Hi!
I have four BLI ATSF steam locos - the “expensive ones” that came out a couple of years ago with “Quantum Sound”. As I was browsing through Ebay this morning, I noticed a couple of BLI “Blue Line” ATSF 4-8-4 locos “with sound”. Of course the Blue Line runs about $100 less than what I originally paid for mine, which brings about my question…
What is the difference between the brown/orange box BLI locos with Quantum sound vs. the newer Blue line locos “with sound”???
Thank you,
Mobilman44
The new Blue Line are DC-only engines that have a DC-sensitive sound decoder in them…no DCC capability for the drive. So, your lights work, and you get chuff and other sounds, but not the momentum and speed step effects that you would have appreciated in your QSI decoders.
What folks are doing is installing a relatively inexpensive Digitrax or TCS, or Lens motive decoder, usually wanting one with BEMF capability for slow crawling and control of speed on grades, and then programming both decoders to work cooperatively. You’ll find a lot of information posted as sticky posts at BLI’s website in their forum.
-Crandell
Crandell
Thanks for the reply and info! One further question… My BLI locos are run on a DC layout. Would the BLI Blue Line locos give better sound on a DC layout than mine with Quantum sound?
Thanks again,
Mobilman44
I can’t answer honestly because I have never heard a Blue Line decoder’s sound. These new decoders are proprietary to BLI, and I can tell you that the heavy preponderance of personal anecdotes and critiques about these decoders is positive with respect to their sound. The problems come from trying to marry this DC system with a DCC decoder, and then running it using a DCC system. It isn’t intuitive, so much so that the first 10 or 12 threads on BLI’s forum are stickies dealing with the difficulties experienced by rather irate BLI Blue Line users.
If you run your QSI decodered engines on DC, you know what that is like. Your Blue Line engines will be somewhat more responsive, I would think (not sure) in that your motors would want to start to move the engine very soon after a minimal amount of voltage is dialed into the rails. You know this is not the case with the QSI decoders that soak up the first five or six volts put to the track just to get the sounds to issue from the speaker.
QSI had their own sound files, and BLI has acquired their own. They may be largely different…I am unable to say in what way, sorry.
-Crandell
Best place for you to check yourself is the BLI site
http://precisioncraftmodels.com/forum/
the main site aso goes into detail on their Blueline products.
Hi again!
I’ve posted in the BLI site and have no response as of yet. Please, if anyone out there uses a BLI loco on a DC layout, tell me your thoughts on performance and sound.
Thanks again,
Mobilman44
MM, the BLI forum has about five or six regulars who post there, and a few more who look in regularly. I would give it until tomorrow afternoon before you look again. It’s a slow site, but not deathly slow.
BLI once used QSI for dual mode work and still use it in recent releases. But since they divorced from QSI a few years back and went with the Blueline with the goal of capturing the Analog NON DCC market with sounds they did well with the Bluelines.
I have listened to a few Bluelines on Youtube and think the sounds are not that much different. But again, Im not one to tell you one chuff from another chuff.
You can certainly enjoy a blueline on a Analog layout but eventually would want to go into DCC. That is where the issues such as all the stickies that are posted on the BLI site comes into play.
Bluelines have a price advantage against the full bred DCC Dual mode engines such as the QSI’s
I like to keep things simple. I stick with QSI dual mode engines so that they already work on Analog no problems.
You can still find many engines reissued under Blueline that were once first or second run QSI but have to pay attention and be careful to be sure to buy what engines you want.
Pricing is falling across the board each year while waits for products get longer and longer.
Mobilman–
I have some of the older BLI’s with the Quantum Sound that I use on my DC layout, but one disadvantage of the dual-code BLI’s is that I can’t run them with regular DC locos because of the extra power it takes to activate the sound–usually 5 to 7 votes starting. So if I run my BLI’s, I can run either/or, but not both. Though I like the quality of the BLI’s I’ve got, I’ve found that I’m running them less and less because of the power problem. I think that the dual-mode BLI’s are REALLY designed more for DCC layouts than pure DC.
I have heard that the Blueline are the same, even with DC–it takes a large amount of voltage to get the sound going.
Hope this helps.
Tom
You probably will equipt a sound engine with a onboard battery with sufficient capacity to drive the onboard decoder and sound when track is at zero volts before you have any kind of consisting with sound engines.
I occasionally consist two or more DCC engines together on one analog throttle for brief times. As long as the voltage to the engines are constant, they operate rather well together. The problem is power. That little Tech 4 isnt going to stand the heat after a time and needs cooling.
I was debating wether to ask my question on this thread (It’s a diffrent question than the origonal post, but it has to do with BLI steam locos) or just start a new thread all together. So If you think I sould just move it to a new thread tell me. So here it is,
were can I find a ho Brodway Limited Imports ATSF 2-10-2 and 2-10-4? I saw them in my walthers 2007 ho refrence book but there no longer made.
Once agin, if I sould post this on a new thread just say so, but I put it on here to begin so I’m not taking up anouther thread space.