BLI Paragon2 Cab Forward - Disappointment


D&J RailRoad

D&J RailRoad

Professor of HO
I keep buying these BLI locomotives and end up having to send em back for repairs.
Each time I tell myself to stop buying the BLI stuff.
Well, I did it again and bought a Cab Forward with Paragon2 from Trainz.com. Something in the back of my mind said, "don't do it", but I brushed that off like an annoying nat.
It arrived yesterday and I had some time to do a bit of adjusting sounds and address today. Then I realized there was no chuff sound, and the smoke wasn't working except for an occasional slight wisp and a bit of smoke smell.
I started reading on line and turns out this was a common problem with the Paragon2 model.
So, when ya buy a BLI model, ya might want to check online for problems because they certainly won't fix or check em before they ship em out.
 
They haven’t made Paragon 2 stuff for probably a decade or so. They’re up to Paragon 4 now. I couldn’t begin to tell you how much Paragon 2 stuff I had problems with.
 
I mentioned this a couple of months ago.

I own 3 diesel locomotives that are BLI Paragon 3 and one the 1st Blue BLI SD7. (some of the P3s are on my YouTube vids) That is all I will ever buy or own. I did research over the years. It had been 15 years before I bought the Paragon 3s. I will not buy anymore, at least for now. I am happy with the P3s but I have so many friends that had the 1st editions and the P2s with so much trouble and I stayed away. I am sorry you had trouble with that steamer. That sucks. On my P3 diesels I turned off the smoke units as I deem it unnecessary. I suspect in the next 5 years the technology will get better yet again for them as well as for other manufacturers.

I have the Athearn Tsunami2 in both 844 and 4014 steam locomotives and love them! When the 3985 Tsunami2 comes out I will get that one.

The other company that I never bought into was MTH (although cosmetically beautiful) as I hated that they were bucking the system with their DCS. Look what happened. I did however buy one locomotive that I had to have and it is on my YouTube channel. It is an ES44. .

In any event I stick with Athearn, Bowser, Scale Trains, Atlas and Kato.
 
I have 15 BLI steamers in their Paragon, Paragon 2, Paragon 4, and PCM series. I have one BlueLine that has a QSI Titan in it, now 11 years old, and it still works well. I have had a couple small glitches, including having to send two steamers back because their lights wouldn't work. But, they came back fixed and I still have all steamers working well. The QSIs in the Paragon series are slowly dying off, but I've lost only two of the original seven I had. I lost one Paragon 2 in-house decoder, one Loksound, and replaced another Loksound because the sound files were for Thomas the Tank engine or some other toy when it was supposed to be an H-8 2-6-6-6.

I think the weak point of BLI locomotives over the years, their steamers, has been the tether between the tender and the rear of the cab. If the pins get bent, or corroded or dirty, or if the plug isn't inserted fully home, you can get sounds but no movement.

I have 5 BLI Hybrid Brass steamers, all incredible, and all running like tops. I have three Paragon 4 steamers purchased over the past two years and am amazed at their details and ability to compensate for broken pickup here and there due to uneven tracks or undulations that can't be seen easily, but which the locomotive senses.
 
This has gone from bad to dang it.
I had contacted bli on their tech support page and they told me it was a simple circuit board to swap out. They asked me if I would like to do the work myself. I responded that I thought I was quite capable for them to go ahead and send me the part. The part arrived, which is on the right in the picture here.
20231212_211840.jpg
the packaging said it was the chuff sensor for the fef locomotive. I thought that was odd but then figured the two locomotives shared the same electronic circuit board. I began the disassembly of the cab forward locomotive to find where this board would install. I got all the way down to the bare frame and the only thing I could find similar to that small board on the right in the picture was the sensor that was soldered to the bunch of wires on the left. I removed that sensor as well but even the wires wouldn't match up to the plugs on the small circuit board. I contacted bli and they said they may have sent me the wrong part. They sorted out what the right part would be which is in the picture.
noname.png


This board goes on top of the motor.
Now, I'll try to reassemble the loco from this mess of parts.

20231217_162501.jpg


The board should arrive this next week.
 
