally can't tell the difference by looking at the Bachmann and BLI marketing materials, but apparently there are differences in the pilot and coupler between two the two separate runs for proto GG1's built.  In HO:

Um because the Bachmann #4829 is WRONG. Screamingly, glaringly, toss in the trash can, completely wrong. PERIOD. (which may explain why it ain’t on my radar).  Put it eBay, give it to the grandkids, or maybe strip it and repaint it, but please don’t keep it as 4829. 

Here’s the problem.  Production GG1s 4801-4857 were built with flat, fixed coupler pilots.  In 1937, production restarted with 4858-4938 and these locomotives had the drop coupler pilots.  AFAIK, NO mass produced GG1 models have had the correct pilots for early production GG1s, UNTIL NOW.  I don’t know if it has been done in brass.  The Bachmann model is appropriate for the second batch of GG1s but not the first.  The BLI GG1s with numbers between 4801-4857 will have the CORRECT FLAT PILOT.  Before anyone says it’s no big deal, now that you know, you’ll never be able to look at a GG1 model again without noticing (I LOVE doing that to your brains <VBG>).

Is it important?  Oh yeah baby!  The first series of GG1s was downrated to freight service before the second, and not all of the second were ever downrated.  If you look at the fleet total, about 1/3 of your fleet should have flat pilots, and that would be the case with passenger GG1s during WWII.  However, post war, when the older GG1s were downrated, your freight GG1s should all be flat pilot, low number motors.  As higher number GG1s were downrated in the late 1950s and into the 1960s, the fleet eventually becomes about 50:50 flat to drop coupler pilot GG1s.

Regards

Bruce

Now if this is true in N scale as well then some people might be interested.  I'm not an electric person so I don't care a lot one way or another. But it's something that I didn't know before.

[wcfn100]

I'm curious what Bruce had to say about the roof of the BLI PRR Cetipede because those were worse than a wrong pilot.


Jason

[reinhardtjh]

I'm curious what Bruce had to say about the roof of the BLI PRR Cetipede because those were worse than a wrong pilot.


Jason

In emails I have going back to 2011 Bruce doesn't mention anything, but other members do and it was a source of consternation in the HO PRR community, but no one has been able to get BLI to change their molds.  So when they did the N scale they just copied the same mistake.  Apparently the "error" is actually correct for the demo engine (which went to the SAL), but the roof was changed for all following production units.  Also apparently, BLI isn't alone.  The HO MTH, Hallmark and 1st run Overland models are also incorrect in the same way.  I don't know about any brass N-scale versions if they also had problems.

[wcfn100]

Apparently the "error" is actually correct for the demo engine (which went to the SAL), but the roof was changed for all following production units. 

Yeah, SAL 4500, but then other details are wrong for that one. 

At least the pilot is correct for the PRR!


Jason