Centipedes Shipping?

[brokemoto]

Do the sound decoders cut out and reset?

The sound on this one will work on DC.  I do not use DCC.  If you hit a dead spot, it will coast to a stop and the whole business re-sets.  It pulls a large amount of voltage on DC.  When I first put it onto the track, it would do twenty-five SMPH on the 80 setting and full throttle would get it to go forty SMPH on a MRC 2800.  On an MRC 2400 with the pulse "OFF", setting the throttle at 60 would get it to do twenty-five SMPH and full throttle got it to sixty SMPH.

It has loosened up a bit since.

It looks funny going around a seventeen inch curve.

BLI included two traction tyred wheelsets for those who want to do a swap-out.

I bought a PRR single unit without the antenna.  All of the others were sold out.

I like mine, so far, at least.

[eric220]

Mine landed today too.  These things are awesome!  Slow speed is quite good.  On the other end of the speed scale, the prototype could do 93 MPH.  I doubt that mine can do a scale 60.  That's OK by me, since I'm not planning to use them in their original passenger assignment, but rather as brutes to haul heavy trains up the helix.  On that note, here's a crappy cell phone pic of my units on their stress test.



Four minutes later, they reached the top.  (I'm really glad I left that thing open.)  My trailing unit seems to have a slight pickup problem that I'm hoping will get better with running time.  That problem makes me hesitant to swap out the extra traction tires, but I may do it anyway, at least on the lead unit.  They do have that annoying habit that so many sound units have of going through the entire startup sequence if the loose power.  That means that a hiccup translates into several seconds worth of stall.  The good news there is that the other unit will push/pull until the other unit regains power.  On an aesthetic level, I have an interesting problem with these units.  At a combined 180 scale feet long, their proportions really expose my ten foot long trains for the prototypically dinky 30-car trains they are.  Even so, with their obvious power, I'm seriously considering hunting down a second pair.  I know, if I want it, I need to jump on it...

[chicken45]

Were these ever quadruple headed? I bet an AAAA would be quite the spectacle. I know there's a lot of pics of the Broadway Limited being pulled by three elephant style E7's out of Chicago.

[brokemoto]

Were these ever quadruple headed? I bet an AAAA would be quite the spectacle.

They had no MU cables/hoses in the front (and being Baldwins with pneumatic throttles, they would need both hoses and cables).  They did have steam lines in the front, but no MU cables and hoses.  Thus, if Pennsylvania ever did run them AA/AA, it would have needed two crews.

Update/Editorial note to my initial review:   I put twenty cars, of various manufacture and the Bowser porthole caboose behind my single unit.   It pulled them with no trouble on what is mostly level track.  I did not try any more.   I have not done the traction tyre swap-in.

...........and Eric220, are you running yours on DCC or DC?  Mine are on DC and when they hit a dead spot, they stall, then start up the whole business again.  As you are no doubt aware, the usual thing that a flywheel equipped unit does is coast until it resumes contact then starts up right away.   This is one of the reasons, among several, that manufacturers adopted flywheels.   BLI states that this thing has flywheels.  I suppose that they still help, as if it does stall, it will re-establish contact on its own as opposed to your having to prod it.

This is my first locomotive with sound, and I must admit that I like it.

[Dave V]

I passed on these, and I was starting to have second thoughts until @eric220's post...  I think a pair of Centipedes would look positively stupid on my door layout given their gargantuan combined length.  I'm worried enough about how the coast-to-coast tender on the M1 will look on my HCD let along a coupled pair of Centipedes.

Then again, maybe I should have a pair for the future Juniata Division...   

[reinhardtjh]

Then again, maybe I should have a pair for the future Juniata Division...   

I really doubt, given how well these appear to be selling, that BLI will allow the tooling to wither and not put out at least one more run.  It might be 3-4 years from now. It might be sooner, but I'm sure you'll have a chance.  And there's always Ebay and the N Scale yardsale if not.

[dougnelson]

Mine arrived today.

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[OldEastRR]

What SPF would have thought, 20 years ago, that it would take that long for a K4 to come out ... and then less than a year later they'd make a Centipede?

[eric220]

@Dave Vollmer I'm guessing that the effect would be much less on a door, assuming the train was long enough that you couldn't see the locomotive and caboose at the same time; just look at @dougnelson 's video. (Just ignore that false "clear" signal.)  It's a big chunk of modeling budget, but it's also a really nice model.

