I know that it sounds a little harsh but that is how I feel right now! I sent in 3 engines for repairs over a month ago. Here is a copy of the letter I sent with the engines.
03-24-2009 RA 8030, 3 engines same number. PCM Big Boy, second time back original RA 6520. Engine locked up and burnt out a Digitrax DH 123 decoder. Before engine locked up it was taking more power than it should to start moving. I found if I ran the engine back wards a couple of inches, then went forward it started at a normal power. Some times the number boards do not light up. They seem to work better at higher speeds? Could you solder
That is a very poor track record you have with those loco’s. You don’t have any luck at all with model trains do you? Have you thought about maybe switching to R/C cars instead, lol. Just kidding, I would just keep sending them back or unload them on Ebay and move on.
Now you know why I don’t buy ANYTHING from BLI anymore. Got tired of the hassle. Run 'em, send 'em back. Get new one, same problem. Aggravating considering how much they cost! I have cheap Athearn’s that have been running 20 years with no problems yet all the BLI’s did was take up space on the shelf. I finally gave them away so they could be somebody else’s headache. That was about the same time I stopped running steamers and went over to diesels. Much easier to work with and a whole lot less finicky.
I don’t know Jeff, I have two Hvy Mikes of the first run, and once I put in the new chip all the problems went away. I love those engines just a little bit more than I like my Bachmann steamers. Neither of which, except for squeeky wheels, have given me, club members, or family any problems.
Just curious Ken. Did these problems occure with your new system or your old one? I know you said you were hoping your recent Digi switch would stop some of the bad luck you’ve been having with decoders and such.
TA462, I just don’t seem to have good luck with BLI for some reason. I have had very good luck with Protos and OK with Athearn. I was doing great with Athearn till I went DCC, there RTR engines seem to do better on DC.
Loathar, problems started happing on the old DCC system. But, I have yet to have a QSI decoder to go bad in a BLI so the old DCC system was not the problem.
Later today I am breaking out the Big Boy and the GE AC 6000 and see how they do. I guess 2 out of 3 would not be that bad?
I definately know where you are coming from here. Although we surely both agree that BLI steamers are beautiful models from the outside, we both seem to have had bad luck with getting them to run properly!
I bought a Blue Line Class A from them, the rods starting coming apart after 2nd run, had my LHS fix that. Fine for a few months.
Now it stalls all the time, like the gears get locked up or something, go figure, this is by far the worst engine I have ever purchased.
Also bought a Blue Line prr J1 2-10-4, (bought 2 of these actually). Lights flickered on both of them, (figured this was just some problem that somebody else could fix, not a big deal right?)
The second one, don’t get me started. Severe wobble on first run, its a real shame too, its such a beautiful looking engine.
Packer, I done OK with there Blue Line desiels. I have had 4, one went bad quickely and was taken back by HLS. Other 3 seem to be fine. I have never tried a BLI desiel, cost to much. Far as desiel’s I like Proto’s, never had a problem with one.
let’s all take a minute and give thanks that the people who are putting out this junk are at least only selling model trains. what if they were into automobiles, home appliances, or industrial machinery? they would be getting some of us killed. it’s just like when i deal with the semi-literates at a drive through restaurant and find that if i order more than two things, one of them will be screwed up. what if that deadhead was working at a pharmacy instead of burger-doodle? God only knows what kind of pills they would be putting in the bottle.
look at where this hobby is going. many of us are now so affluent we can purchase several high priced locomotives and only keep the ones that run right. then we can use e-bay to push the junk off on some poor sucker with a higher threshold of frustration.
are there any manufacturers left in this hobby who actually use their own products?
at what point can we spend enough of our hard earned money to get something that is right the first time?
customer service? bah-humbug! why should we need it?
it all reminds me of a friend who was a Cadillac driver for years and his wife talked him into buying a Jeep. 21 warranty repairs in the first year. the dummy bragged about how nice the dealer was in fixing all the problems. heck, he only went to the Caddy store when he was ready for a new one.
There is a lot of----“I don’t wanna work!!” going on any more—see it in all professions. Social workers fobbing off clients on to some cop by not doing basic follow up–remember due diligence–oh I forgot–never heard of it. Doctors fobbing off patients b/c they have to refer patients to specialists–well, isn’t that what you are supposed to do if patient has issues? Clients left with no one to look after basic needs b/c workers don’t take the time to show up for work. I could go on and on—
I am still a newbe at 52. Did lots of MR as a youth but got interested again in MR in my mid forties. I have some Atlas loco’s and cannot remember hearing many if any complaints about them. I stand to be corrected but do we hear fewer complaints about Atlas.
my personal experience with Atlas has been good. the backbone of my road power fleet is a bunch of atlas Geeps. always run good and never had to fix anything in years. don’t know much about their cars but i did buy some of their rtr hoppers and replaced the couplers with kadee number 5’s for more dependable operation. i don’t care for their switches but i have a bunch of their code 100 flex-track that has worked out well.
most of the problems in the hobby seem to be with the later high end locomotives with all the bells and whistles made by upstart companies that border on hucksters. all hype and no quality. or as they say in Texas, “more hat than cows”
So far—knock on wood—is there any wood here?–oh good—knock knock–I had not had any problems with the ATLAS RS’s I have–they are all behaving quite nicely-----
I spent a hour on the phone today waiting for a real person. Operator picked up after a half hour and said I was the next call! Half hour later again she picked up and said they had went home?
One thing company’s need to keep in mind is the power of the Internet! If there was no Internet I could tell maybe 2 to 6 people that I am PO. I wonder how many people have readied this posting and will think twice about a BLI engine? I will add I never heard of BLI till I was on the Internet and heard about them here, that was 4 years ago. It took me 2 years to be able to buy one. Could there QC got that bad in 2 years?