Special thanks to Broadway Limited staff

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I just received my blue line j1 2-10-4 in the mail after sending it in for repairs about 2 months ago. As I mentioned before, the engine wobbled badly from side to side when running, and the light flickered, it came like this new, out of the box.

Happy to report that everything is fixed, and it runs perfectly now, would like to give credit where it is due, and thank the broadway limited staff for their prompt and efficient service department. All of the repairs were done free of charge.

Although the company appears to suffer from a few quality control issues, at least in some cases, I can’t recommend their service highly enough. Very thoughtful people that work there, and they release the best HO engines, in my opinion. I will gladly be sticking with this company and plan on buying many more engines from them.

I am sure the people that fixed my engine probably don’t read forums that much, but I thought I should put in a good word for the excellent work that they do. I encourage others to buy from BLI, so I hope this post helps with that a little.

2

I have the Paragon version of that engine and it remains my favourite. Happy is the day you can play with a BLI Pennsy J1.

-Crandell

3

rjake,

Thanks for sharing the recent news about your returned (and now working [yeah]) 2-10-4. [:)][tup]

After nearly 28 months of waiting, my BLI NYC L-4a Mohawk arrived two weeks ago. Unfortunately, it had some unfixable running issues so I had to send it back to BLI for repair. [:(] I do look forward to getting it back in a few weeks (or sooner) and letting it take its maiden voyage around the layout.

Tom

4

glad to hear things worked out for you. yet, i question why we are so pleased when someone takes our money and then gets it right the second time around.

i told this before but it reminds me of when a friend bought a jeep cherokee years ago and bragged on how nice the service department was. it was in the shop 21 times for warranty work during the first year he owned it. that means he only got 95% of the usage he had expected not to mention the time and gas going back and forth to the shop.

i am curious to know if you really got your original locomotive back or did they just test some until they found one that was right and send it to you? if so will your original one wind up on ebay?

as for the people who do the repair work, possibly, they are not the prisoners or children that build the things in the first place.

sort of like when i toured the gm assembly plant and the tour guide said they were testing the export models for water leaks. primarily the ones destined for mid east countries. guess those guys expect higher quality than the faithful american buyers and it is harder to get service over there. heck, i didn’t know it rained much over there. he didn’t like my questions and just hustled our group off to the paint department.

bottom line, why can’t we get what we paid for the first time?

grizlump

5

Add my special thanks here also. I purchased, my first BLI loco, from a hobby shop. Several small pieces (class lights and hand rails) for boiler front were missing. An e-mail shot off to BLI had the missing parts in my PO box 4 days later. Thanks BLI. And by the way, I don’t hold BLI responsible for missing parts, box was open at hobby shop to display the engine so could have become missing there. Ken

6

grizlump,

While I do understand where you are coming from, once into BLI vs. 21 times into the dealership is a rather extreme comparison. If I had a car (or locomotive) in even a 1/3 of that many times for warranty work, you can pretty much guarantee that I’d be asking the dealer for a full refund. I’m guessing either your friend’s state didn’t support the lemon law or it wasn’t enacted at that point in time.

Granted that BLI seems to have it’s share of QC problems with their new locomotives, I will gladly take an initial trip into the manufacturer and they get it right the “second time around” to a better track record but woe to anyone who has to have work done by them on your locomotive.

With that said, it would be interesting to find out what the actual % of BLI’s stock is returned for repair because of initial manufacturing/production problems and what their satisfaction % is after it’s returned to the customer vs. other MRRing manufacturers.

Tom

7

Larry and Matt at BLI do a great job trying to make you happy. But, I should not know there names! I have 4 BLI steam, 2 PCM steam and 3 Blue Line diesels. Out of the 9 engines, only 4 have not been sent back for some kind of repairs.

BLI does stand behind there warranty, and in two case engines where out of warranty and they still fixed them! Now that is customer services! On the other hand, I do not know a single name of one repair person at Proto or Athearn?

I wonder what Matt and Larry thinks about BLI QC, bet they will keep it to them selfs.[:-^]

Cuda Ken

8

Well, just these past few days my Blue Line prr J1 is in pretty bad shape again…Light flickers all the time now, and even worse, a new problem that never appeared before. The sound literally dies all the time when running, when first starting, there is at least several seconds of silence, sometimes no sound at all. The sound always stalls, intermittent chuffing, dead silence for a few seconds, then back again, and gone again…its driving me crazy. It seems to always do it when running fowards, chuff disapears, horn still works at all times.

I too have a brand new Paragon J1 2-10-4, I bought it a few weeks ago, runs perfect, bright light at all times, no flickering, no sound problems? Whats the deal with Blue Line anyway, they are far too expensive in my opinion, at least for this much hassle. No offence to anyone on here, its just my opinion about this line of products.

I don’t blame the techs, still many thanks to both of them for their kindess and hard work. Its more the company. What should I do? Could I sell it broaday for a cheap price so it could be refurbished and sold by the company at a lower price?

I have the Paraon one, never a single problem it. Its definately a favorite. I really don’t want to have to pay shipping again, then wait several months, What should I do? Is there any way out of this mess? I almost don’t even want the Blue Line one any more, there isn’t even a glowing bright firebox, as there is in the paragon version which I just bought.

I don’t want to sell it to anyone, I would never sell them a defective train, for obvious moral reasons. I just want to get rid of this thing, the only other blue line I want is the T1 duplex.

Sorry for the rant, its not a big deal I guess, just had vent. Thanks guys.

9

Ah, Cuda Ken you are so right, something is seriously wrong with this company concerning this area.

10

Far as the Blue Line, I have had 3, one starting acting pretty quickly and ULRICH Modles sent me a replacment. I have had no other problems with them.

Yap, paying the shipping does stink, but they will take care of the problem.

One thing I would check is to make sure all the wires are tight. I sent my PCM Y6-b in one time for repair and sounded just like the problem you are having. All that was wrong is the Locksound decoder had came lose.

If you really don’t want it, PM me.

Cuda Ken