BLI SD40-2 Demonstration

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hey Friends!

Went to Happy Hobo Trains. Kevin, the store’s owner, had BLI SD40-2s in the BN and Norfolk and Western schemes.

He proceeded to put it on the test track. Mode was DC.

I may sound a little “corny” but I was “floored” by the quality of the sounds! Air Compressor, Pop off, Throttle, Idle. The horn, which sounds like a Leslie series, has a slight “reverb” to it ( In DCC mode, you actually get a “Doppler effect”.) There was a slight “delay” when you throttle up the unit. You get the sense that this thing weighs “Tons”.

Kevin showed off some other neat aspects. He layed on the horn continuously, and sure enough the sound of the air compressor kicked in! The horn, imho, sounds like a Leslie S5. He ran the unit at full throttle, stopped it suddenly and continued to converse with us. After about 1 minute, all sounds died down except for the low rumble of the diesel idling. Soundwise though, it more resembled an EMD 567 power system.

Body Details:

Yes, there are some improvements that are needed, but can be easily made. The most obvious and easiest are the front & rear guardrail chains and drop plates. Replace with the Detail Associates ones.

The number boards on the cab should be removed and, depending on your road, a black or white plain decal should be applied on them followed by installing the numbers.

For me personally, I could live with the handrails. With some basic weathering, these units look nice.

Anyway guys, that’s just my opinion. Those of you that have seen one run, please chime in with your input. Most importantly, don’t limit your comments here! E-mail Broadway Limited and give them your input! Model manufacturers need “Helpful” consumer criticism. BLI now has some “Serious” competition with Proto and Atlas un

2

Antonio [:)]

What a great salesman you would be.

I’ll take one. [:D]

3

I also thought the sound was great as well considering the size of the speaker. I thought the base was pretty good compared to other sound systems I have heard.

The shell leaves a lot to be desired though. The door latches on the cab base and hood are horribibly oversized and look very toy like. The rachet brake opening was way too large. The brake cylinder lines are way oversized. The radiator grills look toy like as well. Some other minor things were the metal plating on the walkways. There is a gap between the hood’s and the walkway around the the hood on the prototype. The pattern extends to the shell. Not a big deal, but I did notice it. The roof actually looks pretty good. The detail is actually pretty nice up there. It’s also easy to add etched metal grills and fans with a drill if the detail isn’t good enough but I think most people would think it was good enough. I also thought the handrails while thin enough had a lot of malformations on the 3 models I saw at my LHS. The short hood was too tall too although it was not too noticeable on a painted and detailed model. The coupler cut levers were also oversized too. The final problem I saw was that when the engine opened up the motor noise was louder than the sound system. That was pretty disturbing to discover. The engine was running between 50-60 scale mph so it’s within the range of the prototype.

I did mention these problems to BLI long before they shipped these and they didn’t fix them. I actually contacted them on 2 separate occasions and mentioned my concerns to my QSI contacts here in Oregon. (Couldn’t test the sound until I actually got my hands on one.)

Based on this I passed on these locomotives. I personally think an Athearn that is super detailed with a Soundtraxx decoder is a better value than this unit. It’s too bad too. If they had produced a shell as nice as the Athearn shell with sound they would have a winner. This looks like a Bachmann shell on a older Athearn frame, (hence t

4

I have the new BLI SD 40-2 in NW colors. The unit runs beautifully. Contrary to Raynbecky’s observations, my unit’s motor is silent at all speeds. I am very satisfied with the shell detailing although I did add a bell to the top of the long hood end as per NW prototype (the stock under frame bell is easily removed when the shell is lifted from the frame) and I intend to add an additional brake cylinder over the middle wheel on both sides of each truck as per NW practice. I like the sound, especially the run up before the unit starts to move. The engine is a strong puller, and in my opinion, another winner from BLI. I like the fact that even though this is a low short hood engine, BLI, as per NW practice, put the "f’ at the long hood end.

5

I got a look at BLI’s SD40-2 yesterday and wasn’t very impressed. The sound may be fine, but a lot of the details are heavy and I couldn’t find a single unit that didn’t have a problem with deformed handrails. In general, I’d say that the body looks like a model from years ago.

