UPDATE: Woohoo! My very first SOUND locomotive will be on it's way soon - IT'S HERE!!!

[tstage]

Crandell,

You are absolutely right with your admonishment of my appalling behavior. For a brief moment, I allowed my lack of maturity and temperance to get the best of me. I will, in the future, determine to do a better job of refraining from such irrelevent and embarrassing outbursts of raucous behavior as I have foolishly displayed today...

HA!! MICHIGAN LOST!!!

...oops...[:-^]

[selector]

(cough)...umm, we frown on such displays of levity and outright disregard for the integrity of this forum, Suh. Kindly address matters pertaining, and refrain from subjects that bear no relevance to model trains and associated genera.

Thank-you.

[tstage]

SWEEEET!!!!! Buckeyes BEAT Meeeeechigan 25-21! WOOHOO! What a drive!!! (Sorry, off-topic for a brief moment)

[tstage]

QUOTE: Originally posted by uspscsx

QUOTE: Hmm, that must mean that Ohio State will beat Michigan today! GO BUCKEYES!!!]

GO BUCKEYES!

Matt,

12-7...We're half way there! But...there's STILL half a game left. What a great rivalry!!

Tom

[Anonymous]

I have yet to buy a sound-equipped locomotive. I feel that my first ones will be BLI SD40-2's, C30-7's, and AC6000CW's, and Atlas MP15's and B23-7's. I'm not hoping for much...[:D]

QUOTE: Hmm, that must mean that Ohio State will beat Michigan today! GO BUCKEYES!!!]

GO BUCKEYES!

[rrinker]

Different T-1's guys, the BLI T-1 is currently available, and is a C&O T-1 class 2-10-4. The T-1 I'm waiting for from PCM is a Reading T-1 class 4-8-4.

--Randy

[selector]

Tom, my Hudson was meant to be lubed soon after receipt, but they didn't say anything about breaking in the mechancism. Just run it light in both directions for an hour or so before testing its hauling capacity. IOW, play with it, enjoy it, marvel at it, and flatten your forehead a little more for resisting so long. After an evening's pleasure, you should be ready to rumble. [:D]

[railroadyoshi]

AWESOME!!!

Hope you have loads of fun with it-seriously-thousands and thousands of loads
It'd be pretty sad if an expensive loco didn't hold up to its price tag in revenue generated[:D]

[tstage]

Don,

Does BLI also recommend that you "break in" their locos, too?

Tom

[DigitalGriffin]

Tom,

They (BLI) recommend lubing my T1's main gear with a little grease. However mine ran fine out of the box. After 2->3 minutes of run time, I disassembled it and added grease as recommended.

[tstage]

Did any of you have to lubricate your Mikes when you got them? I've heard mostly from the forum here that BLI locomotives normally come dry - i.e. not lubricated from the factory. Is that still petty much true? Thanks.

Tom

[Anonymous]

Good choice, just got one this weekend, runs great, pulls more then their heavy mike that i have. Also runs better right out of the box. They also give you a new driver with a traction tire on it if you want to put it on.

[DigitalGriffin]

Tom,

Congrats. You'll love it. Once you get one you'll want more and more and more...The Mike's rock.

Randy,

You'll love the T-1. It's whistle sounds a lot like Proto's 2-8-8-2. The rest is unique however. The T-1 is also VERY hefty and has a very solid feel to it. I'm always worried about breaking off queen post for the grab irons on my Proto series. I have yet to worry about that with the BLI.

[rrinker]

Still waiting for me (again delayed) PCM T-1. Maybe my supposed birthday present will turn into a Christmas present...

Although I do still have that Soundtraxx decoder to play with. Guess I have to make a plug connection for a resistor on the motor leads for programming - since it's going in a dummy unit with no motor, and I wouldn't use the motor driveon an older Soundtraxx decoder anyway, too noisy. Can't leave the resistor inside - even a 100 ohm resistor would dissipate almost 1.5 watts at full throttle. Sure a 10 watt sandbar can handle that with no problem - it's the thought of what a watt and half of heat will do to the loco shell. And no load on the motor leads = no programming, well, no acknowledgement of programming commands.

