W-A-A-Y back (around 2004/5?) when BLI was just getting started, they produced a heavy mikado in several road numbers for CB&Q. I bought three, and a year or so later a friend gave me another one for my birthday lettered for the Central of New Jersey (what a great friend!). These were the early Paragon 1 units with the supposedly somewhat problematic QSI decoders (never gave me an issue though).
The units came out of the boxes and went onto the layout. They've been in storage for a few years at a time on several occasions, and when placed on a layout have performed flawlessly (pretty much) every time.
But now they are in need of some serious maintenance.
On one unit the trailing truck frequently jumps off the track when backing around curves. Another one stops at one particular dead frog, when the tender wheels on the frog side move over it (did the early BLIs have loco power pickup, or did power come only from the tender wheels? Not enough detail in the manual or schematics to tell). All three tend to hesitate and surge when moving around the yard. The mechanisms desperately need cleaning and re-lubricating.
The CNJ has been run very little, but while I'm working on the others I'll at least clean, re-lube and closely inspect it as well.
I'm sure I'll be able to muddle through this, but I'd rather not reinvent the wheel if I don't have to. So - is there anyone out there who's done maintenance on these locos that can offer some tips / suggestions? Maybe an online video or tutorial of some sort on working on these?
I'm not complaining about the engines. They've functioned excellently for many years. But it's well past the time they got some in-depth TLC. I find myself looking forward to getting into them.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
Hello! The BLI Mikes have excellent mechanisms. I've owned two at some point. I can guide you through it.
Cleaning Pickups: The tenders pickup from both tracks, each truck picks up from one side. The mike that's cutting out sounds like it just needs a wheel cleaning. To clean the tender wheels, simply take them out from the plastic trucks, and clean them with a paper towel soaked in isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol (70% or greater). To clean the engine wheels, simply have a paper towel soaked in the same alcohol layed on the track, and have the loco run past the towel. You can hold the loco down while its on the paper towel to really give them a good cleaning. Id recommend cleaning the front two wheels and then the rear two drivers seperately. (basically have half of the wheels touch the track for power and have the other two on the paper towel to clean, then vise versa). Trailing truck: As far as a derailing trailing truck, Id loosen the two screws that holds it in place. Try wiggling the trailing truck back and forth, make sure there's nothing stopping it from swinging freely. Also check the wheel gauge to make sure its not out of gauge. General Lubrication: Lastly, for lubrication, Ive found my BLI engines to more or less not really need any, but if you want to, basically flip the engine over (Id recommend a foam cradle or soft towel), take apart the bottom plate, which will allow the wheels to pop out. Watch for the springs which go between the bearings and frame, make sure they dont fly away! Use a hex nut wrench (sometimes one is provided in the original box) to take off the rods from the wheels, freeing the wheels from the assembly. From there, use a paper towel soaked in iso alcohol to wipe off all old grease and oil from the wheels, axles, rods, gears, bearings, etc. If you want to go one step further, remove the shell from the chassis (two screws near the underside of the cab, one under the leading truck), and you can clean the entire gearbox assembly. As a final step, add fresh grease of your choice (lithium grease, bachmann grease, labell, whatever) to the gear assembly, and light oil (bachmann light oil, or labell of your choice) to the bearings of the wheels, and rods (optional).
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Note that this process can apply to basically any HO engine. Remove old lub, apply fresh grease to gears, light oil to the rest.
I dont have a video unfortunantly to show you (nor photos bc Im currently not home) but I can guide you along if you have any further questions.
My only word of caution is dont get any alcohol on the painted parts of your locos. It not as scary as it sounds, simply dont grab the loco shell if your fingers are soaking wet with alcohol.
Good luck!
Charles
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Modeling the Santa Fe & Pennsylvania in HO
Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLb3FRqukolAtnD1khrb6lQ
Instagram (where I share projects!): https://www.instagram.com/trainman440
I agree with Charles' good advice above..
Other than two cracked axle gears I encountered on a pair of PRR I1s, which BLI pressed on new gears for me, I've never had any mechanical problems with BLI steam. Their factory lube seems to be of good quality and I've opened some gear cases on engines going on fifteen years old and found the grease to be fine.