D&J RailRoad said:
This has gone from bad to dang it.
I had contacted bli on their tech support page and they told me it was a simple circuit board to swap out. They asked me if I would like to do the work myself. I responded that I thought I was quite capable for them to go ahead and send me the part. The part arrived, which is on the right in the picture here.View attachment 178189 the packaging said it was the chuff sensor for the fef locomotive. I thought that was odd but then figured the two locomotives shared the same electronic circuit board. I began the disassembly of the cab forward locomotive to find where this board would install. I got all the way down to the bare frame and the only thing I could find similar to that small board on the right in the picture was the sensor that was soldered to the bunch of wires on the left. I removed that sensor as well but even the wires wouldn't match up to the plugs on the small circuit board. I contacted bli and they said they may have sent me the wrong part. They sorted out what the right part would be which is in the picture.
View attachment 178190

This board goes on top of the motor.
Now, I'll try to reassemble the loco from this mess of parts.

View attachment 178191

The board should arrive this next week.
Click to expand...
I think it's maybe one of those occasions where it might have been simpler to let them do the work.
 
Got the drive train put back together. I'll just leave it as it is without connecting the top board back to the system. That way, when the new long board arrives, I can just unsolder the existing wires and install the new board.
Now, to put the screws someplace where I can't find em again.
 
D&J RailRoad said:
This has gone from bad to dang it.
I had contacted bli on their tech support page and they told me it was a simple circuit board to swap out. They asked me if I would like to do the work myself. I responded that I thought I was quite capable for them to go ahead and send me the part. The part arrived, which is on the right in the picture here.View attachment 178189 the packaging said it was the chuff sensor for the fef locomotive. I thought that was odd but then figured the two locomotives shared the same electronic circuit board. I began the disassembly of the cab forward locomotive to find where this board would install. I got all the way down to the bare frame and the only thing I could find similar to that small board on the right in the picture was the sensor that was soldered to the bunch of wires on the left. I removed that sensor as well but even the wires wouldn't match up to the plugs on the small circuit board. I contacted bli and they said they may have sent me the wrong part. They sorted out what the right part would be which is in the picture.
View attachment 178190

This board goes on top of the motor.
Now, I'll try to reassemble the loco from this mess of parts.

View attachment 178191

The board should arrive this next week.
Click to expand...
Well, I shouldn't throw your own work back at you, but I will: If you can build--did build--that spectacular bridge, this will be annoying and tedious...but almost child's play for you too. Except for the coupler springs you might lose, that is. :p

-----------

As for the screws and where to put them: I do that with both my wallet and keys. A lot. I'm also the same guy who never turns the closet light on when he goes in, but turns it off religiously when he leaves.

Sometimes I do that with the interior light on the car too. Then I have to find the battery charger, which is never where I carefully put it so I wouldn't lose it. Blech.
 
Last edited:
I just got an email from BLI late yesterday. They want me to pay for the circuit board. This is a brand new locomotive, to me. It was new in the box from Trainz.com. I returned the email with that note.
They also told me they will be going on reduced hours till after Christmas so I may not get the part until sometime next week.
Dragging this project out.
 
D&J RailRoad said:
I just got an email from BLI late yesterday. They want me to pay for the circuit board. This is a brand new locomotive, to me. It was new in the box from Trainz.com. I returned the email with that note.
Click to expand...
It doesn't matter when you bought it, it matters when they built it. Every BLI engine I've bought in the last several years spells this out clearly in their warranty. If it's been more than 3 years since it was made, the cost of repair is on you. If it was purchased from an Ebay seller, the cost is on you. If it was purchased new from a third-party, non BLI authorized dealer, the cost is on you.
I currently have a brand-new BLI Y6B that I bought two weeks ago from a non-BLI dealer, and if anything happens to it, I am on the hook for the repairs.
This is not only a model train thing, I am typing this on a brand-new laptop I got as an open-box item, and because I am not the first person to purchase it, it is considered "used", even though it technically should have 11.5 months of its 12month warranty left.
 
I too gave up on them years ago. Too many problems with them. There's a guy in our club that has 3 steam engines that won't run and is going to cost him to fix. They may end up static display in the round house.
 
Finally received the correct chuff sensor and smoke trigger board. Took about 15 minutes to pull the old board off and install the new one on the loco. About six solder connections, a few plug connections then install the shell, connect the tender and give it a test run.

 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top