BLI Centipedes on the way

[JimValle]

On a weekend trip to English's Hobby Supply one of our club members got two Centapedes and we tried them on the club layout last night.  In general they ran fine with a really pronounced overhang on tight curves.  Sound was interesting with a longish interval between bell clangs and a horn that is probably authentic but sounds aneimic for such a big brute of an engine.  Pulling power was quite good and tracking was pretty good on our rather rough track.  On one curve to the left we noticed a pronounced knock as the leading truck of the lead engine articulated around that we could not account for. Overall it was very impressive  and we were all pleased with it.

[dinwitty]

If this was to work right for the reverse pushing, the truck wheels cannot have any side slop. They do. My solution is to rigidize the pilot porch with some sheet brass screwed in formed in the right places, and cut a slot in the truck for the pivot to slide sideways. My NWSL South Shore Little Joe is very similar and does not have a flexing porch, it has less overhang than the centipede, the porches are almost the same length. The coupler may swing out further but there are wide swing adapters and you can use a longer shank coupler to even that out, but it is NOT an issue on my 24" radius, normal #5 couplers. The other issue is the vertical curve at starting grades or rough track when you might slide the couplers out (build your track right!!!) If I find a spare set of any kind of trucks, I may experiment a rigidizing before I go headlong changing the centipede truck. I posted about this issue on the BLI site forum. I hope they fix it on the 2nd run, if if they do it. But I think the rigidizing fix is possible.

[k4sb]

To the PRRT&HS modeling committee: WELL DONE. If there was ever a case where a historical society had imput on a model this is it. It looks like BLI followed recommendations
to a T. To BLI: The engineering of the articulation between the lead trucks
(Front and Rear) is less than it should be. I can't back up on the flat without
the pilot truck closest to the cars being pushed twisting out of the way and
derailing. The bar the truck is attached to swings. One car is fine, 10 is not.
And if the cars are heavy "fugetaboutit". Then while weathering them, I picked
one loco up and there was a wheel sitting in the table! I was able to remove the
bottom cover and slide it back on. While there I wanted to check the other
wheels, all of them were loose. REAL loose. DO NOT twist them ot guage them. There is a straight knurel on the axle that will ruin the plastic bushing in the wheel.

 I washed the grease and oil off them and assembled them. Then put a drop of CA on the "hub end to attach the axle to the insulating bushing. I'll be contacting NWSL for a better fix. The screws attaching the truck covers were already stripped their holes. Now the drawbar..
Is it supposed to be rigid in the KD Box? or have rounded ends? Where's the
short one mentioned in the instructions?
Ken

[dinwitty]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFU0uqXaCsE my quickie video, done on an old AMD system 950mhz Duron using a Matrox Mystique Rainbow runner and a Big Picture camera (US Robotics) to capture, the camera is NTSC with an RCA plugin to the Rainbow runner. Works great, I could a have done a higher quality but 56k here, video size, 3 megs. Fixed my little track problem goes over the mini-bump fine. I started adding cars to it and put them on a crawl and kept adding cars as it crawled. Got up to 54 cars. Ran it around, and in a few areas of the test track it spins slipping, barely, I hike it up and it gets going. Pretty heavy train, mostly hopper cars and others. So ran it around a few times, no derails (yay! well one minor boxcar a wheel off, old mantua or something with big coupler pocket interfering with wheels, pulled it off, added 2 hoppers). Soooo, I decided to try the BLI Y6b to compare, and it walked away with the train no slipping. Looks like the Centipedes could use a little more weight test layout has 24 inch radius with some wider maybe 30 inch.

[rcgrabbag]

They do sound nice don't they? Unusual sound at start-up though. Almost like an added "doppler" effect to the engine sound. And the really are big, approx 25.5 inches for the two combined.

[dinwitty]

quick test run, very nice. Good sound, didnt even hit the horn yet, well, one blat test., starts creeping on throttle 1 setting. One word. Big. One unit is just short the Y6B maybe 20 feet. My South Shore little Joe is just shy the centipedes length. BLI has flexed the front porch. 24 inch radius the overhang is big still. This engine is better on larger radius I don't care what model maker claims how sharp radius these engines like this can take, they are better on larger radius 28 inch, 36inch even better, you will still have overhang. The engine derailed on a bad part of my track, this is why I value such an engine to help define track problems and fix them. Looks like I got work to do 8-D I have a good size long dogbone test loop so I can get some cars behind this for a test run, I'll fix my track before this. Still waiting for my Athearn Turbine to arrive.

[dinwitty]

mine just arrived, still in box , just got home, pics later

[rcgrabbag]

Of course it can. I have it on an 8 foot test track, trying to operate it and a video camera at the same time, so I'm not going to have it go that fast and risk an accident.

[steemtrayn]

Can it go any faster?

I guess I'll find out in a couple of days.

