Does anyone know if any models of the EMD BL2 locomotive were ever made or avalibile at present or any info on kitbashing one many thanks WP
Proto 2000 made them at one time. Here are some available on eBay:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=proto+2000+BL2&category0=
Don Z.
Did they do any in the Demo scheme?
Also, the Prot BL2s in yellow boxes usually come with cracked axle gears. You’ll probably need to replace them. Blue boxes have DCC plugs on them Yellows don’t. (they predate DCC). Both are solid runners.
Here is the list of roadnames from the last run:
Don Z.
AHM also had the in the 60’s, but they weren’t real good models or runners. ( I have at least 4 of them )
I also have 4 of the early Proto 2000’s. All 4 cracked the axle gears. Lifelike sent free replacements. They run and look great.
Rotor
The P2K model is an excellent starting point for detailling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIwSpPcOmCQ
Jon
Somewhere along the line I had a body of the old AHM BL2 given to me. It took some work but I put an Athearn GP40 chassis under it and it runs on my ficticious Oregon Central & Pacific.
Life-Like also has a BL2 in N scale, as well as the Proto 2000 in HO. A friend of mine collects them–he has 33. I believe there were only something like 58 made by EMD, so he’s more than halfway there.
Jon thats a great job on the Monon BL2!! Also enjoyed You tube…Cox 47
Does your friend have a photogallery? Please say yes so I can drool on my keyboard again.
Jon:Which decoder is that?
I don’t think so, but I’ll ask. I should have been clearer–he has 33 Life-Like N scale BL-2s. I think he’s crazy, but it takes all kinds. What do I know? I like Frisco RS-2Ms.
I have a BL2. I bought a Proto 2000 tan box in Monon (like Jon’s) for $25. I replaced the cracked axles, and it runs flawlessly now. I’m toying with repainting it for Rock Island, as Monon doesn’t fit my interests. I’d like to put a sound decoder in, so I’m curious what Jon used in his.
I bought the last two Blue box blts from a hobby store for 33 a piece. Undecs, one may become a Demo, or they may both become HO&N
I believe BL-1 was their designation for the demonstrator model only. Not sure if it ended up in service anywhere.
There were two BL-2’s on the Western Maryland, and both are still in existence. 81 is under glass at the Beano Museum in Baltimore, unlikely to ever run again, although it came into town as part of an operating lashup pulling a revenue freight (this was in the early 80’s after she had been retired from yard service at Hagerstown)
The nitwits at the museum didn’t cover the stacks, so water got into the manifold and now everything is locked up with internal rust.
Happily, her sister, #82, is still alive and well, and still in revenue service on the West Virginia Central in Belington, WV.
Here’s a video of her I shot when I was in the area in February of 2007.
I have both models on my N scale layout:
Lee
Mechanical difference. I believe a read something about a Rock Island BL-1. But they sran the demo, then upgraded the product.
According to the Second Diesel Spotters Guide, Page EMD 51 and 52, there was no difference between the BL-1 and BL-2. Just an example of over eager model numbering at EMD.
The BL-1 was the demo, EMD road number 499. It was sold to C&EI who also had BL-2s. They reported no differences.
I know, don’t trust Wikipedia.
So the BL-1 wasn’t a team player
As from The Second Diesel Spotters Guide:
“EMD demonstrator no. 499, officially a “BL1”, is indistinguishable from BL2’s. Many persons, including EMD’s own public relations people, have said that lack of m.u. distinguishes the BL1 from BL2’s, but this builder view plainly shows that 499 was m.u.-equipped. Also, BM’s BL2’s did lack m.u. but were BL2’s nevertheless.”
I can not post the picture (it is on page EMD 52, a rear view of 499) as I do not have it but maybe it’s the different kind of m.u.?
However, I would trust a book like the Guide over an unnamed author web entry, take mine as you see fit [8D]
I wrote that entry in Wikipedia, will have to find the source again, but the BL1 was built with an air throttle. The Second Diesel Spotter’s Guide is a great 35-year-old book that is quite dated. If you want to bank on that book, I know what kind of research you do.
In John Paton’s Chespapeake & Ohio BL2 Diesels (C&OHS, 1991), he explains the difference between the BL1 and the BL2 as being that the BL1 had an air-actuated throttle, while the BL2 was the version built with an electrically-actuated throttle like that used on the F3.
BL1 demonstrator #499 (EMD project #89499) was built and demonstrated with the air-actuated throttle, but all production models had the conventional electrically-activiated throttles which permitted them to be MUed with other locomotives. #499 was converted to an electrically-actuated throttle and equipped with MU hardware before its sale to the C&EI.
The C&O (which had the largest fleet of BL2s of any road) found that MUing BL2s put a good deal of strain on the frames, leading to frame cracking problems. Minor cracks were just patch-welded, but major frame cracking took BL2 #84 out of service for good by 1959.
I’m not certain where Life-Like got the idea that the BL2 had the late-1970s-style Blomberg Type M trucks with “shock absorbers” they used on their HO model, but I haven’t seen a photo showing any BL2 in prototypical service with that kind of modern truck beneath it. The sideframes from their GP7 , or the Athearn GP7, look much more convincing and are easy to substitute.
Thank you for the citation. I think I read it in a Hundman publication about the air throttle. I am going to update the Wiki page to the correct terminology of air actuated or electrically actuated throttle. You can’t do that to a 35-year-old book.
My SWAG on the BL2s with Blomberg Ms is that the Proto BL2 and GP60 were somehow on the same production line. The BL2 and GP60 have basically the same wheelbase at 35’. I saw one of these BL2s in a hobby shop and had a good laugh.
Ed