Finally someone giving BLI the credit they deserve instead of pushing a negative opinion because of a bad experience with a model from 3 years ago. I really hate to hear that you're giving up reviews. Yours are great, but of course certain things irl take priority.
BLI engines are still poor quality. Especially steamers. I have a pacific and a big boy. The pacific’s chuff timings are way out of whack, sounds okay at slow speeds but the sound gets insanely muffled and terrible sounding at high speed. I wish they would just use LokSound decoders. The big boy I got has a loud motor whining that can be heard over the sound of the speakers, which also have terrible chuff timing and get super out of sync at high speeds. But on top of all that, the big boy leaks out smoke fluid when you try to use some. Who knows where that stuff gets to when it leaks, it could even damage internals. So yeah BLI has some good external detail but they sound like crap and any extra functions like smoke are riddled with QC issues. And I can’t even return it, I’m really unhappy with BLI.
@@gat-x105strikegundam5 1. why can't you return it? 2. I never understood why the chuff being off is such a major concern. Im pretty sure you can alter it and even if you can that's only been an issue with the pacifics. And who are you comparing them too? Bachman? please..or atlas with the whole 3 modern steam locomotives they offer that cost an arm and a leg? And as for the bigboy, are you using the right smoke fluid and putting in the right amount? And I dont understand why the sound is "bad"? What exactly is bad about it, especially on the P4s?
@@whispofwords2590 1. cant return it because I bought it from a retail store, not BLI, but that’s basically expected. 2. Chuffs being off is a big problem personally at least. If they’re going to include sound, why would they not go through the trouble to at least have 2 CVs that control chuff timing(they only have one, which is why the sounds line up at slow speeds but not high speeds), and why reuse sounds from different locomotives? That’s just plain lazy IMO. 3. No you cannot fully alter the chuff timings, as I stated above. You can never get them perfect which really annoys me (as a veeeery meticulous and detail oriented person) Also yes I do use the proper smoke fluid for the big boy, I just figured out the cause after doing some research online and seeing others with the same problem, it seems to be a sealing issue between the smoke device and the smoke stacks themselves, which for a $500 locomotive, is just plain unacceptable. And the sound is fine, ESU just does a much better job, which is why I’m complaining. Also if I was to buy a new steam engine from them in the stealth configuration, I don’t even get smoke anymore, but they still charge like $400 msrp. Kinda dumb in my opinion.
Sad to see you go, i really enjoyed watching your reviews. Broadway Limited has definitely improved, never had an issue with any of my BLI engines. In fact, my most reliable dcc/sound engine has probably been my BLI ES44, never hesitated nor given me any issues in the almost 3 years I've owned it, same with my 4-6-2 Pacific and F7.
Sorry to see you go, I've appreciated watching your reviews. Best of luck in finding a great place. I've been in the market for BNSF SD70macs if those are amongst your sales, in particular previous heritage schemes. Please let me know.
I was able to buy a paragon 3 ac6000 from BLI for $180.00 on sale and honestly it's my favorite loco in my fleet. I like ScaleTrains a lot but their products are wayyyyyy too fragile. There are some parts that imho shouldn't be seperate to prevent breakage. I have another one to pull out of the box actually. Chessie SD40-2.
Just became aware of your channel. So sorry to hear this. I hope everything works out for you man. I'm having a hard time finding a house to buy in the Northeast where I guess we're supposed to be millionaires to buy a simple single family home so I hope you're having or had much better luck than I'm having. Stupid Northeast is forcing me to move down South I guess where I think house prices would be more realistic. Best of luck.
I have about a half dozen BLI GE units, and one of my complaints with them is when you look at them in the front, the snow plow is really high above the rail. I can't tell if the entire body is mounted too high, or if the plow is not tall enough. I don't have any SC units yet, but i have 2 of the AC4400CWs on pre order. I hope im not dissatisfied with them. So far, Kato is and will always be my go-to. When you spoke about the UP motors, that kind of made me think that that is why they and other manufacturers are not selling in stores. Not just because its more profitable to cut out the middleman
China. What seems to happen with manufacturers that outsource to China, they have quality issues. They start out fantastic/good, and then after a few years, they completely fall off a cliff quality-wise. Just found your channel today (May 2, 2024.)
Hope you will reconsider. I only just discovered you and I am sure others are also late in discovering you. Sell what you personally dont connect with and put the money back into buying locos to review them. Keep it going for another year and you might find enough subscribers to keep your AD revenue high enough to keep you going.
Just got a new scale trains operator gevo that started having issues after only 5 min. run time. Doesn't like 4 digit addresses and the cvs constantly change on their own. Probably be calling them Monday. My bli gevo works fine. It's been a pretty good runner for over a year now.
How about gently get a little Jewelers file and file down the bottom of the snow plow it may just take a few strokes or a fingernail file from your wife would have a little courser possibly grit and a couple swipes back and forth evenly and you would probably solve the problem just a thought
BLI's older stuff (steam, some old diesels) is really nice. However their modern stuff looks horrible, and so is their qc. Scaletrains' prices have gone up because of inflation. In one of their videos they explained their factory over in china has been screwing up paint jobs and leaving out details/wrong details. I know they're just as mad about it as we are, because obviously it has costed them a lot of money. With that being said, they really should advertise the current run instead of posting old picture. Its really annoying because its hard to gauge paint colors and other stuff.
...by their modern stuff you mean like one out of 10 plus models they make? BLI's thing has always been steam, HO and N, and the transition era diesels.
BLI has terrible steam sounds, makes me so mad that they don’t sell all their models with ESU decoders, they also reuse a lot of sounds for different engines. For example, the reading T1s use the same chuffing sounds and steam sounds as the big boys, other than the whistle obviously. They are a lazy company. I have also never had problems with my ScaleTrains engine.
Dude I too have had some issues with Scaletrains people keep making excuses for them but it just keeps happening. I got a couple Gevos that are just crappy.
