Just before Christmas I purchased a Broadway-Limited SP E7A. It arrived a few days after the holiday and I was excited when I put it on the layout and the sound rived up. But unfortunately that's as far as it got. The engine ran horribly. Stalled, stopped and shuttered forward and didn't do much better in reverse. Hardly pulled it's own weight either. I contacted Broadway-Limited and did get an immediate response from the service department . I am awaiting a return authorization form to send it to them for repair or replacement. I hope the warranty will make it right. This is the first of their products I have purchased and look with anticipation to a speedy resolution. It is their final exam. I was poised to purchase a PA A-A set but I am going to wait to see the results of making my purchase perform as expected and doing so in a timely manner I will keep all Trainboard members informed as to the progress and I hope successful outcome of Broadway-Limited support. If you have had similar experience with the Paragon2 engines let me know what transpired in your dealing with Broadway-Limited.
I had so many issues with them on the first release, and a cantankerous customer support person that I returned all of the locomotives to the shop, canceled all reservations and have never purchased again.
There was an interesting string on these locos on the Atlas board. Have a look at it. The title is Broadway Limited E8, dated 12/25. Comments on running issues included, ensure your track is super clean, the blackening on the wheels tends to come off on your track. If you have a track cleaner, run it behind your loco. These loco's need a good half hour running time in each direction, before you will get the loco running reliably. When they are broken in, they are well thought of. Others were unable to get theirs running properly and returned them for replacement. Sadly luck of the draw. Keith.
WOW for all that money they should have they're loco run circles around the competition. I guess NOT.
E7 from the first batch, no problems. E8 AA set from recent batch, ran great at home and for a couple of test laps around the Ntrak layout, then one unit died. Sent the bad unit off to Broadway and had the loco back with a new decoder in 2 weeks. Ever since, no problems. Customer service was polite and prompt. One other gentleman in our club had a similar problem with one unit of an AB set quiting shortly after testing. Sent it back and has been fine since. I have heard a few people complain about similar issues to yours. The solution was to set the loco on the track and give it a bit of break in. After that they ran much more reliably. Maybe a grease, oil or other coating on that needs to wear in for better pickup.
I've had no trouble with any of the E-7's and E-8's that I purchased. I did have one glitch with a Milwaukee E-7 unit that wouldn't run after running nicely the day before. I e-mailed the service department and received an e-mail back telling me how to manually reset the decoder. The service department is very helpful. My ATSF BLI E-8 ABB unit was pulling the El Capitan on the JJJ&E for about an hour tonight. There was no stalling anywhere on the mainline. None of the BLI diesels I have exhibited any stalling through turnouts or crossovers.
I have second run E-7's in SP. They have run fine. I ran them around our club for a while individually before MUing them. So far so good. It would be frustrating to get one that didn't perform up to expectations.
I just received the E7A and E7B lettered for the SP, this was from the blow out sale they just offered. Both engines had to have the wheels cleaned in order to get reliable operation. These are very nice running and the sound is very good. Once you get the CV’s set it has very good control and the sound is in sink with the throttle notching. The only complaint is the B unit has Southern Pacific on the side and it should have only the road number. Should be a very easy fix. A couple of club members have the E8’s lettered for the Santa Fe and they run well and haven’t had any problems.
My father, brother and I between us have five Paragon E units and aside from needing to keep the wheels clean, which when you think about it is a good idea with any loco, we have had no problems. They run well and sound great. I'm waiting for the PA's, I'll be getting an ABBA set of Santa Fe's to replace my Katos.
My BL E-8/9 has become an expensiive piece of scenery. I emailed them about how horrible the engine runs & I get next months releases in response. I will never buy another BL product again.:thumbs_down::thumbs_down:
Just had a look at the BLI website, they have photos and say order from your dealer today. Get your credit card out!:tb-biggrin:
In discussions like this, we often get into an "It's horrible" vs. "It's wonderful" situation, just like with etailers, advertisers, and retailers. With problem products, it's especially difficult to determine if it's a generic flaw common to all of that class of products, or a specific defect in one item of the class. I encourage folks to describe, in calm terms without derogatives, what the problem is, so that other members can suggest remedies if they know one. The members need to know of these problems, but the discussion is best held without derogatory comments or connotations. Experiences with customer service also seem to span the range of horrible to excellent. I think we can realize there are day-to-day variables in product and service quality, and discuss it here in a helpful way.
I just acquired two of the BLI E7As in Milwaukee Road livery today. Here's what I can say about them so far. I immediately slapped them down on the SPROG track and used Decoder Pro to fiddle with some CVs. The one numbered 16A wouldn't work except that the light would go on and off with the throttle command. The other one ran roughly to almost not at all. I took them to the club layout and had the same problem. We have problems with track that is hard to keep clean in the club, so I thought I would try them at home on a test track. Same problems. Well, I stumbled upon the factory reset part of the manual, and thought I would try that just for a laugh. I did that to the 16A unit, and then it started running perfectly. I did that to the 20A unit and it did, too. I then reprogrammed the one to ID 16 and the other to ID 20 (for the road numbers) and they still worked fine. I then fiddled with CV 230 again (BLI's easy consisting CV) and CV 19 and all hell broke loose again. Loco 16A was unresponsive (except for the headlight) and 20A just barely ran. Those of you using Digitrax systems may want to hit a factory reset and then just never use BLI's easy consisting method ever again. If you set CV 8 to the value 8 that will reset the decoder and that may clear things up for you. I was a bit discouraged earlier tonight, think I had gotten a dud and a mostly dud. I now see that the issue may be a compatibility problem between BLI's consisting method and the Digitrax system.
I use Digitrax and had no problem using the easy consisting CV 230 with several sets of E7's and E8's
Follow-up I wanted to relate my experience so far with Broadway-Limited service department. I got an immediate email response from Mark and a couple of suggestions which I tried without success. I got a return authorization and sent the E7A back. I have had one email since just to update me. So far I am impressed with Broadway-Limited.
I wonder if I am doing something wrong, or if my particular Digitrax setup (Zephyr at home, DB150s at club) just chokes on this one. Does the number of the consist have to be a number distinct from the numbers of the locos making up the consist in BLIs CV230, CV19 scheme?
Aaron: To use CV 230 on those units, you must change the address of each loco back to 03. Then plug in CV 230 and then CV 19 for each locomotive. It won't work if you leave the addresses at 16 and 20. I've been there.........
