Just curious. For the past two years, they have released items, mostly reruns, and spread about 2-3 months apart. They were updating their delivery schedule about every 4-5 weeks with some items continuously moved back.
Now, suddenly, they are announcing a new-tooling N&W J, another Hudson release (this will be #4 if I have it correctly, one of which was a Blueline…not sure?), plus a new USRA Pacific. Frankly, this was surprising to me. Additionally, if you check their website for their delivery schedule regularly, they have been updating it about every 10 days!
I don’t wonder at their decisions; the J and Pacific are almost no-brainers if even one of their staff members gets out of bed and reads the forum once a week. People have been pleading for a USRA Pacific almost as long as I have been here, and when MTH took possession of the BLI tooling for the J four years ago, they released their rather expensive version soon afterwards. The MTH version’s prices are still very high, but trainworld has the new BLI offer for under $300 with new Paragon2 decoder/sound.
I wonder if BLI should just drop a couple of the hangers-on in their roster, such as the 4-12-2, and build a Yellowstone. In plastic, with sound, I’d bet they can produce it for under $400.
The Hudson has only been released in the Paragon and Paragon2 series. The Niagara came in the Paragon and Blueline series. The Mikes came in all three.
This offering of Hudsons is coming with mostly new numbers. The addition of Michigan Central units #8221 & #8224 is a very nice and welcome change from the norm.
Thanks for pointing that out, Tom. I hadn’t looked that closely at the list to notice, but widening the range from strictly NYC could be a good move.
I agree with UP4-12-2 and the general subject of this thread. BLI seems to be having a lot of turmoil, and I can’t quite figure out what has changed, and why the sudden quick deadlines. The new tooling for the J is right out of left field. Two whole weeks notice until a pre-order deadline for a USRA Pacific?
It is bizarre behaviour for this hobby. To date, anyway.
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For what its worth I dont think the J was part of the lawsuit that was awarded to MTH. The price discrepancy between the two manufacturers may be due to the materials used for the body. MTH being metal and BLI being ABS.
I think the short turn around/announcement might be a way to try to change the general perception that they dont deliver in a timely manner.
Green, now I seem to recall that I was in error about the J three years ago when I posted that it was involved. Don’t know why I keep slipping that particular model into the settlement in my mind, but you are correct. Thanks for pointing it out to me. The price difference could partially be accounted for by the metal shell, but I can’t see it being over $140 more. M.B. Klein currently has two MTH J’s varieties listed, several going for $449 and two items in the $780 range. I can’t see the difference, but there they are.
Sorry to resurrect this thread. I figured it is appropriate to note that BLI is now listing Y6B’s and another run of the T-1’s. Not surprising, and following other manufacturers, the cost of the locos have gone up considerably. The Y6B is close to 100.00 more than it was a couple of years ago. Wow!
I was looking up one of their products and this thread showed in my search.
They did finally get the SP Daylight articulated chair cars out a couple months ago.
I emailed them earlier this year and they cited delays at the factories in China. I recall at least one other train brand saying they were having troubles in China in the last year or so, so maybe there is something to it.
Re-run vs. new models is probably an easier one. The work is paid for, they can re-hit the molds, make another run with few minor updates a lot less expensively than an all-new locomotive type. It just might be hard for them to justify the bigger investment in a tough economy.
It’s probably MTH. I’ve been waiting for their 1940 20th Century Limited passenger cars since 2009. The 5-car set, 4-4-2 sleeper car, and 2-car sleeper set are supposedly due out this month, as per the web site. However, I’ve seen delivery dates come and go so I’m not holding my breathe quite yet…
A prime example of BLI doing well is the upcoming release of the USRA PAcifics, I think that Broadway Limited will do very well with the release of their USRA Pacifics.
Many model railroaders have been asking for USRA Pacifics on a number of model railroad oriented forums.
I thought that either Bachmann would have been the manufacturer who picked up on these requests, but that does not seem to be the case.
I will certainly pickup a couple of these engines when they are releasedl