I am currently looking at a Broadway Limited J1E Hudson in HO.
i know this is an older run of models, but it surprised me that no one since has made one. it seems like Broadway was the only one for such a popular engine. Is this true?
Does anyone have the Broadway Limited Hudson, are they good engines? Also do they have smoke units? I've gotten two answers for wether they do or not. No one can give me a straight answer.
Best to go to the source. Here's the specs for the Paragon2 NYC J1e...
https://www.broadway-limited.com/bli-2590nycj1ehudson4-6-4unletteredparagon2sounddcdccho.aspx
I think their first release with the QSI decoder also had smoke. Might also be on the BLI site with a little digging.
I have a Paragon2 J-1e and a J3a "Dreyfuss" Hudson. Both run quite well and I've been happy with the detailing.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
hudson5405Does anyone have the Broadway Limited Hudson, are they good engines?
Well, I can't say for sure if they're good engines or not, but I recently bought one from Brass Trains, at what I would call, a reasonable cost. Apparently someone had bought it and removed the DCC equipment, and Brass Trains had advertised it as "Has some issues"...which momentarily dumped cold water on my interest, but they also added that "it appears to be otherwise useable".It was shipped to a good friend of mine in Ohio, and a couple of days ago, he showed-up here in Canada, with a large Tupperware box of train stuff that I had ordered over the past three years, unable to visit due to Covid restrictions.
The locomotive didn't run when put on the tracks, but I removed the boiler and found a number of electrical connectors and simply picked two, clipped-on wires from my workshop power pack, and the loco ran perfectly across the workbench.I'll be removing the lettering from the cab and tender, and replacing it with lettering for the TH&B, as that road had purchased two Hudsons from the NYC, and I recall wathching them run by our house when I was a very young child.
Unfortunately, both were scrapped sometime in the '50s, ironically at the steel plant where I later worked for almost 40 years.
I haven't finished re-wiring the loco, but it seems to be a nice runner and hopefully, also a good puller, too, as some of my grades are a little steeper than those of the former TH&B (now part of the CPR).
Wayne
I have the TH&B P1 original with QSI. It was 'choked' over BEMF due to ligitation against MTH at the time (2005) on a purported patent infringement. That was later thrown out, and QSI offered an after-market upgraded chip to enable BEMF...which I only ever added to other, later, P1 purchases like a Pennsy J1 and a P1 Niagara.
It still runs well today. If I had a quibble, it would be that the driver tires wore off their sintering rather too quickly for my liking. Still, as I said, it runs well even today.
The P2 version, from 2012 or so, has never run much due to choice, not due to problems. I have more locomotives than I know what to do with, oddly (I know, it's rare in the hobby...), so all of my locomotives have less than about three hours total run time, now 17 years into the hobby.
In sum, if you can get one in the $170-220 range, and you can return it if it's a thud, then go for it.
Finally, about smoke, the P1 definitely no, but it seems to me all my several P2s have smoke...pretty sure. I'll check later today and correct only if I am mistaken.
Hello and
I'm not surprised at being somewhat confused over the offerings of the NYC Hudson from Broadway Limited. That particular model has had about a twenty-year run and they are still planning more as the "Commodore Vanderbilt" streamlined style will be arriving soon.
I was a very early adopter of BLI products and I bought one of the very first NYC Hudsons, stock number 001 back in 2003 or so. Maybe a year later BLI had a "buyback" program where original purchasers of the first run could, for an additional fee, get a newer design Hudson which eliminated some of the design issues of the first run.
These design issues were mostly related to the sintered drivers where corrosion and dirt would build up and the pickup design was poor using wipers behind the driver flanges and another problem for some was the fact that the drivers had to be pulled off the axles for some maintenance work as the axle passed through the frame halves with no "traditional" cover plate which is the usual design.
Read more about that here:
https://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/282068.aspx
I believe the "second" run had stock numbers in the 020-024 range. There was then a third release where the stock numbers were 2580-2590. Some of these Hudsons were equipped with the longer "centipede" tender.
The first runs using the QSI Industries "Quantum" decoders were the ones requiring an upgrade chip. IIRC the 2008 and beyond Paragon 2 engines did have the smoke unit.
There were additional runs of the "Hybrid-Brass" streamlined "Century" hudson which can still be found on the used marked. I seem to recall talk of a new release of these in the future.
I have eight of the various runs of the BLI NYC Hudson (There are other 4-6-4 models that BLI did as well) Out of those eight I've never had any major mechanical issues. One common fault that does crop up is the failure of the reed switch sometimes refered to the "chuff sensor" which senses the field of a rotating magnet embedded in the flywheel of the motor shaft. It was a pretty simple fix for me to tackle.