[rcgrabbag]

Received a A1/A2 PRR freight set yesterday. Check here for pics and test run video:

http://www.rcgrabbag.com/archives/broadway-limited-imports-baldwin-centipede/

 

[dinwitty]

ironically another engine will arrive friday, an Athearn UP Turbine with QSI sound! crazy weekend coming with some train fun. Watching the delevery service tracking like mad... heh nope still over there...

[D94R]

My uncle just emailed that the Centipedes (all 142lbs of them) are due to arrive from BLI via UPS on the 23rd.   I think he said he had an order placed for something like 24 or 25 pair.  One pair for me, one of each PRR scheme/number for him, a couple pair for anyone who didn't order but wants them later, and the rest are to fill orders. 

 

142lbs worth though lol... lets hope the UPS guy doesn't 'drop' ship them. 

[Hamltnblue]

I just found the length on the BLI site.  The AC6000 is 76 scale feet coupler to coupler.

The Ceneipede is 91 1/2

[Hamltnblue]

rjake4454

Hamltnblue

I was at a local hobby shop today and they just got them in.  They're some big loco's.  The center trucks are a bit long but something looked off to me.

There wasn't a price on them yet but here's a link to their site.

www.nstrains.com

Ah, I've got to drive up there after work this week. I want to see one. Generally, were you satisfied with the overall appearance? I'm curious to hear the sound system myself.

I'm actually not a big fan of the centipede design when compared to other diesels such as the E7 which has a more elegant, streamlined look.

They looked pretty good. A little lighter than I thought they would be.  The units there were the single A ones, not the duals.  I didnt' measure it against an AC6000 but she's a long one.

[rjake4454]

He just uploaded a video of it at the bottom of the page, check it out.

[rjake4454]

Here are some pics courtesy of another poster at the BLI forum.

http://www.rcgrabbag.com/archives/broadway-limited-imports-baldwin-centipede/

 

[Trynn_Allen2]

OT: mini-rant

Still waiting for my GN S-2.

At NMRA Nationals when I asked the question, "It's in the pipe line, It's coming."  So is Christmas.  "The dog at the molds."  Get a new dog, and get the molds from the hybrid.

Good grief.  Just  put the engine out already.

back to the original topic.

Saw them at Milwaukee.  They look really nice, but as my wife said, "too many wheels, what a pain to have to rerail." 

[D94R]

Fantastic!  I just recently talked to my uncle, but he hadn't heard anything from BLI about his order shipping yet (he says BLI packages usually just show up at the door unannounced).  But if your dealers are getting yours soon/already then he should be as well.

 

Man I can't wait to get my hands on these ugly behemoths. 

[PRRT1MAN]

Can't wait to get mine. Supposed to be here tomorrow. At least that is what UPS says!

 

Sam

[rjake4454]

Hamltnblue

I was at a local hobby shop today and they just got them in.  They're some big loco's.  The center trucks are a bit long but something looked off to me.

There wasn't a price on them yet but here's a link to their site.

www.nstrains.com

Ah, I've got to drive up there after work this week. I want to see one. Generally, were you satisfied with the overall appearance? I'm curious to hear the sound system myself.

I'm actually not a big fan of the centipede design when compared to other diesels such as the E7 which has a more elegant, streamlined look.

[mononguy63]

One of the ugliest locomotives ever to ply the rails. For that reason alone it might be fun to have one for the layout...

[Hamltnblue]

I was at a local hobby shop today and they just got them in.  They're some big loco's.  The center trucks are a bit long but something looked off to me.

There wasn't a price on them yet but here's a link to their site.

www.nstrains.com

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

The B&O tested one, they could not keep it on the rails through their winding route over the mountains - sent it back to Baldwin and ordered lots of FA's from ALCO and F units from EMD. The ATLANTIC CENTRAL is in a similar condition.

Sheldon

[dinwitty]

citylimits

dinwitty

got an email from the dealer, he gotem today , and sending out today. I should have mine by the end of the week. Film at 11......

Hi dinwitty.

Can you say the LHS you buy from?

I'm keen to by a Centipede in Seaboard paint.

 

Bruce

I went thru ebay on this, http://stores.ebay.com/Silver-City-Hobby they had a pre-order I went for it. Its a long time on my want list even in brass, but from BLI, sure!

[Eddystone]

According to UPS Tracking my PRR Passenger Centipedes should be here on Thursday.

[citylimits]

[dinwitty]

LOL, I'm not a big PRR fan, more N&W/NKP/South Shore/North Shore, but I am building my layout which is multi-railroad. Not even a C&NW fan but here I am modeling it just for completeness. Its a unique engine which interest me, it was more experimental and did not do that well, but it existed, just like the Triplex. yeh, but suppose the engine survived into the Penn Central times... YIKES! I still go...sheeshe these 2 lines merged?

[tstage]

Din,

That's good for you and good for me.  Good that you're getting a locomotive that you've been wanting.  Good for me that the NYC never had any of them in their fleet.

Tom

[dinwitty]

got an email from the dealer, he gotem today , and sending out today. I should have mine by the end of the week. Film at 11......