BLI F3's/F7's Shipping

[drbnc]

Espee's are here.  Not the best effort.  Crappy phone pics attached.  Shell of F7 looks pre-weathered. What's up with that?  May try cleaning it.

Chassis.  Had to open the front truck due to gears not meshing properly.  There's an idler in there on the bottom row that has such loose tolerance it slips side-to-side.  May have to sleeve it.  Anyway, here's a shot of the guts.  Didn't take a shot of the truck inside due to being p.o.'d at having to open it or send it back.  It's running-in now.

Beauty shot of F3.  Note the grills.  This one appears to run okay, but the coupler trip pins are way too low.  Bang! on the first turnout.

Also have the unpowered units.  Truck are geared and have wipers, but without the idlers.  The axles don't ride in cups, the pick-ups are drilled.

[Cajonpassfan]

...
Beauty shot of F3.  Note the grills.  ...

So this confirms the reversed upper side panel and the carbody "openings" in the wrong places. The structural gusset plates in the center are open instead of solid, like Jason first pointed out. And the engine room is connected to the cab
This really is too bad, because the chicken wire detail is rendered very well in my opinion. BLI needs to fix this and rerun a bunch of replacement shells (like Intermountain did some time ago with their reversed sides).
Yea, good luck with that...
Thanks for posting the photos.
Otto K.

[wcfn100]

One other thing that's been bugging me is the body height.  Since people are opening these up, could someone measure the height of just the body shell from sill to roof? 

Jason

[drbnc]

Gear tolerance issue.  Ugh.  And my fix. 

Idler axle spacer cut from Micro Trains 1015 coupler spacer, the hole is a perfect fit for the idler gear axle shaft. Placed only on the side with biggest gap, long end to the front to keep from spinning. HO Kadee coupler springs also fit, but this was easiest to do.  Running it in now.  Final design of spacer is last.  Coupler height - too high - ugh.

[High Hood]

Has anybody else noticed the "squinting" windshields on the BLI units?  I noticed that when I saw the  prototypes in BLI booth a while back (even without the other models close by for comparison).  The windshields seem too short, resulting in the squinty look.

They do look seem to look squinty in photos, but in BLI's video they looked good to me. I am wondering out of the 3 which windshield are actually the most prototypical?

[drbnc]

From sill middle of tank to roof top excluding fans looks to be 11 feet, eyeballed against scale.

[drbnc]

So this confirms the reversed upper side panel and the carbody "openings" in the wrong places. The structural gusset plates in the center are open instead of solid, like Jason first pointed out. And the engine room is connected to the cab
This really is too bad, because the chicken wire detail is rendered very well in my opinion. BLI needs to fix this and rerun a bunch of replacement shells (like Intermountain did some time ago with their reversed sides).

Yup, looks funky.  The gearing issue is worse - they need to check their tolerances.  And the coupler height - about 1/2 knuckle too high.  Sound is great, but at the expense of weight - 4-5 cars on a 2% is all I can muster.  That dummy B unit weighs almost as much as a powered unit, so even MORE drag.  Oh, well, it's just money. $$$ 

[peteski]

They do look seem to look squinty in photos, but in BLI's video they looked good to me. I am wondering out of the 3 which windshield are actually the most prototypical?

They looked squinty to me when I saw them in person last winter.  I'm not F-unit expert but Kato  windshields seem to be the closest to being accurate.

[Chris333]

I think all BLI locos are just a fancy wrapper for their sound system.

[dougnelson]

This is the first N scale model to include lift rings on the nose.  Most PRR E and F units had them, as did a few other railroads.  BLI gets points in my book for RR specific details.

[drbnc]

I think all BLI locos are just a fancy wrapper for their sound system.

I will say, despite the other issues, the do sound good!  Kato F chassis' are going under my 2 BLI unpowered B units.

[Point353]

This is the first N scale model to include lift rings on the nose.  Most PRR E and F units had them, as did a few other railroads.  BLI gets points in my book for RR specific details.

Were the lift rings installed at the factory by EMD or added on later by the PRR.

Here's an E7 without them:


http://www.godfatherrails.com/photos/pv.asp?pid=168

[dougnelson]

The early E units did not come with the lift rings but they were added to these units, and all later E units came with them from EMD.

[muktown128]

Is that a slight parting line I see between the side window and the number board of that PRR unit? 

[peteski]

Is that a slight parting line I see between the side window and the number board of that PRR unit? 

Unprototypical!  Um . . . wait . . .