Another Delay at BLI


D&J RailRoad

Professor of HO
I have had a Broadway Limited 4-12-2 on order now for at least three years. They keep pushing the delivery date back and raising the price. The dealer I am buying mine through is still honoring the original price when I ordered, but the anticipation and suspence is killing me.
yeah, I know, once it's delivered it will be a novelty for about an hour or so and then it will meld into the growing roster of other steam locos.

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Sorry you've had to wait for this one. I'd pass on this one. Not even with all the center drivers blind could I get it to run on the ruling (18" R) curves. But, then again, the UP had similar problems on tighter curves on the prototype! Probably one reason they went to the Challenger and Big Boy articulateds.
 
I have the MTH version and it's a nice running machine. It looks good on the broad sweeping curves on the D&J Railroad. I still haven't run my Trix Big Boy on the layout yet. It's still sitting in the china cabinet upstairs.
 
Ken,

3 years and your still waiting???? Darn, I go to another company and tell BLI to forget it.

Also, did I read this right, this loco will, or is supposed to, run run on 18" radius curves? Seriously?? Grief, if it does - I'm buying one!
 
BLI sent out an email just this morning announcing that the Union Pacific 4-12-2 is due soon. They haven't discussed this one loco, still meant to be issued as a hybrid brass, since they announced they'd run head-to-head with MTH way back in 2009 on at least this one instance. The production for this locomotive has been delayed at least twice a year, often three times a year, ever since. Now, this email. I think it looks promising, but also for the Santa Fe type modernized 2-10-2 they listed at about the same time.

I have one of each on order. :cool:
 
I decided to wait it out, I won't buy MTH, and I passed on a brass one for 50 bucks (one side rod piece missing...duh!...dummy! slaps self..) but I think BLI will do a great job on everything...so I will go for it.
 
Perhaps I have missed something, but do you know what the delay with this engine is? I've been looking at BLI engines and they do look extremely nice and worth waiting for.
 
It would be three things that have piled on for BLI: they got mired in yet another court case with MTH in 2011, with the latter bringing the suit over smoke generator technology. MTH lost, but it put a damper on BLI's overall morale and financial situation. Secondly, beginning in 2008, BLI had several different runs of different locomotives where the QA was poor...to say the least. They lost their shirts on refunds and repairs. They had to dump stock to recoup, and it really hurt their bottom line. The final problem was a lack of enthusiasm for the UP 9000 series. For one, the markets crashed and many lost their hourly paid jobs as businesses closed, and also MTH had beat them to the market with their own (silly) articulated version, but such locomotives are costly due to their production costs being higher, as brass hybrids, than for the less costly plastic shells. So, the orders haven't been there for BLI. I don't know what combination has made BLI decide to go ahead, but my guess wouldn't be a sudden interest and several dozen more orders. I think they've recovered a lot of ground with shrewd investing, mostly by bringing to market popular former releases where the first run or two were good and sold out, and where they held prices somewhat in control. They are now doing well with cash reserves, my guess only, and can afford to tackle some of the more iffy and delayed items. Notable are the the Santa Fe 2-10-2 modernized version and the UP 4-12-2. But, not only them, BLI recently announced they'd take orders for a Pennsy S2 Turbine, certainly an ambitious project. All these developments, plus the Pennsy 2-8-0 coming soon, tell me that BLI has regained its momentum and its intent to dominate the steam market.
 
BLI's Big Boy is now MTH's Big Boy. It was part of a settlement between the Korean builder of BLI's Precision Craft Models (PCM), under which the Big Boy and Mallet Y6b were offered in 2005/06, and MTH. BLI didn't own the tooling outright, so MTH pointed to the losers bench and said,"We'll take that, 'n that, 'n that...." . They shrewdly took BLI's wonderful locomotive to leave their main competition high 'n dry. It's really too bad MTH couldn't keep the wheels on the production and quality assurance because many have posted significant and serious problems with their latest batch of Big Boys. ;)
 
Thanks Crandell. I guess that is something that will take awhile to come back from; especially getting the confidence of their customer base back in tact. As said though, I've taken a look at their models and they look excellent, just a pity they have had so many set backs.
 



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