As far as sound goes, I’d like an opinion on something. I’ve always felt that there’s a problem with sound in diesels. The sound a diesel locomotive makes is not necessarily related to it’s speed. It varies by the speed of the prime mover, not the locomotive itself. In other words, a unit could be lugging a heavy train up a hill at 15 miles per hour and be in run 8. The same unit could run past you light at 40 miles per hour and be fairly quiet.

I can remember standing in the UP yard at Las Vegas yeras ago with a friend of mine as a 3 unit set of SD40-2’s started pulling a loaded coal train. As soon as the slack was out, they notched the units up. I don’t know what notch they got up to, but the sound was deafening. And they were moving very slowly. That’s what I’m talking about. I don’t know if we’ll ever have a decoder that allows the operator to vary the sound independently of the unit’s speed, but that would certainly make things more realistic.

Steam locomotives, on the other hand, don’t have this problem. The number of chuffs you hear is directly related to the speed at which the drivers turn. To me, this makes sound in steam locomotives more realistic.

6

You cna do a pretty fair job of simulating that action with DCC by setting a start momentum value. You cna then crank the throttle wide open, causing the engine sound ro rev up to Run 8 but the loco will start moving at a very slow speed. As you get near the desired speed, cut back on the throttle, the engine will drop back and the loco will continue moving at that speed. I was fooling around with stuff like that last night with an Atlas Trainmaster and it works great. I don;t know if the BLI SD40 QSI decoder is set up the exact smae way, but ont he Atlas, if you also set a stop momentum value, you can close the throttle completely and the engine sound will drop to idle while the loco gradually slows. You can also hit F7 while this is happening and the loco will stop quicker than the momentum setting, with the sound of the air brakes applying. REALLY awesome.
That said, I saw one of the new BLI 40-2’s at the LHS yeterday. I thought it looked and sounded fine. Except the mechanism, oddly loud. Perhaps it needs some running in, as well as lubrication. P2K drives are MUCH quieter, and Atlas, well, the Trainmaster you can’t even hear the mechanism unless you run the thing at Ludicrous Speed. Very disappointing as the BLI GG1 drive isn’t nearly as loud, yet it has two motors!

–Randy

7

Too bad BLI didn’t have the marketing sense to team up with Kato on the SD-40-2s. A Kato shell and drive with a BLIU sound systme would please a LOT more modelers. At least Atlas had the smarts to do so as their GP9s with the BLI sound are great.

8

Seen a post on other site they said it sounded just like lifelikes GP9 if thats case not even close to being the right sound.

9

Actually the sd-40 has the prototype sound and the Life like gp9 does not.

10

I don’t think so, the BLI SD40-2 sounds A LOT like an F unit.

11

I don’t think so mark. If you listen to the BLI F unit sound bites and the SD40-2 sound bites, they sound completely different.

BNSF1, that is not necessarly true for steam. A steam engine could be drifting down grade at 40 mph and not be making a sound.

12

No way, I heard it run at a LHS and it soudned like any other 645-series loco that I’ve seen. Not at ALL like the CNJ F unit running in Jim Thorpe in October. If the P2K GP9 has the same sound, then IT is the incorrect one.

–Randy

13

Hello Dougal,

Your skepticism is understandable.

10-4!

14

I listened to it again, when I compared it with prototype clips, it did sound like a 645, it still doesn’t sound good enough to be worth over $200 (for me at). I guess they might have compressed the sound clip quite a bit. I have yet to hear these in person (the closest place that sells them is an hours drive each way). Who knows? Maybe I’ll wind up buying one once I hear one for myself.

15

The sound clips on the BLI web site do NOT to justice to any of their models. For that matter the clips on Soundtraxx’s web site aren’t too wonderful either. Trade off on making it sound good vs making it too big for the average internet user to download. Sorry but we don’t all have a nice fast 5mb download.
More third person, but someone posted on the QSI group that the P2K GP-9 does NOT sound the same as the SD40-2. Now I have to see if I can tempt the LHS to open up one of the GP-9’s like they did the 40-2 and see who’s right about this, the reviewer for Tony’s or the other guy.

–Randy

16

BNSF1, that is not necessarly true for steam. A steam engine could be drifting down grade at 40 mph and not be making a sound.
[/quote]

True enough. My comments were intended to compare a diesel working vs a steam engine that’s working. Either of those could be quiet just drifting. But, the noise of diesel’s prime mover is not dependent on the locomotives speed. It’s dependent on the RPMs needed to produce the required output. A steam engine that’s working produces an exhaust rate in proportion to it’s speed.