BLI PRR-P5A In Now

[spookshow]

If you have the passenger version, I recommend using a bit of white glue on the classification lights. They like to pop loose and then play hide'n'seek.

-Mark

[delamaize]

After seeing the pictures of the shallow details on the trucks, and the issues people are having, I'm glad I didn't pre-order a Milwaukee road one now...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

After seeing the pictures of the shallow details on the trucks, and the issues people are having, I'm glad I didn't pre-order a Milwaukee road one now...

Same thing as with the CR one. It'd have been a fun lark. But it's not gonna be fun if it's a project.

[spookshow]

After several days of testing, the pickup seems to be going rapidly downhill on mine. With freshly cleaned track it'll run fine for maybe an hour or two, after which it'll start stalling out all over the place (on track that other locomotives handle just fine, mind you). So, what the hey, I think it's time to give Mark's spacers a try.

-Mark

[peteski]

After several days of testing, the pickup seems to be going rapidly downhill on mine. With freshly cleaned track it'll run fine for maybe an hour or two, after which it'll start stalling out all over the place (on track that other locomotives handle just fine, mind you). So, what the hey, I think it's time to give Mark's spacers a try.

-Mark

Since the leading and trailing trucks play important role in electric pickup, have you cleaned the wheels on those trucks?  Since they are free-spinning small diameter wheels, they will be a bit of a pain to clean.

[spookshow]

Since the leading and trailing trucks play important role in electric pickup, have you cleaned the wheels on those trucks?  Since they are free-spinning small diameter wheels, they will be a bit of a pain to clean.

I put the spacers in and left it running overnight at speed step 7 and it was still running this morning, so those things definitely get the job done. The wheels do seem a bit dirty so now I'm going to try removing the spacers and cleaning the wheels and see how long that lasts.

-Mark

[bbussey]

The electrical pickup design is not a good one. The center and front drivers don’t conduct and the pilot trucks don’t have enough downward pressure to conduct reliably.  That leaves just one driver wheel as reliable pickup. It’s surprising to me that the passenger versions start out performing well.

[bbussey]

I also hate the fact that all of BLI’s decoders do not follow standard options. For example, there is no way to adjust headlight behavior. All you can do is switch to “pro mode” where function keys that you assign control each of the headlights independent of travel direction, like a light-switch.

[spookshow]

The electrical pickup design is not a good one. The center and front drivers don’t conduct and the pilot trucks don’t have enough downward pressure to conduct reliably.  That leaves just one driver wheel as reliable pickup. It’s surprising to me that the passenger versions start out performing well.

Why one runs better out of the box than another probably depends on how clean the wheels are from the factory. But even if they start out spotless, it doesn't take much running to get some contamination going and degrade performance. And then you're just spending all your time cleaning.

With the spacers removed and the wheels freshly cleaned, mine lasted about 45 minutes before it started stalling again. So, I put the spacers back and now it's been running fine for 4 hours. Suffice it to say, I think Mark has correctly sussed and solved the problem.

-Mark

[bbussey]

Mark, your experience indicates that every purchaser of the model is going to experience the performance degradation within a relatively short time period.

[spookshow]

Yeah, I can't see how they wouldn't.

-Mark

[peteski]

I also hate the fact that all of BLI’s decoders do not follow standard options. For example, there is no way to adjust headlight behavior. All you can do is switch to “pro mode” where function keys that you assign control each of the headlights independent of travel direction, like a light-switch.

Yes, that is one of many reasons modelers replace those inflexible BLI decoders with "real" sound decoders like ESU.     Even if it costs them another $100.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Yes, that is one of many reasons modelers replace those inflexible BLI decoders with "real" sound decoders like ESU.     Even if it costs them another $100.

As much as I wanted to give them a chance, I think that might be in the cards for my NW2. At least I can reuse the speaker? lol

[bbussey]

The performance of my BLI SW8 after switching to an ESU LokSound with keep-alive is night and day to the original board.  Better sound, better performance.  I also added 4k resistors to the LED light boards.  And yes, I kept the stock speaker. 

[spookshow]

12 hours of flawless speed step 3 running so far. What a terrific model - with the spacers. I hope Mark has his factory cranked up, lol.

-Mark