I have bought many BLI

I have bought many BLI locomotives. I have been buying them since the blue line days. I have four 2-10-4s and two heavy 2-8-2s in their steam locomotive designs. The 2-10-4s in the Pennsy models are the paragon line. I have added about 5 to 5.5 oz of weight to each model and they pull well with out traction tires. As to the newest ones I can not comment but I would still buy their models if I needed more steam locomotives or their diesel models.

Hope this is helpful.

Mixed opinion

The BLI steam locomotives that I have seen look nice and sound nice. I have a brand new Mikado that is all of the above but it has electrical pickup problems. BLI said to send it back, but I am reluctant. Several of the fellows in the local club have older BLI models with no problems. But some of the newer ones have been back to BLI 2-3 times to get their issues resolved. Usually issues are electical, either wiring or DCC boards. BLI says they will get the repairs done right away but it usually takes a month to get it back. There is also the problem of shipping costs.

I am trying to decide whether to open up my loco and find the pickup issue myself or send it back to BLI.

BLI Pickup

Before you do anything else, check the tender trucks to be sure the wipers are actually contacting the axles and that the wires from the wipers are actually attached. The wipers are easily bent by handling, and the wires can break at the solder joint. I have seen both problems.

Steve Hoxie

Pensacola FL

I have 2 BLI locomotives. An

I have 2 BLI locomotives. An SW7 and a heavy 2-8-2.  They are both older production and they run and sound great.  No experience with the newer ones but I wouldn't hesitate to buy one based on the experience with the two I have.

Some good feedback, some

Some good feedback, some bad.  Sounds like you pays your money and takes your chances.  I don't own any but have read the same feedback on other forums. Some love them, other complain.  Roll the dice and find out.

Electrical pickup issues

Electrical pickup issues could also be tarnish build up on wipers. Some of those things are easy fixes, and cleaning and lubricating is just like dealer prep for a car, even though it is knew it still needs to be done. I take all locomotives apart and do a clean and lube before they get placed in service new or not. I have found lots of issues that needed to be corrected but only took a short time to correct. In some cases I have found gear boxes that were packed full of grease some of which had hardened. In others wipers that were not assembled properly. In all cases the corrections were easy to make with tools that would likely be in the tool box of the average person.

If I can do it I am sure it is in the ability of everyone.

bli feedback

I've got one of their trackmoblie units. I run it off & on when I setup a large oval to test it & to run my other locos i got in storage. It'll pull about 20 cars with no problems. I'll probably hit some problems when I get my layout up running in the future.

I have an H10, I1 T1 and a

I have an H10, I1 T1 and a K4s with overnight tender. The I1, H10 and T1 look and run great. The K4 has a lot of pickup issues. It will stall out where no other locomotive has had any problems. I did reseat all the connectors  on the board, I have not polished the contacts yet, I have added a little conductive grease. 

I am not a fan of the snap coupling between the loco and tender, I worry about breaking it when I connect the two. 

Slightly off topic but I

Slightly off topic but I dropped my BLI SW-7. I only noticed that the headlamp was missing some time after so I have lost it. An e-mail to BLI got a response that they had a black one in stock (but not my UP grey) and it was $6.00. On asking for shipment to the UK, they charged me $4.00.

Great service.

I have several N scale

I have several N scale diesels and I'm not thrilled. They seem to have electrical pickup issues straight out of the box. If they lose power even for just a moment they take a pretty long time before their decoder decides to move again. I barely run them because of this.

BLI Heavy GN 2-8-2

Just bought an older Heavy Mikado, "I believe it is Blue Line." I am very happy with it. It does need lube and I plan on installing better sound at a later date, but I would recommend them. Details are somewhat lacking on the boiler and it does not have a backup light but the design lends itself to modification. Why the rush to spend that much now on untested locomotives? Why not run one for a while and buy more if you are happy with it?

Regardless, if you choose steam you will need to do maintenance and engineer locomotive specific solutions to problems.

Good Service

I have several BLI steam locos. I have also maintained correspondence with their TechSupport for various issues. They sent me an updated decoder for a Paragon 3, on warranty. More than once they have sent me replacement parts, some on warranty, some at very reasonable cost.Total of five locos over the past three years.

The two-year warranty has been very useful, and the response from TechSupport is very good. Downside is that they both seem very necessary. I have one loco out to them for repairs now, and the wait time was quoted at 11 weeks, which suggests that they do a bunch of repairs. It's good that I have enough locos to operate while I'm waiting.  One exception is replacement of the drive gear. I send them the wheelset and it comes back in about a week with a new gear, ready for installation. This seems to be a frequent occurrence that they've gotten used to. Happened to me twice (so far?).

I don't need many locos, but a couple more will probably happen, and I expect that I will get them from BLI.

DrJolS

Maybe I need to email them

Maybe I need to email them about my K4 then. 