The problems I find with BLI steam, in my case, has been related to poor assembly practices. Missing screws, pinched wires, etc.
I had an H10 that had terrible pickup issues. While carefully poking and prodding I could see there was a wire that had not been connected to one of the frame-halves. There was no screw to be found and I could see the hole where it was supposed to be attached had never had a screw in it. This was a new engine just removed from the package:
IMG_5134 by Edmund, on Flickr
I have an NYC Niagara that had intermittent shorting problems. Turned out to be a pinched wire that finally wore through the insulation:
NYC_S2_BLI-wire by Edmund, on Flickr
This wire is normally hidden behind the firebox so I didn't see it until after disassembly.
Just two nights ago I discovered a new problem that may affect many BLI locos. I am presently sorting through my roster and replacing QSI decoders with Tsunami-2s and while "ringing out" the tender-to-engine harness I wasn't getting ANY continuity from the left drivers to the pin on the engine connector below the cab:
BLI_JST_socket by Edmund, on Flickr
This is on another I1 2-10-0. The culprit turned out to be the poor connection where the board attaches to the frame with that single, blackened, Phillips screw.
The boss that the screw threads into is coated with the same "blackening" material, perhaps a lacquer, and effectively insulated the board where this should be making good contact as it is the left frame half pickup.
You can see the right side has a wire which leads to a frame connection there. I suggest if you have the engine stripped down to remove these connection points and file the lacquer off the boss or frame then apply a bit of No-Ox-ide to help with the dissimilar metals (four*) from corroding.
Once I have the Tsunami decoder in there, plus a much better quality speaker I'm pleased as ever with the engine's performance. While I'm in the boiler I also remove the smokke puffer. That's a waste of valuable space (most, if not all the Mikes don't have smoke anyway).
In the case of the Niagara I installed a cube speaker where the smoke unit was removed.
NYC_S2_BLI-smoke2 by Edmund, on Flickr
The bane of MANY of my BLI engines has been poor rail pickup. Now that I encountered this PC board mount failure I'm going to be sorting through more engines and correcting this.
Good Luck, Ed
*solder, steel screw, pot metal zinc frame, copper plating from PC board. There was white powdery corrosion on the screw threads.
Thanks Charles and Ed!
Your advice and insights will help tremendously!
Wow Ed, that's an unbelievable number of poor QC issues, Ive never had any issues with BLI except for having a bad decoder in one loco with a glitched bell sound.
Side rant: While Paragon 3 in BLI is rather infamous for having back pickups, I dont believe it is necessarily due to literal broken wires due to bad QC, although it doesnt help matters. Paragon 3 used "high torque" motors which were 3 pole NOT 5 pole which was in paragon, par2, and par4. These motors drew more current than usual, resulting in extra current draw which would either make the decoder quit working all together, or simply caused the decoder to be extra sensitive to dirty track, much more sensitive than paragon 2. (All BLI decoders had some small capacitors which would act like a 0.25 sec keep alive. The extra current draw on paragon 3 would negate this, since it would drain the caps faster.) BLI would replace these "faulty" decoders with ones that would artificially limit the current draw on the motors.
Anyways, that was just a long ramble to other viewers which might read this, that if they notice their paragon 3 decoder being extra sensitive to dirty track, to understand that its normal (unfortunantely).
Trainman440These motors drew more current than usual, resulting in extra current draw which would either make the decoder quit working all together, or simply caused the decoder to be extra sensitive to dirty track, much more sensitive than paragon 2.
Yep, I've been through the motor/decoder replacement on the three P5a electrics I have. BLI sent me the parts and I did the swap myself.
In defense of BLI their service people have been very good at making the best efforts at correcting problems.
I've had at least seven GG1s (gave a few away) and have never had any problems at all with them, even newer P3 models. These have two motors.
All three of my recent K4s have had decoders replaced and that still hasn't cured some of the glitches I'm experiencing with them. On two of the P3 engines, the streamlined KF and an Erie heavy Pacific, I can not program the decoder to the road number. Is simply scrambles the decoder's brain!
I have to run these on a single-digit address. I believe something changed in the architecture of the Paragon decoder when BLI adapted the questionably useful "Sound Of Thunder" piggyback transmitter on top of the regular decoder.
