I finally got my BLI Dreyfuss Hudson today!! I’ll post the photo gallery a little bit later, but I’ll at least tell you about it right now.
The model looks outstanding! The detail is excellent. They put just about everything imaginable on there, and it’s all very clean and looks great. They even put all of the separate detail under the streamlining on both the engine and tender. The paint is great, with very smooth and bold coats, and all of the lettering and striping is clean and sharp. And, the striping on the tender is at the correct height from what I can tell. It comes with traction tires installed, but they also give a driver set without tires. The couplers are metal Kadee clones, and they give an optional front coupler which can be installed very easily.
Now for the running. Out of the box, it was pretty bad and needed minor tweaking.
The traction tires made it just a tiny bit “bouncy”, so I would recommend using the non-tired set for smoother running (easy fix, and they provide a tool).
The trailing truck spring is rather heavy and was literally lifting the engine enough that the rear drive wheels barely made contact. Cutting about 3/32" of the spring off completely fixed that, increasing the traction significantly and eliminating a certain rocking motion (easy fix).
The tender axles are blunt and dry, making it roll noisy and a little stiff. A little oil made it better (easy fix, but watch the truck wires while you do it).
The engine was a bit light up front, making it unbalanced and reducing traction. There’s a lot of emp
I am happy you got a nice looking Dreyfus, Darth, and it sounds like a beauty. There are some QA issues spoken about on other fora, notably wobbly tires of the traction kind. Makes me wonder if they are keyed and the installers are not placing the bands in the correct position in the rims. How else to explain why they thump and bump? Axles not centered in the wheels?
The thumping around corners, could that be valve or rod contact? Maybe a sliding axle causes the internal gearing to get into a rough spot?
I just checked the wheels, and the center drivers were off by just a few degrees. BLI used half-axles pressed into brass reinforced plastic tubes, so it was pretty easy to twist the drivers slightly and correct the issue. I’d label that one as a moderate fix. But there’s no more thumping on curves now!
I also added another 1/2 ounce to the front, so the balance is now perfect. With the traction gained from adding 1 1/2 ounces of weight and reducing the tension on the rear truck, the traction is more than enough for a decent passenger train. And, the thing runs smooth as can be now.
You say it need “minor” “tweaking” right out of the box.
Then you go on with a whole list of touching just about everything on it to adjust this and that and that and this and taht thing and the other thing to get it running right, then had to do further wheel adjustments?
And Crandell mentions QA issues?
Sounds a little more than “minor” to me.
And you paid how much for it to do all this work on it?
If you are happy with it, great. But I expect that a loco should run reasonably well right out of the box from the factory, just like I would expect a brand new car to run reasonably well right off the assembly line.
I would also expect a “top-of-the-line” model to run properly right out of the box. But I’m glad everything that needed fixing was easy to do. Clip a spring, move a wire (probably uncommon), switch an axle, and oil a couple spots. The flywheel and extra weight are things most people will live with or not even notice, and the out of quarter axle was probably a fluke. At least this isn’t like many other “top-of-the-line” models that often needed gear replacement (Genesis 2-8-2 and 4-6-2), motor replacement (Intermountain Cab Forward), or a complete overhaul (60s and 70s brass of similar or higher price).
It used to be Broadway locos were not lubed at the factory and included a little notice reminding you to lubricate them before running. is this no longer the case? Personally, that’s how I would prefer it to be, to avoid the typical Bachmann goopy load of grease that gets all over the packaging.
I own several Bachmann locos an have added a drop of lube to them all. Perhaps in days of yore they did, but They do not come with a “goopy load of grease all over the package”. The packaging is clean enough to eat off.
I refer specifically to the E33 electric that had visiable grease int h bottom of the palstic shell used to enclose the loco, as well as on the undersideof the truck cover plates. When I popped them off it was easy to see why. I cleanedout the excess and wiped off botht he underside of the cover plate and the box so it wouldn’t migrate to painted areas. My more recently purchasesd 44 tonner also had the bottom of the trucks all shiny from grease or oil but since the loco had a layer of protective tissue to prevent the paint from being rubbed on the box, that’s as far as it went. The gearboxes had rather large globs of grease but not much was actually on the gears themselves.
BLi is not consistent that way, Randy. My first, their Paragon Hudson, had the note you mentioned saying to lube the gear and axles before running it too long. The Hybrid Q2 had a note saying that the engine didn’t need lubing…it had enough for a while. I found the wrapping paper which was around the engine had oil stains on it.
I am happy to report that my Dreyfuss Hudson arrived a little over an hour ago. I unpacked it and placed it on the track. Here are my initial findings:
WOW! - She IS a BEAUT and runs like a champ!! [Y][8D]
Being mostly brass, the Hybrids have some nice weight to it.
There’s barely a hint of a wobble with mine - I think breaking it in will smooth that out. It does have the traction tire installed.
Mine came w/o an engineer in the cab - Not a biggie. I may contact BLI to see if they will send one in the mail.
Smoke comes pre-loaded in smoke unit - This is my only complaint about the unit. I would prefer to add that myself if I felt inclined. However, I imagine that BLI wanted to test the smoke units out before shipping.
Not sure if the blue NYC herald on the front skirt is accurate for the '40 Dreyfuss or not - I’ll have to check on that. It should be a somewhat easy fix if it’s black instead.
Anyhow, she’s a keeper!! [Y][:D] Unfortunately, NOW I’ll be looking at getting the '40 20th Century cars to accompany it. I know that MTH plans on releasing some at some point. I’m still hoping that BLI will eventually decide to “through their hat into the ring” on that one.
I’m glad I waited for the BLI version of the Dreyfuss rather than settling on the MTH. Okay, I think I’m ready for my nap now…[|)]
I think they put a little oil in it to remind the new owner that it has a smoke box and the box is turned on. Otherwise it would burn up if on and no oil was used.
I’m glad your Hudson worked great out of the box, tstage! I guess the quality is a little hit and miss, but at least the problems on the bad ones are fixable.
I’m currently running mine with Walthers Pullman cars. I don’t think they’re entirely accurate for the 20th Century Limited, but they do look good with the Dreyfuss!