I was very suprised when I recieved the news that a new HO URSA Pacific is to be released soon by BLI
If I had made a bet on who would be releasing such a sought after model I would have thought it would have been Athearn. Some time back it was on the radar and then after a few years it was announced it would be cancelled. I thought at some time it would have been back.
I had more or less given up and acquired a few brass models since.
However, one can never have too many Pacifics and I certainly will be buying a few more,
These have been on and off and back on the BLI vaporware list for a long time now.
I will believe it when I can touch one - and if they only come with DCC and sound, I will buy one when they close them out at 60% off.
Now if they offer a nice quiet DC version, I might consider paying 80% of their retail.
The planned and then dropped Athearn model was retool of the original Genesis Pacific and was going to be under the Roundhouse name, but cost and quality could not be brought in line by the new supplier.
It amazes me to this day the lack of 4-6-2 locomotives available in HO. One of the single most prolific wheel arrangements, yet unless you model PRR, you are largely out of luck?
We will see.
Sheldon
don7 I was very suprised when I recieved the news that a new HO URSA Pacific is to be released soon by BLI If I had made a bet on who would be releasing such a sought after model I would have thought it would have been Athearn. Some time back it was on the radar and then after a few years it was announced it would be cancelled. I thought at some time it would have been back. I had more or less given up and acquired a few brass models since. However, one can never have too many Pacifics and I certainly will be buying a few more,
It is on their schedule for December 2012, which can mean anytime in the future after today. The 4-12-2 was on their schedule last year for early spring, mid to early summer three different times and the month it was finally coming, it went TBD. So much for believing their list or news letters. The 4-12-2 is back on for next year again so the 4-6-2 will probably show up next year some time in the fall or later.
The Daylight cars are a perfect example of their fidelity of schedules. They have been on various schedule lists for almost five years and are on there again! To be fair, they did actually bring in the observation car which did not roll well. I know they are having a hard time with quality and I hope they get it together and continue with good products.
Good Luck with getting one that has good gears and actually runs. I have over 50 BLI /PCM products and have halted any new purchases until they get better QC.
CZ
I also have ordered a set of the BLI California Zephry passenger cars. It will be interesting to compare the two sets of the Budd cars, the Zephry and the CPR Canadian.
I had hoped that BLI would have released a set of EMD F series but when I contacted BLI they indicated the there would be sets of the F series in a few years that they would be releasing a number of E series locomotives this year.