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I got my first Broadway Blueline loco yesterday, a UP, GE AC6000 and I have to say for my first sound loco that I am very, very impressed. It looks great (although not the most detailed loco I have) runs and pulls like a dream and the sound is just great. This definately will not be the last one I buy!
I am happy you like it. I only have the BLI Paragon series steamers and one PCM product, the wonderful Y6b 2-8-8-2 Mallet. The PCM models are more detailed than the Paragon, but I expect the new Paragon 2 engines to be a bit more detailed. I think BLI took a bit of a bath on their PCM line over the past 24 months, so they are rethinking their approach. But to stay competitive, they will have to refine their drives and improve their detailing for the steam lovers because the new Hornby/Rivarossi H-8 Allegheny and the P2K Heritage line of steamers, now years old, have set the standard IMO.
Perhaps you would be interested in a small upgrade do-it-yourself project with some details added to your Blueline diesel?
Some light weathering and the addition of a missing large MU hose (still thinking about what would be good for that! ) are already on the cards, Crandell.
Nice to see the Hornby name come up! they make all my British OO locos which are predominently 1950's/60's BR steam!
Geroge, have you thought of using sprue from a model kit? You can heat it carefully and stretch it out to the desired thickness, let it cool, and then cut the length you need. Add a little nub of sprue to the ends, and then you have your MU hose...?
Some light weathering and the addition of a missing large MU hose (still thinking about what would be good for that! ) are already on the cards, Crandell.
Nice to see the Hornby name come up! they make all my British OO locos which are predominently 1950's/60's BR steam!
I have 3 bluelines and am very happy with them. All good runners and pullers. One is a CSX 6000, one is a SD40-2 and another is a M1a 4-8-2 steamer. Sound is also excellent. the only quirk is getting DCC running right with them.
I thought that was a great idea, so I found a length of single core wire at work today, and made myself some MU hoses from it.So far I,ve fitted 6 of my locos with MU hoses, using Railpictures.net to make sure I got them in the right place.
However I would like to know, do locos in the USA have these hoses on both ends ?. Also do all the railroads use red hoses?
thanks
Ronzzr11
I bought a DC Master control so that I could get the additional sounds for my loco (I haven't gone DCC yet) and when connected all it did was rock back and forth and didn't seem to have any control! Anyone else have this problem or can tell me what I am doing wrong. I connected the red wires to my DC output and the black to the tracks as per instructions!
George, are you sure you have both red wires connected to the variable DC outlets on your power pack? Any chance you have the two red wires slightly touching one another between the terminals? Have you checked with a meter to make sure the two black wires are putting out 12 volts DC when hooked up to the power pack? I'm assuming you have a black wire attached one to each track, not both wires attached to one track. Does your meter show your tracks is getting 12 volts DC? If this all checks out, I'd send an e-mail to service@precisioncraftmodels.com and describe your problem. It sounds like you may have gotten a duff unit.
I just picked up my 2nd ac6000 from a guy on hoyardsale yahoo group for only $90 inc shipping. He said it was a blueline but no sound, and I saw pics of the unit. Its a SP #600. Well I did some research over at BLI's forum, and it turns out that they didn't release the #600 in blueline, only 601 & 602. They released the #600 in paragon, both dcc/sound and dc only.
So anyways I got the unit in and quickly looked it over. Heres what it is: a Paragon shell on a Blueline chassis. The telltale is the paint job is alot more accurate as well as some of the details.
After fighting to get the radiator cover off, someone had glued the thing on, I uncovered the blueline dcc board. Then put it on dc track and influenced the sound to work, put it on dcc track and set the correct address in the blueline decoder. Then built a short 8 pin to 9 pin jst harness and installed a dh123 into, a spare one I had gotten from a recent trade. Using a decoder tester I had gotten in the trade also, I was able to program the decoder to the correct address and then Installed it. He told me it had no sound, but what I discovered was that after he or someone else had weathered the unit with a sprayer, they had painted enough of the wheel surface to cause intermittant shorts in power to keep the sound turned off. I cleaned the wheel surfaces and checked the wiring and all is working great now. She runs like a charm.
I checked everything Jim but still no luck, my friend from across town brought over a spare Guagemaster 'D' controller and when I hooked it up everything worked fine so that appears to have been the problem, a crappy controller! lol!. I was impressed with the Guagemaster overall and bought it off him for $50, a bargain I think!
Sorry to hear the controller is bad, George. You should be able to return it to Precision for a repair or replacement, assuming it's still under warranty.
Hi Jim, sorry I meant that it was my general controller that didn't work with the DCMaster but my new Gaguemaster works with it fine! All is great with my new loco!
