BLI E7

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I’d like to hear from anyone here who has/had one of the original BLI Paragon E7s? How was the quality? How well did it run? Any issues?

Thanks,

Tom

2

look good, run smooth, sound good. No problems, after checking the manual.

3

The mold seam on the side of the nose bothered me enough that I passed on the SP&S version.

Ed

4

I bought a pair of new BLI Paragon C&NW E7As about a year ago. I didn’t own them long because they were painted Zito Yellow which did not match the yellow color on my passenger car consists. But, while I owned them, they were very good runners and pulled twelve 85’ passenger cars with ease.

I did experience one problem with the QSI Quantum decoders on those C&NW locos in that they would forget they were in a consist each time that I would power up the layout. So, I would have to reset CV 19 in each loco.

I also own a pair of BLI Paragon Union Pacific E7As and a pair of BLI Paragon Wabash E7As. Great runners, great pullers and no consist forgetfulness with the QSI Quantum decoders.

Rich

5

Thanks, fellas. I was looking at possibly getting one of the BLI E7s but I think I’ll stick with my 4-8-4 Niagara. I found out this morning that the Niagaras produced over 4,000 drawbar HP from 31-100 MPH, over 4,500 drawbar HP from 38-88 MPH, and - with 275 PSI, over 5,000 drawbar HP from 52-72 MPH. No wonder it only took one to haul a long consist of passenger cars vs 2-3 E7s. The Hudson wasn’t too shabby either with approx 4,000 drawbar HP @ 62 MPH.

Tom

6

Late to this party, but in my view, the BLI E units are no were near as detailed as the Proto units, and don’t run any better.

Sheldon

7

Interesting comments on the E-units, Sheldon. I am not in a position to dispute your conclusions about detail or performance, although I will say that all of my E-units, past and present, have been excellent runners and pullers. You mention that the BLIs don’t run any better than the E-units and that could be. However, their performance are equal to one another in my experience. I am unable to pick one over the other in terms of performance.

Regarding detail, I will have to leave that to the rivet counters, no offense intended. They both look good to me. Of all the E-units that I have owned, I do have one pair of BLI C&NW E6As and one pair of Proto 2000 C&NW E6As, so I could do a side-by-side comparison without the distraction of different road colors. So, I plan to do that. Out of the box, BLI did a better job on the Mars light since BLI used LEDs and Proto 2000 used incandescents.

Stay tuned.

Rich

8

If you are doing a comparison to the Proto and BLI units, they both have their hits and misses. The nose on the Proto unit is not right. Walthers made it better in the mid 2010s but it is still incorrect. The BLI is far more accurate. The roof on the Proto unit tapers too much, compressing the side grills. The fans on the BLI unit, for lack of a better word, suck. There is no depth or real detail, like a blue box F7. BLI does not do specific road name detailing, Proto at least tries.

I have also heard many people who have issues with BLI’s decoders. I have never had an issue with any of mine, but it does seem to be a problem. Proto seems to have an issue with cracked gears.

I do hope Rapido fixes many of these issues with their model. While they only have an E8 coming out soon, I would think that an E7 and an E9 would not be far behind.

9

Does the cracked gear issue expand into the E units?

I thought that was primarily a GP hood unit issue.

I have a pair of Proto-2000 E7s, but I don’t think I have even removed them from the boxes yet.

-Kevin

10

Walthers sells replacement parts for them, so I would assume so.

https://www.walthers.com/replacement-geared-diesel-wheelsets-fits-early-proto-2000-r-e6-7-8-9-pkg-3

11

Hmmm… not a bad price.

I wonder if these would be worth buying. I don’t know if mine have cracked gears, and I don’t know if they are “Early Life-Like” models or not.

-Kevin

12

Cracked gears are very rare on the proto E units. It is a completely different wheelset and gear from the four wheel trucks that had the cracked gear problem.

13

I would buy them.

Sheldon

14

Kevin,

I picked up my Proto GP7 off eBay NIB and it arrived with the classic “tick, tick, tick” (cracked gears). The Walthers gears in the link above are the same brand-type drop-in gears that I used to replace them and it was night & day.

I’d say it’s worth purchasing a back-up set for each now - if and when any or all do develop the cracked gear issue sometime down the line. Cheap insurance.

Tom

15

The Proto units also have better diaphragms, close coupling is more easily achieved, and end detail is better overall.

Sheldon

16

An easy way to spot the “early” E6, 7 & 8s are to look at the truck sideframes. If the journal boxes are free-floating they are considered early. They require a unique wheelset that has a “journal” or projection that supports the small, plastic journal box.

IMG_0128_fix by Edmund, on Flickr

Unlike the PA wheelset which the journal fits into an outside, bronze pickup strip the E-unit journal is decorative and the loco will run with the journal boxes removed. Check your packing when you remove the E7 for the first time. The journal boxes are notorious for popping out and getting lost in the nether regions.

Later L-L versions, post Walthers, eliminated the loose journal box and the small protuding pin was no longer used. Later still, Walthers again redesigned the gear-train using more robust, helical gears:

Walthers_E7-gearcase by Edmund, on Flickr

These ran much smoother, albeit slightly slower (max top speed 65 SMPH).

Regards, Ed

17

Kevin,

If you can get the product numbers I have a list that will tell you when they were produced.

Sheldon

18

While to me the overall appearance of the BLI E7/8 comes closer to the prototype than the P2K, I agree with Sheldon that these black, undetailed diaphragms on the BLIs look atrocious. However, there might be hope. Recently, BLI produced an EMD E1 (with the help of the Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society; the Santa Fe was the sole E1 customer) which is as prototypical as you can get. And these units have beautiful, detailed silver/grey diaphragms.

JW

19

Unfortunately I cannot get to my E7 models right now. They are buried way back in piles of boxes.

The picture I posted is the only picture I have of them.

-Kevin

20

Well they look like the fairly early runs, when you can get to them, let me know, I will look them up.

Sheldon