By now you all know that I am addicted to small switcher engines. Therefore it will come as no surprise that I bought a BLI Plymouth W-Series 35 ton yellow unlettered switcher with weathering that is offered exclusively by Factory Direct Hobbies (factorydirecthobbies.com).
Here it is:
You can immediately see that the ‘weathering’ is just a bunch of brush strokes with a gray wash and some rusty red speckles. It is a total joke! I’ll have to see if I can remove the brush strokes from the cab and then get out some decals and my air brush.
The DCC locomotive runs okay and it is very quiet, but the decoder needs some adjustments. With the decoder set on ‘0’ momentum it stops immediately which is to be expected. However, when I applied momentum at anything more than ‘1’ it ran on for totally unrealistic distances. With the momentum set at ‘1’ it runs for 6" - 8" which is reasonable.
Power pick up is inconsistent. I cleaned my test track thoroughly and I cleaned the wheels with alcohol but the engine still hesitated regularly. It does have traction tires installed on the middle axle. I’m going to see if it has power pick up on all six wheels. If so I may remove the traction tires.
Another disappointing aspect is that the lights are very dim. Unless you are staring straight at them they are almost impossible to see. I think that is inexcusable with todays bright LEDs. I suspect that the LEDs are mounted inboard with light tubes feeding the actual lamps. I’m going to open it up to see how the lighting is done, and if they are using light tubes I will change the setup to having LEDs mounted directly inside the lamps.
Despite my negative comments, overall it is a nice little engine. With a little effort it can be made much nicer.
DCC power, short wheelbase, and traction tires seems to invite inherent conflicts that limit the ability of this switcher to even run correctly.
I had a LL DCC/Sund SW8 that had traction tires on the back power truck, making the loco stall constantly. Removed the traction and the small slots that held the rubber in place were still problematic. Finally replaced the geared wheelset with a wheelset from a DC SW9.
I have to disagree with your suggestion that this locomotive should have problems running properly. This locomotive has three axles. I have several two axle critters that run just fine, granted that most of them have keep alives. I agree that more weight might improve the wheel contact with the rails but I think that that solution would be covering up the basic problems. The locomotive should not be stalling on straight track. I’m going to work on it a bit to see if I can improve its performance.
I guess I was being cryptic. I should have said that cutting a three axle short switcher down to two (for power pickup) because of traction tires on the third set, while adding DCC which needs good power pickup, is a design problem.
More weight would help offset the loss of the traction tires, if you replaced them with power wheels.
Three powered axles, DC, and more weight; and this switcher would probably never stall and would pull reasonably well.
Or if it just came with a keep alive installed from the factory, at minimal expense to offset the conflicting design issues; that would be a reputable thing to do, IMO.
i suggest you oil and lube the engine as necessary and run it in on a test loop for say two hours in both directions. Then critique the engines running qualities.
Only the front and rear axles are needed for reliable power pickup. With the keepalive on board even one axle will be enough.
I’d be interested to know how this BLI product stacks up against the similar Walthers ML8 DCC with powerful little keepalive on board. Mine runs flawlessly, no sound though. Only two axles and quite heavy for its size being cast metal. I love mine. It is undeniably cute.
BLI occasionally delivers up a complete failure. Wonder if this is one of those times?
A Walthers MAINLINE product right?, not even an upscale PROTO?
Sounds like they designed it properly. Metal body, keep alive; both overcoming inherent flaws of a small short wheebased switcher, where they also install phinicky DCC. Kudos to Walthers.
That is why I don’t share pictures of my weathering failures. All my freight cars have a good side and a bad side. You guys never see the bad side.
My favorite critter was the General Motors model 40, but that is only because I worked on one in real life.
I did a demo-run on one of those Walthers locomotives at the National Train Show in Orlando. It was amazing. They had plastic rail sections on the demo track, and it worked perfectly.
At any moment in time, there are a minimum of three wheels touching the rails, one on one side and two on the other. There CAN be more, but only by good luck.
Think tripod, on an uneven surface. An added fourth leg (wheel) might touch the ground. It might not. Or, think of the times you’ve sat on a four legged chair, and rocked it back and forth a little.
I would think it not unlikely that the wheel(s) with the traction tire might be, on occasion, the single wheel on one side holding up the engine.
Thus I would not be surprised at stalling.
The smoother, cleaner, flatter your track, the better the odds of having a fourth, or more, wheel also touching the track well enough to conduct electricity.
Anyway, I’m a big believer in “keep alives”, and that would be my first thought. The trick is finding room inside.
I just had to go on the Factory Direct Website to see how this is presented. Well, I was shocked to see that they advertise the model as weathered, but don’t show the result on screen. The site shows the unweathered version, and states that “This one will be weathered and yellow”. What a mess… And I thought the weathered Rivarossi Big Boys were bad!
About installing keep-alive, there was this thread:
I contacted Factory Direct Hobbies to express my disappointment in the weathering job. They apparently agree because they said they have discontinued the weathered option.
You make a good point about the locomotive needing to be run in, but I’m not sure that is the problem. I ran it for about 30 minutes and it didn’t stall at speed step 12 and above. At lower speeds, most of the time it started up again on its own without having to be nudged. Based on Ed’s explanation, I’m more inclined to suspect the traction tires. The critter won’t be pulling more than one or two boxcars so the need for traction tires is questionable.
Gidday Dave, while I’d rather not argue with Ed, his theory is relevant particularly for poorly laid track, which I suspect is not the case, in your instance.
However, if removing the traction tyres are the easy fix, well…[:|]
