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Broadway Limited Imports, HO scale, PRR class J1 2-10-4
I’m a huge fan of pennsy. I love the class of J1 that’s a texas type of locomotive.
I Recently bought a BLI C&O 2-10-4 #3007. It comes standard with DC sound and an 8 pin plug for DCC directional upgrade. While operating it in DC I had a derailment and it no longer moves or sounds in DC. I Bought a Digitrax Zepher and a TCS T-1 decoder for it. I plugged in the decoder and I can now get movement but still no sound. I tried resetting it in direct without the TCS decoder as per factory recomendation but nothing. I called BLI and got a huge run around as they begged me to send it to them. Though It has no sound I do treasure this loco because of its detail and otherwise good pulling preformance. Is there anyway anyone can tell me of someone who can supply me with a direct replacement sound board? Though it is a BLI the Board says “Precision Craft Models HO-100-C” and I’d hate to see this lovely lost in the mail.
December 19th, 2012.
Sometimes the QSI sound chip will lose it’s memory, which is what seems to have happened wioth the J-1 above. I have one of the first run ones and it was working OK in 2007 before my move to Texas, so this week I am going to see if it can still run. If the sound chip is shot, you can get a new one from BLI, but you will need to obtain a chip holder or changer. The old units like mine are probably due for upgrading, but worse comes to worse, send it back to BLI insured and certified, that way you’ll know they got it. I had to send back a K4 for correction and they were very good about it.
Cheers,
Kyle F. McGrogan
August 2nd, 2013.
Actually I have had the chance to run the J1 I have above here in Springfield at the Springfield Model railroad Club, and with the original all metal drivers (no traction tires), I cleaned out two yard tracks of modern and fairly heavily weighted cars, and took them around the railroad at the club, only stalling on one grade where I had no momentum after a derailment. Strangely enough, I had to double head it into the yard with a Walthers HO PRR H 10-44 switcher. The J1 seems to be doing well for an original run locomotive, but the M1 from that time period is acting as if she has a cracked bull gear, and if so, I will say she is probably shot. I have two original run I1sa’s that had cracked bull gears, and BLI did not honor the warranty, theough they had never been run (they were 4 years old at the time-never out of the box), and although I paid them to replace the bull gears, they still are worthless as runners.
The K4 mentioned above lost its memory again (time for a Tsunami decoder folks), and I hope they get the H10’s right the first time around, otherwise I will stick to upgrading brass (old) as I have PFM and Westside brass that still runs very good after twenty five or more years in the box… I think from my experience that BLI’s old equipment was good, the later stuff has not been worth what we pay for it… Time to move the production back to the US or to Japan or Korea.