--Randy

[rexhea]

Yup! Tom, you are a goner now. The sound "byte" will leave a scar that you won't be able to get rid of. Welcome to the club.

REX

[ARTHILL]

I got mine a little while ago. I love it. The problem is I like the way my PFM Sierra looks and the way the BLM sounds. I just have to figure a practical way to get sound in the Sierra and then I can do a double header that will scare the mice out of the basement.

[davekelly]

Tom,

Congrats!!! Looking forward to hearing how the Mike works and sounds from you!

[selector]

You should get all the sound functions for which you have the corresponding function buttons on your controller, Tom. What you won't be able to do is modify them in any way. Also, I have doubts about changing addresses in QSI, but I have forgotten.

May we look forward to another post, say within six weeks, in which you express your delight with a new DCC starter?

I'm happy for you. You are sure to ask yourself why you waited so long. [:D]

[twhite]

Tom-- you'll love it, and you'll get hooked like me. I've got the BLI heavy Mike, plus several other BLI steamers, and the sound is just SWEET on all of them! One nice thing, it keeps stray dogs from wandering into my garage, LOL!
Tom [:P][:P]

[tstage]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lginc
*note* on the downside, you mentioned you use EZ command, DONT want to burst your bubble[:(] but, you cant get to the CV's with that system, to adjust volume, change horns, ect.

Iginc,

Yeah, I'm quite aware of the Bachmann's limitations. I will be curious what sound functions I'll be able to get out of it. I'll report back when it comes in...

Tom

[trainboyH16-44]

I really want a BLI SD40-2 in BN, oh if I only had $400!
Great job, I know you'll enjoy it!
Matthew

[UP Deano]

CONGRATS TSTAGE!![:D], yep, now you'll be hooked on sound like me, and start swapping out ALL your decoders with soundtraxx(or whatever brand YOU like) decoders.[^][:D] *note* on the downside, you mentioned you use EZ command, DONT want to burst your bubble[:(] but, you cant get to the CV's with that system, to adjust volume, change horns, ect. on the BRIGHT side, you do have sound!! have fun with it, i know you'LL love it.[;)][:D]

[Anonymous]

Congrats on your future addiction Tom... IMHO you made a great choice there. I've always been happy with the BLI locos and their sound is great.

I'm a fan of sound in general. The only downside is an awful lot of us who get one, suddenly start trying to figure out how we can afford to add it to our entire fleet...

Enjoy! and let us know how it goes.

[tstage]

[Update: As of 6:38 AM EST today, my new BLI 2-8-2 is sitting at my local post office. Therefore, should receive it sometime today. [:D] Hmm, that must mean that Ohio State will beat Michigan today! GO BUCKEYES!!!]

[Update to the update: ITS HERE!!! My BLI 2-8-2 arrived as of 3:06 PM EST! I'll be sure to give a full report as soon as I can. [:)] (Hee, hee, hee...I'm almost as giddy as Dave Kelly with his new MRC PE. [:P] )

I just purchased my first locomotive with sound on ebay: A brand new BLI 2-8-2 Light MIke. I made an offer to the buyer for about $40 lower than the asking price and he accepted it. [tup] I'm looking very forward to getting it.

I'm hoping my Bachmann E-Z Command won't have any problems running it. I've been assured by others on the Bachmann forum that it should work fine. Worst case scenario? I'll just have to upgrade to a better DCC system. ( [sigh] Ohhhh, if I must...[^])

If that's the case, I may actually look at an intermediate system like the NCE Power Cab to see how I like their DCC system. We'll see. At any rate, I'll probably still have to hold off for a while buying a new one. In the meantime, I can study up on the other DCC systems to figure out which one I'll eventually go with.

Tom