Broadway Limited Imports Quality Control

[Hamltnblue]

I spent 6 year as a product manager with unrelated electronic product.  When I first started the factory was in the same building.  When a problem was identified, the engineering and production team was brought into the same room and a working solution was implemented within a couple of days. When we shut down the manufacturing section and out-sourced it, the time between issues being identified and solutions implemented became weeks or months.  The Model train industry is no different.  I personally think that China is now getting to a point where it's workers are starting to slack off  some and the percentage of problems is quickly rising. 

I have a Blueline M1a that is just over 2 years old.  Last week the male  plug in the  loco broke.  I called  BLI and ordered 2 replacements which will cost 15 bucks with shipping.  I recommend that anyone who has some mechanical skill try to repair on their own. You'll learn something and also not have to rely on technicians who aren't any better than you to do the work for more money.

 

[BRAKIE]

Crandell wrote:We rarely hear of Atlas diesels needing serious interventions, or Kato.

--------------------------

Actually both Atlas and Kato hasn't escape QC problems..I am sending a faulty N Scale GP9 back to Atlas-I can't figure it out.Darn thing is so slow even with the throttle knob wide open it just crawls.

I have had minor fix 'em at home problems with some Atlas HO engines but,that's a very rare thing.

The funniest was a thumping noise from the lead truck of a Atlas C&O SD35..I took the truck apart and found a small piece of  fried rice or Chinese noodle in the gears.

As far as Athearn (knocking on wood) I haven't had any of the reported QC problems with any of my RTR units..

[twhite]

blownout cylinder

selector

And yet, the fellas who have long histories with a lot of brass locomotives will often say they have to do a lot of work on their brass in order to enjoy them

Crandell, wasn't it TomW that used to talk about how the prototypes would have to fiddle with their new locomotives to get them up to snuff? Seems to me that even the prototypes have to "break in" their locomotives as well so----?

selector

I doubt very much that any of these are tested.  They are given the final okay for the full production run, some QC must take place at the factory while the run takes place over a week or more, but obviously many units are assembled incorrectly.  Many of us have models that arrive well assembled and that run perfectly.  The others have defective decoders, bad solders, broken this or that. 

I've always wondered about the socalled quality control to begin with. We are seeing more companies cutting back on those costs hence the end user will more likely be the quality control checker in the end--

Barry/Crandell: 

Yah, it was probably me,  "The Brass Man", LOL!  And yes, they do take 'tinkering'. 

But I think one of the things that might have present day steam modelers sending their locos back to the Mfgr. for repair is the fact that most contemporary plastic steam is so darned hard to GET INTO to find out what the problem is.  And then, when you do, you're blinking at all of the electonics covering up what hopefully should be a motor/gear arrangement.   I speak from experience--had a BLI that was acting weird, and when I FINALLY got into it, lifting, pulling, separating and going through what seemed six hours of ballet exercises just to get the boiler off--I couldn't even find the gearbox, LOL!  

They don't make it easy for we 'tinkerers' these days, so I think a lot of us--not all, but a lot of us--have to pretty much depend on the Mfgr. to make right what on a brass loco classically takes about three screws and a minor adjustment.  But then, remember (I said, ducking ) I'm DC.  Ergo, a lot of us have to depend and pray that the Quality Control of these models has been relatively complete before they're packaged up and delivered to the retailer.  It ain't the "Good Old Days", whatever they were. 

Hopefully, the Mfgrs will realize that in order to CURE a problem, you have to be able to GET to it.  It might just alleviate all of those returned locos for something that might just need a minor adjustment, and save both the distributor and the buyer a lot of anguish. 

Honestly, fellas, do they have to be so DIFFICULT to get into?  I really don't think so.  I mean, motor, worm gear, gear tower, rods connected to the rest of the drivers--should be a 'snap,' even with all of the wires, decoders and other assorted GeeGaws, right? 

Sure doesn't seem to be anymore. 

Tom

[blownout cylinder]

selector

And yet, the fellas who have long histories with a lot of brass locomotives will often say they have to do a lot of work on their brass in order to enjoy them

Crandell, wasn't it TomW that used to talk about how the prototypes would have to fiddle with their new locomotives to get them up to snuff? Seems to me that even the prototypes have to "break in" their locomotives as well so----?

selector

I doubt very much that any of these are tested.  They are given the final okay for the full production run, some QC must take place at the factory while the run takes place over a week or more, but obviously many units are assembled incorrectly.  Many of us have models that arrive well assembled and that run perfectly.  The others have defective decoders, bad solders, broken this or that. 

I've always wondered about the socalled quality control to begin with. We are seeing more companies cutting back on those costs hence the end user will more likely be the quality control checker in the end--

[Flynn]

I've purchased 9 BLI steam locomotives.  I've had only 1 issue with one of them, and I think that it is a lubrication issue since it hadn't been run in over a year.  I'm not sure you're jinxed as much as I may be lucky.

[selector]

I wish I had an authoritative handle on the question as posed, but I don't.  I do know that we do read posts from disappointed people who have bought BLI engines and who have had problems, sometimes even when the engine is sent back after repair.  It is disappointing to read of these accounts.

However, we don't know how many others have this experience, or even a part of it.  We don't know how many units were sold.  We do get the same types of complaints about MTH lately, Bachmann (including the vaunted Spectrum series), Athearns, and some of the earlier makes.  We rarely hear of Atlas diesels needing serious interventions, or Kato.

And yet, the fellas who have long histories with a lot of brass locomotives will often say they have to do a lot of work on their brass in order to enjoy them.

I doubt very much that any of these are tested.  They are given the final okay for the full production run, some QC must take place at the factory while the run takes place over a week or more, but obviously many units are assembled incorrectly.  Many of us have models that arrive well assembled and that run perfectly.  The others have defective decoders, bad solders, broken this or that. 

I just returned my Q2 because the head light won't illuminate.  Am I vexed?  Strangely, no.  I used to get all wound up when I was much newer to the hobby, and sort of getting a feel for the timelines and true costs, particularly of steamers; now, I just get the RA and ship 'em off.  I have had excellent results with BLI's repair service.

-Crandell

[richhotrain]

T Tom

I bought a BLI PRR 2-10-0 (road number 4695) from BLI's most recent production run. My first engine, purchased from a discount house, lurched and made a clicking sound. The discount house only had two engines left, both unlettered/unnumbered models, so I called BLI. The replacement engine sent by BLI has the same problems that the first one did. Am I jinxed or are other people having quality issues with BLI steam engines? T TOM

Tom,

Was it a replacement or a repair on the original?

I have a number of BLI steam engines that all run great now, but a few initially had performance issues that Customer Service had to correct.  In one instance, it took two times back to Customer Service to get it right.

I like BLI stuff a lot, and their Customer Service will stick with a repair till they get it right.  But, my sense is that they don't test the repair as fully as they could (should) before sending it back to the customer.

Call them, tell the problem, and send it back again.  They will eventually make good.

Rich

[T Tom]

I bought a BLI PRR 2-10-0 (road number 4695) from BLI's most recent production run. My first engine, purchased from a discount house, lurched and made a clicking sound. The discount house only had two engines left, both unlettered/unnumbered models, so I called BLI. The replacement engine sent by BLI has the same problems that the first one did. Am I jinxed or are other people having quality issues with BLI steam engines? T TOM