BLI has probably had more than the average rate of problems mostly related to decoder and motor issues. The introduction of the Paragon 3 line of decoders which now included an additional board designed to transmit a radio signal to a trackside reciever that they call "Rolling Thunder" seems to have been a turning point toward the increase of these and other electrical issues.
Several of the NYC Hudsons I bought over the years have been through closeout sales or "used" like new models from train shows or, occasionally, from eBay sellers. There are still bargains to be found but as present stock gets used up prices will tend to increase. I don't mind investing in an aftermarket decoder, better speaker and general "reworking" of the engine since, in the end, I still have a very well performing and good looking model. Any time I get inside a BLI loco the smoke making machine gets removed and the wiring "cleaned up".
hudson5405I am currently looking at a Broadway Limited J1E Hudson in HO.
Do you know the stock number (from the box label) of the particular model you are interested in? Lower numbers = earlier runs, of course. If it is 001, 002 or 003 I would steer clear of these.
NYC_Steam-power-1 by Edmund, on Flickr
Michigan Central J1d-8224 Hudson 4-6-4 by Edmund, on Flickr
One thing I will add is that BLI's service department is very reasonable and will work with you to get your engine running. There were times when they were backlogged and they were glad to send me the parts needed, sometimes asking to return the old parts and sometimes not. I have a couple PRR 2-10-0 I1as that I bought used which eventually developed split gears on the main drivers. They gave me several repair options and the one I chose was to have them press new gears on to the drivers/axles I sent in. They did this at no cost and I was glad I didn't have to mess with pulling the wheels and re-quartering them.
A little more info here:
https://www.trains.com/mrr/news-reviews/reviews/staff-reviews/broadway-limited-imports-paragon2-ho-scale-j-1e-hudson-steam-locomotive/
Good Luck, Ed
tstage I think their first release with the QSI decoder also had smoke. Might also be on the BLI site with a little digging.
gmpullman The first runs using the QSI Industries "Quantum" decoders were the ones requiring an upgrade chip. IIRC the 2008 and beyond Paragon 2 engines did have the smoke unit.
The original BLI that I owned was a Paragon. It did not come with a smoke unit, and it did require an upgrade chip to operate properly.
Rich
Alton Junction
My recently acquired BLI Hudson is apparently one of the early ones, and I was surprised to see that only the tender trucks supplied power to the motor. When I get the batch of projects (for others) finished, I'll definitely add pick-up wipers to the drivers, pretty much similar to most of my in-service locomotives.
The tender could also use some more weight, and I'll definitely remove the plastic load of "coal" and replace it with a fully-modelled coal bunker, filled with loose "coal".
I own three, two J1s bought used and a streamlined J3 brass hybrid that I inherited. For the most part, great locos. With traction tires, they are incredible -- they'll pull a 15 car train up our club's 2% grade without even warming up. (Sadly, I don't have the optional traction tire axle for my J1s -- one was no box, the other had the wrong spare axle, and BLI didn't have parts last time I checked.) The tires do give the engines a bit of a wobble.
I have found (particularly with the Dreyfuss) that the decoders will occaisionally lose their programming. So every once in a while I need to re-set and reprogram the decoder. No big deal.
If $$ were no object, I'd buy a whole fleet of these!
Aaron
Mine was a sixtieth birthday present for myself, and I'm 75 now, so I got it in 2007. It was NOT a Paragon model. It has a QSI decoder and no smoke unit. It has worked fine since I got it.
It did develop an issue with poor running in forward. I removed the shell and found the gear in the driveshaft was slipping. A drop of CA fixed it.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
hudson5405 I am currently looking at a Broadway Limited J1E Hudson in HO. i know this is an older run of models, but it surprised me that no one since has made one. it seems like Broadway was the only one for such a popular engine. Is this true? Does anyone have the Broadway Limited Hudson, are they good engines? Also do they have smoke units? I've gotten two answers for wether they do or not. No one can give me a straight answer.
I have a small fleet of them and they are good runners. I bought three of the first generation BLI Hudsons from Trainworld at the closeout price of $130 apiece. This was about 15 years ago. I since bought the streamlined Hudson for the 1938 20th Century Limited. I just put in a pre-order for the announced Commodore Vanderbilt streamlined Hudson through Trainworld. I've had issues with other BLI steamers but the Hudsons have been good performers.
None of my Hudsons have smoke units but this new Commodore Vanderbilt is supposed to. I've never been impressed by the smoke that comes out of model steamers. It always looks like somebody put a lit cigarette down the smokestack, not the billowing steam that comes out of real steamers.