Hey Cudaken,
Don't buy up all the Monon engines now, you hear! :)
I myself have one of those P2K BL2's and love it. Had to replace the all to common cracked gear problem, but she's a runner now.
HD
I hate Rust
CannoliI've always loved the BL2, it's such a unique loco. I model a fictional B&M branchline so I have a Proto2K B&M BL2 as part of my loco roster although it doesn't really fit in with my mid 70's time frame. It always attracts peoples attention when I run it though because it's so different looking. Unlike everyone who has responded to this thread, I have been intimately involved with the Boston & Maine BL2 1551. At 12 years of age, I moved to Plymouth, NH, then a real railroad town. 3 passenger trains each way each day plus a 4th in the summer. Daily freight Concord to Lincoln with GP7 1560. And every other day Plymouth-Wells River-White Rover Junction with BL2 1551. I got adopted by the full crew of that little freight, road in the cab and the buggy, helped put the engine to bed in the local roundhouse. While people can say what they like, the visibilty down the sloped-in cab body was WAY better than on an FT or F3 or for that matter any of the Fs or Es that EMD produced. There was a steam generator under the front hood forpassenger service but no MU capability. It had footboards fore and aft. The rear facing horn was disliked by the crew for sounding like a "fish horn". Sister BL2s were used as rescue engines when 1140 or 1141, the "Sacred Cows" used on the "School Train" (timed to bring the high school students from Warren, Wentworth and Rumney to and from Plymouth) and in a lone plow train sent south from Woodsville to clear the Warren Cut. At one point the freight from Concord stopped in Plymouth and 1551 upon arrival from the north picked up the cars for Lincoln and headed up the branch. That gave me the splendid opportunity to ride on the cab up to Beebe River where I could get off and catch a ride home with my father. I even got an occasional ride to Lincoln and memorable ride when the old snowplow was put out front to flange out the Lincoln branch. I never heard any complaints from the crew about the BL2. It has always been a favorite with me.
AHM also had a BL2 in its HO catalog, and the "attractiveness" of the engine was not enhanced by AHM's use of Fairbanks Morse C-Liner trucks. The BL2 looks like a person with a distractingly big nose; AHM made it look like a person with a big nose, wearing clown shoes.
Dave Nelson
dknelsonAHM also had a BL2 in its HO catalog, and the "attractiveness" of the engine was not enhanced by AHM's use of Fairbanks Morse C-Liner trucks.
I have two of these, one powered, one dummy. Trucks aren't the only thing Tempo got wrong, the curves on the front, top and front, both too flat, windshield frames too small. I didn't buy either, they came in a box of junk, and that's the proper term, that someone brought into the hobby shop and the shop owner decided wasn't worth looking at. As the power truck on the powered unit is bad, I have two dummies and no use for either.
Rich.