BLI NW2/SW7

[basementcalling]

So BLI has a hit on their hands?

[greenwizard88]

Definitely.

[Jim Starbuck]

My undecorated SW7 arrived and I spent some quality time with it this evening.
I’m thrilled that the undec comes with the detail parts bagged separately. Well done BLI!

Like some others have experienced here, electrical pickup was quite sketchy out of the box and all the sputtering dropouts caused the decoder to do wonky stuff like start the bell and blow the horn randomly.
I didn’t really want to pry the trucks off to clean them for risking breaking the tabs on the truck towers. A friend had one break and gave me a heads up to be careful so here’s how I took it apart which worked well:

Removing the coupler allows straight in access to the latch on the end of the gear cover. I gently unlatched one end of the cover with a fine screwdriver and lifted the cover off.
The plastic side frames and the brass contact plates will now slide out of the truck sideways. The contact strips on the sill are now accessible to clean with a Q-tip.  I cleaned out the excess grease and burnished the holes in the contact plates with a wooden toothpick soaked in contact cleaner.
Oh, and when I replaced the couplers I put 905 Z scale MTs on it which are a direct swap for the stock couplers.
The truck construction on these is very well done in my opinion.

After an hour of programming and adjusting the running characteristics (the default decoder settings are silly),
my SW7 is running quite nicely.
Hopefully the defaults don’t  dissuade buyers testing these at a show or a LHS. Right out of the box the slow speed settings are much too high and it would be a shame for someone to conclude that the engine doesn’t run well at slow speeds when in fact the mechanism can be made to run very well.

My only gripe is the silly directional lighting and no apparent way to have both ends lit regardless of direction of travel. I prefer to set the front and rear lights on separate function keys and tell them what I want and when. I would have expected better functionality from a high end decoder.
I also found it interesting that in DecoderPro I didn’t find an actual function map as such for the Paragon decoder.

Overall though I’m quite happy with my first ever BLI purchase.

Jim

[garethashenden]

What would be involved in converting this SW7 into a SW9? Is it just the louvers and gussets?

[martin station]

What would be involved in converting this SW7 into a SW9? Is it just the louvers and gussets?

     I also believe the side engine compartment doors have handles on the SW7 and the SW9 has "knuckle buster" latches like the doors on other EMD locomotives.
Ralph

[Frank Amato]

Oh, and when I replaced the couplers I put 905 Z scale MTs on it which are a direct swap for the stock couplers.
The truck construction on these is very well done in my opinion.

My only gripe is the silly directional lighting and no apparent way to have both ends lit regardless of direction of travel. I would have expected better functionality from a high end decoder.

Good intel on the 905 coupler fit, but directional lighting only?  Ugh, that's not cool.  Even the basic Digitrax and NCE decoders support "real" lighting settings.

[Jim Starbuck]

I found the lighting to be quite odd.
When stopped both lights are on. When you select direction, the opposite light goes out.
Perhaps I just haven’t found the proper settings yet.

[Cajonpassfan]

I found the lighting to be quite odd.
When stopped both lights are on. When you select direction, the opposite light goes out.
Perhaps I just haven’t found the proper settings yet.

Yes, odd. On mine, when stopped, both lights are on dim. When moving, one gets brighter,  (although not much) the other goes out, as noted. One would hope this could be adjusted in the decoder, but I can’t find it either.
I do like BLI’s “double 8” function, adjusting the overall volume.
Otto K.

[Steveruger45]

Hi Otto
I’m curious how well these Paragon 3 decoders work with ESU decoders.  Consisting, momentum and speed matching and all that.?
Thanks.

[spookshow]

You could try asking BLI if it's possible to change the lighting. I've found them to be helpful and relatively prompt when it comes to responding to email questions (by "relatively prompt" I mean "less than a week", lol).

-Mark

[Jim Starbuck]

You could try asking BLI if it's possible to change the lighting. I've found them to be helpful and relatively prompt when it comes to responding to email questions (by "relatively prompt" I mean "less than a week", lol).

-Mark

Excellent idea Mark. I will do just that.
Who’d a thunk it? Asking a manufacturer about their product. (Insert facepalm here)

[up1950s]

I just got my 4 UP units and was shocked to see the handrails matched in color and does not look oversized at all . I will take some shots when I have a chance today or tomorrow . These are top notch looking UP units , and represent the state of the art .

[cjm413]

So BLI has a hit on their hands?

The screwed up gussets tell me they have $hit in their brains...

Even Botchmanm didn't make that stupid mistake... 

[cjm413]

Yeah.  Unfortunately even with two NW-2 models, we don't have a phase 4 which I believe was the most common, and the only one I need. 

Jason

Why not post-date a Kato (or Bachmann) NW2?

[Chris333]

So how many NW2's do we now have with accual doors molded into the shell?