BLI L1's

The first run of L1's did have some decoder issues in that they would not hold any changes made while programming when the power was turned off. BLI will send you a new decoder to replace any defective units. Other than that they are great locomotives . The only other issue with the first run M's and I's are gear splitting issues. Again BLI can replace the gear if you send them the axle assembly at no charge. Once that issue is repaired they run great. The later runs of both engines have not exhibited the gear problems. --  Ken 

I probable need to subscribe

I probable need to subscribe to this subject thread as i have quite a number of their locos, both steam and diesel.

I just haven''t run a lot of them since many were acquired AFTER I sold my first layout, and  I'm awaiting the building of my new layout

Same ole problem 2 years later

I just received a N scale BLI Heavy Kikado with Paragon 3 sound.  It runs like crap right out of the box so there is no crud on wheels or damaged wheel pickup wipers.   It is poor manufacturing quality.  It has numerous issues with losing power at random locations on my layout and seldom in the same locations.  It derails on Peco medium  radius turnouts often but not always the same one.  The wheel noise going around a long curve (~12-14" radius) is excessive but is much less on straight sections. The operation is really jerky at any speed as the engine jerks forward and backwards which each wheel turn and this jerkiness is really evident as seen in in the caboose at the end of 3 cars.from the engine.  I have other engines that operate just fine on this layout so I must conclude the BLI Mikado is a poor engine.   I am also hesitant to send it back due to the shipping cost and numerous posts of long delays and product being replaced with previously returned items that still have issues as experienced by others I have read about in these forums.  Probably my last BLI product as I should not have to jump through even 1 hoop to have a quality product after already paying over $200 for their product.

The consensus seems to be

The consensus seems to be that BLI steam locos are pretty decent, while BLI diesels are a joke.

Consensus I've been reading

Consensus I've been reading about steam, is the electronics are subject to a lot of issues.  Many recommend ripping out the electronics and replacing with on of the major brands like Soundtraxx or ESU etc.

I have a couple of BLI RSD15's I bought new while between layouts so haven't run them yet.  Fingers crossed.  I think they are Paragon 2.

I have a couple of BLI,

I have a couple of BLI, N-scale, PA-PB sets. These are the older Paragon 2’s.  They run well enough and sound great, but run extremely hot. Not quite hot enough to burn your finger or melt the shell, but the other locos in my inventory barely get warm.
 

A friend recently purchased one of the newer N scale steam locos. Suddenly died and was fixed with a decoder reset. Nothing odd about that, except the reset required pushing a physical button located on the decoder. Unusual, but not a problem.

GS

It's always been bad.

BLI has always had problems. I had owned a couple of their steam engines in the past, mostly PRR T-1s. They started out great, but slowly ended up having problem after problem. First the plating wore off the drivers and wheels, then the drive system itself would jam up for no reason and then even after fixing the previous problems they would just die. BLI is now in MTH territory where their stuff looks good, but runs like hot garbage. You have to replace all the electrical components in a BLI just like you have to do in an MTH. It just isn't worth it in the long run. Even if you fix the electrical side of it, the drive system as a whole is a ticking time bomb. No matter how great a deal you get on one of their products, BLI is a money pit and should be avoided unless you have no other options.

I seriously disagree that BLI

I seriously disagree that BLI locomotives have always been bad. I have had the opportunity to operate many BLI steam locos since and including the early NYC Hudsons. They have run very well but with some exceptions. The early products had more exceptions than later products -- just like most all other manufacturers.

The problem is that one bad performers hurts BLI's reputation than a hundred models that perform flawlessly help their reputation. It's like the old saying states, one "ah-shit" offsets a hundred attaboys. BLI certainly is not the only manufacturer that this applies to.

I have four BLI steam locomotives -- one PRR USRA Mike, one PRR L1 Mike, two PRR Consolidations, and one NYC USRA Pacific. All have performed flawlessly since the day I acquired them. Same for a BLI I1sa Decapod I used to own. All great models that run at a high level of quality. Than all sound good too. While the sound system is good, it ain't as sophisticated as LocSound or Tsunami, but the sound is good.

Would I recommend BLI steam locomotives to others? You bet I would.

Jim Six

I'm reading repeated bad

RSD 15's

@jimfitch,

I'm also hoping that there are not as many problems as one hears of at times. I have a number of their locos (both steam and diesel) that I have NOT run yet, ....not having the layout to do so.

Like you, I have a few (over 4) of those RSD 15's.

Early on I did discover one problem with one of them. It involved what I thought was a bent frame. I subsequently discovered it was a result of both a close tolerance with the components inside, combined with an assembly problem. I documented it on their website at the time, with pics and text,...but they no longer have that factory forum website up, so that info is lost to my knowledge. (there is a possibility some of that info might be in my old emails, or on my external hard drive)

Bent Frame

@Jim,

I found an old email I had sent to BLI, along with a number of photos. I can send more info, or post it if anyone is interested.

The way I first detected a potential problem was looking at the side view of the frame with respect to the body of the loco,

The offending piece was a big capacitor that wedged up against the speaker housing,..
 

I managed to fix the problem myself, but I have forgotten exactly how I did it?

I wrote them this email at the time,