I have been slowly tracking the BLI F7 units for quite some time. If memory serves it has been a year or so since I learned of these units being produced. I have not yet seen either the B&O or WM units in sample photos. However… the website product schedule has been updated.
The new delivery time shows Winter 2006.
That is a additional year and half away. So. let’s see… **Ticks numbers off on fingers… That works out to almost three years.
What am I to do?
Those Athearn Genesis F units with sound are looking more and more attractive because they are availible now. But not yet in either of the two roads I am looking at.
The same thing happened with the UP mountains and the Santa Fe 2-10-2’s.
Wait until the Genesis sound units are out and listen to them… If they are like the Challenger sound, you may want to skip them also.
BLI has been late on most of their schedules but I don’t believe they have cancelled any of their products. Remerber, they are bringing out the Zephyr cars and the F units go with them.
I’ve noticed a trend among a lot of the model manufacturers to announce a product long before it is ever available.
In some cases, it seems that manufacturers deliberately announce someting just to see how much interest is generated in the form of advanced orders, before they even consider actually producing something.
In a couple of instances, Bachmann has announced a product, only to later cancel it because there were not enough people who expressed an interest in it.
I consider winter to be between october and feburary therefore you could be correct. But Winter 06 probably comes after Summer 06 on the BLI schedules.
Re: Genesis F7s. They’re nice looking units, I hope that the sound equipped versions won’t be dissappointing. Looking forward to hearing a demo unit at my LHS.
If the Athearn Genesis F-units use the new version 3.5 LokSound decoder from ESU, the sound should be very impressive (as will the motor and lighting control). As Athearn is keeping which version of the decoder they are using sort of under the radar right now, we will just have to wait and see. Nothing I have heard or seen matches the sound quality and flexibility of the LokSound v3.5 decoder IMO, and we already know the Genesis F-units are absolutely stunning to look at and have good running mechanisms.
So I think there is a light at the end of the F-unit tunnel (and I hope it’s a train), but I’m playing devils advocate until I see and hear them for sure… [;)]