I got home and the box was waiting for me. Took out my A-B pair and looked them over. First of all, they run and sound great (although the volume could be turned down a bit). But in looking over the PA unit I noticed two flaws. The first is a whitish "no paint" looking thing on the right-hand side louvers toward the back and the second is a malformed dimple on the left side. This one definitely does not look like the others. What should I do? Return it and hope to get a better unit back (and pay the extra shipping charges)? Contact BLI and try to get a new body shell and replace mine, send them back this one?
Tony: Contact BLI directly. They will pay any shipping charges if necessary. They will send you new replacement shells along with a postage paid mailer to return the defective shells. They are very good about it.
The "dimple" in the second photo is the sand filler hatch for the front truck. There should be one on the opposite side of the carbody too. The rear sand filler hatch should be at the same level at positioned under the forward part of the radiator shuttles. Hop this helps.
I looked but I don't think that's it Allen. There is nothing equivalent to this on the other side, and (the photo is not that good) if I look at it in hand I can see molding irregularities at this point.
Tony22, If you look at the photo of the PCM PRR PA-1 you'll see the sand filler hatches that I'm talking about. Being under the whiskers, they may not be visible at first glance (believe it or not, the prototypes had the whiskers running across the hatches...that had to have been a painter's nightmare).
Oh, no, I'm in a completely different spot. Look further up and back a bit on my pic. I'm starting to wonder about the sound on this one, too. There's a sort of slight "fuzzy" quality to the horn and bell that I don't hear here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuyNPxbgTO8
I can see what you mean, above the rain gutter, looks like a hot soldering iron came too close. I'd e-mail BLI, maybe with the photos attached, and see what they say.
I emailed the retailer with the pics. Even though I really don't want to have to fork over additional shipping charges I figured since I just got it it's probably correct to go to them first.
Speaking of the BLI PAs, I ran my ABA set of D&RGWs this Sunday at the Harper Highwheeler show on the Midwest MiNi Mod-U-Trak modules. The trailing A Unit was already programed from the factory to run backwards! All I had to do was program the unit numbers (6001 for 600-1 and 6003 for 600-3) and let'r rip! The two powered units had no trouble pulling the augmented Kato CZ around the layout (12 cars from the set plus two additional 1952 10-6s from the Budd Corrugated car release). The sound from the Paragon2 decoders was excellent in the noisey gymnasium where the show was held... it will have to be throttled back for home use. Speed control was excellent. The only thing missing was plumes of black smoke and fire coming out of the exhaust... the Alco prime movers correctly sounded like the pistons were trying to break through the roof! ....and my Bill Denton-detailed and painted E5 shells on BLI E7 mechanisms didn't look or sound too shabby on the train either! Charlie Vlk
I'm happy to report the retailer will be sending me a new set and a return mailing label for the old one. Can't ask for more than that.
I agree. I've been treated pretty well over the years from both LHS and online retailers. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the second set will come through a winner. :msmile:
They'll check it out very thoroughly and probably test run them as well. They are very reliable. and respond positively to the consumer.
Here is a detail shot of the nose of the E5A and the slight mods to the E7 frame. The shells are Joe Valerio's kitbash and resin castings starting from a LifeLike E6 shell. Bill Denton added the grabs, etc.. and painted (Alcad Chrome) and decaled the unit for me. Charlie Vlk
My replacement PA/PB arrived. The body is perfect and it runs and sounds great! However... the PRR antenna has a couple of very small spots at a couple of the posts going into the roof where the paint did not reach. I'm not sending this one back - it looks, runs, and sounds too good. I called BLI and they told me that they do have touch up paint there, but just for their repair use. It is supplied by the factory in an unlabeled bottle so he really had no way to send any of it off to me. The question - has anyone been able to identify a match to BLI's PRR Tuscan Red. Believe me, the problem is hardly noticable. But after having needed a replacement sent I felt like I had to give the new one a thorough going over. In the meantime it's going around the test track, breaking in nicely!
I can vouch for Charlie. He was so excited, he stole my throttle to run the E7's, and then was "chasing" them railfan style around the layout! Both the PA's (a personal favorite), and the E7's Bill did for him are gorgeous.
You guys are really starting to make me want to invest in a set of BLI Units of some kind. I'd hope they are the ones that will do the N scale GP-60M & GP-60B. That would be SO COOL wouldn't it? I hope everyone is still making contact with manufacturers about the need for the Geep-60M & B's.
