I’m thinking of buying one of the Pennsy J1’s from Blueline. I’d like to hear from anyone who has just bought one of these from the current production run. It seems there were complaints about some of the the BLI steam engines, at least from earlier runs.
john
Hi John
I have the Blueline J1 and M1b. Love them. I put TCS decoders in them and beside the J1 coming from the factory with a broken idler gear(Matt sent replacement gears real quick) they run fantastic. The easiest steamers to maintain. The boilers come off for oiling and inspections easy without ruining details.
My M1b ran for two days straight at a train show pulling cars without a hitch. The J only ran for a one day show for about six hours. My M1 was pulling 40 loaded hoppers without traction tires and the J pulled more without the rubber treads. So far the M1 has about 40 hours of run time and the J about 25 without any failures. Plus they sound great!!!
Pete
Pete:
Thanks very much for the feedback. I’ll be ordering one tonight since Factory Direct is running a sale.
john
John
I picked mine up at MB Kleins. Better prices than FTD.
Pete
Pete:
My Blueline J1 came early this week. I’ve been testing it out and am having a few problems. I’d like to know if your J1 is behaving the same way.
I’ve installed the appropriate Digitrax decoder (the one they recommend). The engine begins moving at speed step 2 in both directions but there is a noticeable jerkiness as it runs. Going forward and pulling a few cars, the engine seems to be running smoothly but as you watch the cars coupled behind, they are being jerked along as if there was a break in the electrical contact. In reverse, the jerkiness seems to be in line with each driver revolution, which may mean a binding somewhere in the drive train. I’ve run the engine for about 30 minutes in both directions at different speeds and nothing has changed.
When I ran it last night, the headlight started to flicker and now has gone out completely. And running it with the sound muted it sounds like at least one driver axle already needs lubrication.
Maybe I’m being too critical but this is just not acceptable. Has your J1 performed this way?
john