Nice units, Ken. I just purchased my first one off of that certain auction website as my Christmas gift to myself - it looks terrific but has both the notorious cracked axle issue and also one of the trucks so poorly assembled that it derails just with a light touch without even moving. The friendly chap I talked to at Walthers about it lamented my bad luck and would have been pleased to sell me replacement parts totaling more than I paid for the locomotive. When I told him I could get replacement gears cheaper on Ebay than the price he quoted, he pressed me to tell him who the seller was, as if some great violation had occurred. After mentioning that it was an Athearn gear he gave me the "those are NOT compatible with Proto gears, they have a different number of teeth, they may operate okay for a while but doom and ruination ultimately awaits all who attempt it" lecture. I would describe our conversation as congenial but otherwise completely unhelpful.
Perhaps I can use my time off between now and next week to get it into running condition.
Happy New Year!
Jim
"I am lapidary but not eristic when I use big words." - William F. Buckley
I haven't been sleeping. I'm afraid I'll dream I'm in a coma and then wake up unconscious. -Stephen Wright
I have been running some of my old DC engines lately and dragged out one of my BL2s the other day. I must say I forgot what a great engines they are. They draw low power, robust drive line and great pullers to boot! I have been running one of them for 3 days now with a 30 car drag. Today I switched it for a Athearn Dash 9 that has had weights added and 6 wheel drive trucks. Dash 9 just sat there and spun the wheels.
I bought mine off E-Bay sometime ago for around $25.00 each. They are long out of production so except the following problems.
1 Drive axles will be cracked, all 4 of mine where. But, it is a easy fix with Athearn axles.
2 Lights will not work, or if they do not for long. Easy fix again to wire in new lights, there is no PC board.
For the folks that do not know what they look like here is a picture.
Say you pay $35.00 with shipping, then $4.00 in parts that is $39.00 and will out pull a $80.00 Dash 9. Not a bad deal would you say.
Plus there is still one running, sure someone will post a U Tube link. I thinks it called Doing The Time Wrap.
Enjoying my BL2's again, Cuda Ken
I hate Rust