BLMA PS2CD 4000

[Bruce Bird]

I picked mine up from Hammer's yesterday and brought it home and stuck it on the layout.  I was amazed at how free-rolling this little thing is.  The new trucks are just fantastic- it's really like comparing roller bearings to friction bearings, and MTL pizza cutters to low-pros.  Very little resistance to rolling and they track very well.  You can 'kick' the car and it almost behaves like a 1:1 car.  It just keeps rolling farther than you anticipate.  It will find the slightest grade you have on your layout!

Just for comparison I did a roll test between the 4000 and a weighted MTL covered hopper with low pros on my 1% grade between Ridgeley and Big Pool.  The 4000 rolled twice as far.

All in all a VERY nice addition to the fleet.  If you keep this up Craig you're going to be getting a lot of my future wages.

Bruce

[pfs]

They are on MBK now, limit one per customer.

[asarge]

Yes they are nice. The color on the CGW/CNW version is darker than the EXR and the printing is a more gold like yellow. Don;t know which is more accurate but I seem to remember the darker green of the BLMA Car. Overall, both have their quality's and I won;t take one over the other but the BLMA car does have body-mounted couplers.

[ljudice]

Both are so nice really that it makes me even sadder to think how much better we would be if all that effort went into a different car...

[flight2000]

They are on MBK now, limit one per customer.

Yea, but you can still get all three road numbers if you want.  I picked up 3 ATSF and 2 SP versions.

Brian

[Mark5]

I give the lettering on the Exact Fail version a B-.

I'll be picking up a Burlington BLMA soon - comparison should be fun!

[asarge]

I have to disagree with ya' Mark. The lettering on mine were very good. BLMA is just as good. The end details on the BLMA look better IMO.

[Mark5]

I have to disagree with ya' Mark. The lettering on mine were very good.

Aside from making the "N&W" too skinny and the herald too small it's pretty good. (much better than what Athearn did on the new open hoppers, they should fire that artist)

Mark

[Mark5]

Here's the BLMA vs ExactRail:


ER on left, BLMA on the right.

I wish the photo was better, the pic does not do these justice.

Overall, the tooling on both cars is very comparable (and very good!). The underbody detail seems more complete on the BLMA car, but I honestly hope not to see the bottoms of my cars on my layout. On the BLMA car, the brake hardware coming down from the brake wheel actually go somewhere.

The lettering on the CB&Q car is crisp - it looks good to me, but I don't model CB&Q. The herald plate is cool.
The lettering on the N&W is a bit off, the "N" in "N&W" in particular is too skinny - at least it looks like it's the correct 24" tall. Overall the lettering is very crisp, but one of the "hamburgers" was a little "droopy". Also, a few squares on the etched roof walk of the ER car were filled with paint (both roofwalks are etched and very similar)

Couplers ... here I think the BLMA wins hands down. The body mounted MT couples much closer than the (truck mounted) Mchenry on the ER car. You can see how the truck mounted coupler pocket sticks out on the ER car. The ER car has metal wheels on it's trucks, but here these are outclassed by the amazing trucks and wheels on the BLMA car. Interestingly, the ER trucks are mounted with screws like an Athearn car.

The packaging for the ER car looks just like pre-jewel case Athearn - cardboard boxes with exact same style inserts. The BLMA car comes in a typical for N scale "jewel" case.

I think both cars are very good to excellent, with the nod going to the BLMA car. Keep in mind I paid about $5 more for the BLMA car (street) so maybe here's a case where you get more for paying more.

The BLMA car will go into service with no mods on my layout, except for some light weathering. On the ER car, I'm gonna have to do something about the truck/coupler problem - they stick out too far. I may have to get new trucks or maybe just body mount some MTs on it. Light weathering will apply here as well. The lettering is "close enough" for me - so I don't plan to mod the lettering.

Mark

[TiVoPrince]

BLMA
has me searching for a plausable 'aisle side' industry for the PS2CD 4000 cars.  This way I can park them where those ncredible details can be better appreciated...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Speaking of, what services were these in? Cement? Powdered limestone? I want one or two, but I want them going somewhere.

[wcfn100]

Speaking of, what services were these in? Cement? Powdered limestone? I want one or two, but I want them going somewhere.

In the case of the CGW, all of it's cars were assigned for malt or barley and were marked 'not for cement loading'.



Jason

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Oooh! Cars for a brewery. I like it!

They gotta make that Natty Boh and Colt 45 somehow.

[sirenwerks]

Ed,

You could relocate the old Schlitz plant that used to be at 495 and 895. I don't remember if it had rail service but as long as you're moving it, you might as well take some other liberties. I just remember the huge glass facade and the one large copper (?) brewing tank inside. And you'd have opportunity for some big ole' (tip of the hat to your Conrail web site) boxcars to haul all the big bumpers out.

[Ian MacMillan]

I just got my SP cars in today... Ahf*&Kinmazing