so who got the bli product survey in thier email??
I did and i was honest of thier below avg electronics
I voted for DCC READY & TCS WOW OR TSUNIMI 2 DECODERS
in their future products
did anyone else give them imput ??
Will not get survey because the shot I gave them was through an inderect purchace. But as far as quality goes, I have not spent anything more of their stuff and got rid of that one.
I am pretty sure I will not be getting the survey, and they already know what I think of the way they conduct business.
-Kevin
I have been very pleased with my Paragon and Paragon 2 steam engines.
I have never owned any Paragon 3 or Paragon 4 models.
But I have not received a survey.
Rich
I have one BLI loco and it has been great, no complaints and it pulls like nobody’s business. It is a C & O 2-10-4.
I did get the survey but I learned at a young age not to waste my time entering U.S.-based contests. After you spend time doing the survey and filling out contact info, you hit send and they then say open to U.S. residents only.[(-D]
Maybe Rapido will do something similar, open to Canadians only, with our tiny population the odds of winning would be much better.[oX)][(-D]
One locomotive, a Hudson I’ve had for 15 years. I had a worm gear slipping on the drive shaft, but that took a drop of CA and it was fine. I think it came with a QSI decoder.
I have respect for the work they do in conjunction with the PRRT&HS committee. They have come out with some much needed PRR locomotives. Wish they could do another few runs of the much needed H class. For us PRR modelers they have been good. They could do with a discount. Prices rival brass and beyond.
Pete.
I have five of their first-run Paragon Mikados (from the early 2000’s - the ones with the QSI decoder / sound system), and have been very pleased with them all. I bought a Paragon 3 Consolidation a couple years ago and had to send it back to the factory because of a decoder problem. They fixed it and it runs great! Their products are very good quality and so is their customer service, in my experience.
the pre paralizer 3 are great runners .
I have 5 bli big boys & 1 is a p3 & guess what?? I have had to replace all most all of the electronics sadly . but on a good note thier customer service is great
if they have your email they will send it to you.
they want the truth good bad or middle of the road
infact they are picking 5 people to come to thier headquarters
to meet with ceo bob , ken & the production dept to discuss it
.reason for this email is with scale trains & rapido looming on the horizon with steam releases they realize that 2006 electronics will not cut it in 2022/2023.
They dont want to become MTH 2.O
I won’t be getting it. I used my work email address for everything back then, and I seperated from the company in February 2019 after 31 years.
-Kevin
They may have emailed it out, but they do have the survey link posted on their facebook page. So anyone can go to it and take the survey.
And just want to throw this out there, but many of the Paragon 3’s that had issues, while they may have marked on their repair sheet that they replaced the decoder, most of the issues were actually because of faulty motors, which in the end would blow the decoder.
I’m not saying if it’s right or wrong, but keep in mind too that even if they did offer engines with basically no electronics, just wires inside, or just DC control, perhaps like what their BlueLine did, I would not expect say a $100-$200 price drop either because the cost savings on them doing so would not be that significant. And for steam, it would require a lot more work yet as well because many of the lighting and stuff inside the engine ties into a smoke controller board, that then allows less wires and such to the tender to control them. Now, one thing that I never got was why they always included RollingThunder with the engines, because I feel probably only maybe 20% of people use it, so why not just sell the RollingThunder board seperatly and then price the engines a little cheaper.
Now with that said, the fact that they do make their own decoder with a full time staff memebr who only developes their hardware and software (decoder, smoke units, etc), they can take suggestions and potentially implement them into their product. That’s a big benefit of being in house verses going to a third party for decoders. That’s why they went to Paragon 2, then 3, and then 4. It was by adding features, improvements, etc. Myself, I have listened to plenty of their old stuff (2006, etc) that had QSI in them, and they sound like trash compared to say a Paragon 3 or Paragon 4, or even a BlueLine or Paragon 2.
i have a few 2006 big boys & the paragon 3 big boy 4014 & it sounds
the same . i hope they come up with a outside decoder that will improve sound & preformance .most of my 30 big boys are tcs wow thou i am liking tsunimi2 4014 sound files
No survey, and I don’t do FB. I have at least 12 of their original Paragon, P2, and P4 steamers. No P3. I think their hybrids are fantastic, although the prices are rising steadily.
Interesting. I can’t recall any recent BigBoy’s that I have done, but I would find it odd that the overall sound quality would not be better. Being that the QSI ones would have been sourced from QSI and done by QSI and then the Paragon 2, etc. would have been sourced themselves, and have a higher bitrate, clearer, etc.
This is the link to the survey:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf21ndeE2nf6WxppoUICN4Q39vGyyxubXe9zgcZXOV7NojESA/viewform
I received the survey, and replied.
I don’t know how much they will enjoy the answers though…
I got the survy and did reply them. They were a good manufacturer and I liked them. But I think they lost their directions, with too much focus on their sound system, not on other imporant things. To be honest, I don’t feel too much difference in their paragon 2,3,4. I bought several F7 and E1 from them recently. Their motors make loud noise. The decoders are among the most difficult to do speed match. Diesel engines have less details compared to peers at the same price. These are just what I feel about their recent products. Kind of disappointing. I guess that they probably heard a lot about what I have complained as the survey did ask quite many this kind of questions.
I really hope the survey can help them.
Jerry
They have been gold for the Pennsy modeller over the years - I have the K-4 Pacific, I-1 “Hippo”, J-1, E-6 Atlantic, H-10 Consolidation, L-1 Mikado, 2 GG-1s, A PA/PB set, and a pair of Centipedes. I have only had a problem with one of these - a cracked drive gear on the I-1 - and it was fixed promptly when returned for repair. As stated, they work closely with the PRR T&HS to ensure that the models reflect the prototype to the extent practical - I assume this is true for their models of other railroads as well. Yes they are a bit pricey but they are prototypical, well detailed, and good runners/pullers, so no complaints from my side.
Lou,
BLI sure didn’t with the NYC “P-5 boxcab”. [%-)]
Tom