Still, most of their sound files are not very pleasing to my ear and I make the investment to either an ESU or Soundtraxx decoder and I'm enjoying MUCH better motor control and better sound.
I've added several BLI "Go Packs" to some of these engines. It helps but I now believe it is simply covering up the original pickup issues. My track is good and frogs are powered but certain engines would stall dead at certain places on the layout. Others have reported these problems as well.
BLI_K4_cap by Edmund, on Flickr
Several of the engines have been returned to Ormond Beach and I suspect they replaced some or all of the wiring harnesses. They have sent me replacement decoders but the replacements would act the same way.
Again, I'm sorting through my BLI steam, roughly sixty locomotives, and evaluating performance and replacing decoders as necessary. BLI has now developed the Paragon 4 which promises to FIX "comprehensive bug" glitches.
https://www.broadway-limited.com/whatisparagon4.aspx
BLI's answer seems to be to make the "Go Pack" standard equipment.
A 2-10-0 (or my 2-10-4 J1a s)with a sixteen-wheel tender really shouldn't need any help with pickup.
Trainman440that's an unbelievable number of poor QC issues, Ive never had any issues with BLI
My failure rate with BLI is 100%, one of one.
I owned one BLI model, it failed, I sent it in for repair, they refunded my money (but not the shipping), and kept the locomotive.
I don't have a large fleet of locomotives, and I do not think I will ever buy another BLI.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Indeed, I agree that BLI's customer service in excellent! They are are very helpful, and will make sure your loco is working properly. However, I must question why they couldnt have swapped back to 5 pole motors sooner in the middle of their production. Especially for locos which were already made with 5 poles before (like the K4s, and etc). Why couldnt they have swapped back sooner? It seems like they KNEW about the issue yet still continued to make new locos with them until the eventual end of paragon 3.
And personally paragon 3 sound isnt for me. I cant describe it properly, but the sound files themselves sound great. But it must be a primative speaker driver, amplifier or something because the sound quality sounds terrible to my ears. They sound very drowned out/muddy, sorta like QSI decoders, nothing like the crisp and clean sound heard from Tsunami/ECU/TCS/MTH sound. Its why Ive never liked QSI sound desipite their amazing sound files, especially of their PRR whistles. The sound file itself sounds great but when being played through their decoders it just sounds...crappy. This is especially prominent in their diesels, and the issue is still there in paragon4(which costs $50-100 more...).
Im still fuming to the fact that the ATSF 2-8-2s original announced to be paragon 3 (for $299 retail, $399 MSRP) suddenly jumped to $399 retail($499 MSRP) when they announced the new paragon 4. Sure it may fix the bugs, but $100 more for a bug free decoder (which should be expected) is a bit ridiculous. I was originally going to buy two of these locos(even selling my brass one thinking it was cheaper to buy BLI), but now I only can afford one. I got it a month back, I do like it but the sound is still...well, muddy. Not worth $399.
I wouldnt mind this all IF there was the ability to buy BLI locos without their sound system, but there isnt. Instead, I have to pay $400 for a paragon 4 decoder equipped loco, and then ANOTHER $90 ontop to switch to a sound decoder of my liking. Shame.
And Go packs is a poor way of fixing an issue of fundamentaly poor design. Theyre selling the issue so you can pay an additional $30 for the solution.
Anyways Im just ranting at this point lol, I think BLI has done many things right, their locos look and run terrific, and I got like 12 BLI locos at this point, but I think theyre far from perfect. BLI is from the company modelers praise them to be.
Trainman440I have to pay $400 for a paragon 4 decoder equipped loco, and then ANOTHER $90 ontop to switch to a sound decoder of my liking. Shame.
Imagine if you run DC, like I do. Paying for all that stuff just to take it out and throw it away. That is, if the locomotive would have run in the first place.
I fixed one for a colleague at the club. It had stopped running. The problems were all associated with the tender : the wiring had become loose and disconnected and the pickups on the wheels were filthy. I dismantled everything, cleaned the pickups and reassembled everything tightly. I pushed the wiring back into the loco as it had become loose. Worked perfectly after that.
I also added a small piece of tubing in the pin under the drawbar to prevent the loco from coming apart from the tender when handled. I think that this was the cause of the wiring becoming loose.
Simon