@brokemoto I'm running DCC. The problem is that the decoder is programmed with this nice, long startup sequence that keeps the locomotive from moving until it's done. The effect really neat when you first start up the loco, but unfortunately, there's no provision that tells the decoder to ignore that startup sequence if it's recovering from a momentary power failure. That means what a normal flywheel equipped locomotive might handle as a minor hiccup, possibly just cruising right over with a headlight flicker, causes this locomotive to grind to a halt and sit there for several seconds while it plays all the neat startup noises. To make matters worse, it then ramps up its speed through the speed table, all while its partner spins its wheels. Combine that with a unit with a kink in its pickup, and it makes for an interesting interpretation of the prototype's reputed reliability.

Side note, although an AA-AA lashup would have required two crews, I doubt that would have slowed down the PRR very much if they wanted to do it. They were running multiple-headed steam with pushers when the centipedes were active; two crews was routine.

[muktown128]

Mine arrived today.

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Great video Doug! 
Really liking the sound on those units!

Scott

[crrcoal]

But they sure would look bad @ss sitting on the pad at Enola 
(yes it would be expensive for "statues")

I passed on these, and I was starting to have second thoughts until @eric220's post...  I think a pair of Centipedes would look positively stupid on my door layout given their gargantuan combined length.  I'm worried enough about how the coast-to-coast tender on the M1 will look on my HCD let along a coupled pair of Centipedes.

Then again, maybe I should have a pair for the future Juniata Division...   

[brokemoto]

I think a pair of Centipedes would look positively stupid on my door layout given their gargantuan combined length.

I bought only a single Pennsylvania unit.  It looks silly going around a seventeen inch radius curve, especially in the front where the pilot is.

Thank you for the information, Eric220.  The sound program on it works the same on DC.  If you hit a dead spot, it coasts to a stop, then the fireoff, fast idle, cut back, increase RPM and it starts to creep forward and build up speed.  It is almost as if there was some sort of momentum programmed into it whether you run it on DC or DCC.  This will happen whether you are running it a sixty SMPH or six.   If it us running over twenty-five SMPH, it will regain its speed more quickly than if you put voltage to it cold, but it does stop and start again on DC, as well.

It is interesting that the two units in the pair respond differently.  If you buy a boxed pair, does only one have the sound?  ....or is it that only one lost power while the other retained it?   That wheel spinning could be hard on both locomotive and track.  In fact, it is funny that you mention the prototype's problem of lack of reliability.  I had thought that myself when it started acting the way that it did.  In fact, when I put it onto the test track at the show, it would not budge.  I turned up the throttle, the light came on, the sound started, then it started creeping.  As test tracks at shows are known for being dirty and having crummy trackwork, the thing kept stalling and starting up again.  Someone produced a track eraser and I fiddled with the track joints, so I got it to go back and forth  a couple of times without stalling.   But on the wheel-spinning:  that could grind down the track.  The prototype was supposed to have been hard on the track, as well, due to its considerable weight.   I would think that with its twelve axles, the axle loadings would have kept it well within tolerances, but, perhaps not, if the designers did not distribute the weight evenly.

It pegs enough voltage on DC that it gets warm to the touch.  It does not get hot as did the old LL plastic frames, but it is decidedly warm to the touch after about thirty minutes of running.  Does it get warm on DCC, as well?

[chicken45]

BTW, guys, I heard NTRAK is looking for someone to review and do a write up on these. Let me know if you are interested and I'll put you in touch with them.

Yes, they do look silly on the curves, but BOY HOWDY do they own the straightaways!
So, how do you boys think the overhang of the body compared with the GG1?

[chicken45]

I bought an AA set and both have sound.

[eric220]

Both have sound, but only one has a trainphone antenna. As far as I can tell, the non-trainphone unit is not just programmed to run backwards; it's wired backwards. That way, you can program both units while coupled together, even changing their normal direction.

The speed matching is pretty good, it's just that one has overly sensitive pickup. I wish there were contacts in the drawbar to pass track current from one unit to the other. With that many wheels on the rails, there would be no such thing as a dead spot.

@chicken45 I think the GG1 is less noticeable. For one, it's shorter. For two, those locos are built quite differently. The pilot on the centipede looks like it's on a spring. Any slight variation or curvature to the track will send it wobbling all over the place. So far it doesn't seem to cause any problems with staying coupled at the back, but if you want to remember where you sneezed while laying track, just watch the front.

For anyone who thinks they look silly on curves:

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Edit: It was actually in watching that video some time ago that I realized why the back end of the locomotive is tapered.