My Blueline AC6000's came Friday and I finally got to take a look at them yesterday. I'll start at the begining.
I got them from Trainworld at $99.95 each, which is $20 apiece cheaper than the Discount trains online ad in the current Model Railroad News. Maybe, in this case, pre-ordering worked out.
The shipping box was large and the two loco boxes were surrounded with peanuts so they were well protected.
The individual loco boxes are sturdy with a clear window in front allowing one to view the product. There is an interior plastic cover, easily lifted off and the engine is wrapped in celophane. There are also foam inserts between the body and the handrails, protecting them from crushing. The loco sits in a styrofoam cradle with two holes in the back for easy removal. There were two silica packets in the box to maintain dryness. The paperwork is under the cradle.
The paperwork included a warranty card, instructions to add jumpers to the 8 pin plug for certain DC operations, an exploded diagram of the loco and an operators manuel. The operators manuel refers to "instructions included w/loco" but there are none. The exploded view has numbers pointing to parts but no legend or listing of definitions. Specifically, no mention of shell removal, save for a sentence in the operators manuel saying most locos shells can be removed by taking off the couplers and prying off the shell. The operators manuel does refer to the tech manuel which you can get online...136 pages.
After taking out the engine and carefully removing the protective foam from the handrails I set it down for the overall look. It is an impressive model. The painting is crisp and clean, covers well with nice striping and readable detail printing. The details, both accessory and body, including flaring around the fan housing, are well done, including the air and m.u. hoses, which are a bit shiney. The handrails are well sized and straight. The hand grabs are set close to the body, giving a very prototypical look. The model has a massive feel which is appropriate for this size locomotive. The loco weighs 27.4 ounces which should (and did) make it a good puller.
Getting it ready for DCC.
The operators manuel explains the jumper board sits on top of the sound decoder but does not give the location of the decoder. After removing the shell (a tight fit) I discovered the decoder sits over the drive at the rear of the loco. This information would have been nice to have up front because the rear fan housing pops off and it is not necessary to remove the shell to get at the sound decoder and install the motor decoder.
Removing the coupler boxes was not all bad. I found one of them was binding the coupler and not allowing it to move freely. I replaced the couplers with Kadee#58 scale couplers in Kadee boxes. I filed the rear of the Kadee boxes round to make sure they didn't interfere with the truck swing. I also noticed the lighting arrangement which is rather impressive. There are seperate led's for the front an rear lights as well as seperate led's for the number boards and ditch lights. Some care is needed when removing and replacing the shell to avoid bending the lights out of place.
I installed an MRC 1650 decoder (one from a recomended list). It fit without problem and as noted in the operators manuel, I left the light functions to be controlled by the sound decoder. The decoder programmed easily in ops mode (on the mailine) as stated in the manuel.
The AC6000 comes with two speakers mounted in the fuel tank so there is plenty of sound but no distortion. BLI must have listened to comments about overly loud and distorted sound because, from the factory, the decoder was set at about half volume. Still, with the twin speakers, this was more than enough for me Following the instructions, the sound CV's adjusted down without problems.
Now, here is one thing I don't fully understand. Even when you adjust the sounds down, they are set to come on full when the engine starts. You can adjust them down again by double clicking on F8. Personnally, once I get the sounds where I like them, they can stay there, having to re-adjust them every time I start the loco is a step I would rather avoid.
The loco started right away and runs smoothly. Adjusting the start voltage pointed out the loco runs faster in forward than reverse. This may change with some run-in.
Initial running was enjoyable. The ditchlights are set to flash when sounding the horn and the engine and accessory sounds come out clear when running. The top speed was fast out of the box and I had to adjust it way down to get a more prototypical top speed of 70 mph or so. During the initial running, the loco would stall at some switches. The decoder has a capacitor so the sound and lights did not cut and need to re-start, which is nice.
Closer examination revealed the loco was slightly derailing on the frogs(note to self, file frogs). A check indicated the wheel gauge was a slight bit tight and there isn't much travel in the wheel sets, making them unforgiving to track gliches (several dozen other locos not having this problem). After adjusting the wheel gauge and correcting a switch and track glich, the loco tracked fine. As I mentioned earlier, it pulls well, the weight really helps here. I hooked it up to a high friction train generally needing two engines and it managed to pull it around the layout, including the hills.
Overall I quite impressed with this model. The detail, the sound and the price all combine to make it a hard deal to beat. If the other Blueline locos are of similiar quality, I would recomend them to any modeler. I think the Athearn Genesis line has a little better detail, but overall the Blueline strikes me as the better deal. (NOTICE, the last bit is just an opinion)
Tilden
When mine comes i am going to disconect the sound where it will run with the no sound unit.
Russell
Actually David I've had good luck with the 1650's and it was on the recomended list. The 1650's are small, full function and have good BEMF. My only criticism would be that they are 1.5 amp decoders, which usually isn't a problem.
CSXNS
That won't be a problem, you can simply pop the rear fan cover off and unplug the speakers. The connection is right on top.
Tilden,
do we get to se any pictures? How about a video. Mine should be here sometime next week so I will get to hear the sound then but I can't wait.
-Smoke
csxns wrote: When mine comes i am going to disconect the sound where it will run with the no sound unit.
.......Why not just turn the sound down to it lowest setting?
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
Lothar,
According to the blurbs the idea is that all their locos will now come with sound that can be run in DC and the lower prices come from standardization and their development of their own sound system instead of paying license fees. The DCC boards will all plug in at your expense but all you'll need is a regular (non-sound) decoder. If you want one with all the bits already installed, that's what the upscale Broadway Limited and PS(?) models are for - sound and DCC factory installed. Hope that helps. J.R.
AntonioFP45,
Turning the sound down may not work because when you start up the loco, the sound comes on full and needs to be adjusted back down by double clicking F8. This lowers all the sounds.
Loathar,
Yes the AC6000 comes with two one inch or 1.25 (didn't measure) speakers mounted in the fuel tank. The sounds will work on DC but only in an automatic mode, ie, you get motor sounds and the randomly generated engine sounds. For user activated sounds, bell horn, etc, you need to get the DCMaster Analog Control Module, which connects between the power pack and the track. This also allows you to control volume.
Jonathan,
Huh... I'm not sure, My bad. I preped and ran the second one last night and didn't notice if other sounds cut out completely when the horn is activated. I'll check tonight.
Smoke,
I don't think so, I don't have a digital video cam. The sound clip on the BLI site is pretty accurate though. I adjusted the ring rate of the bell and the volume of the individual sounds and am pretty happy with the results.
As an update.
I opened the second unit last night and getting it ready went much smoother. The gage on the wheels was better and no adjustments were necessary. I didn't remove the body, simply opened the rear fan cover and slipped in the decoder. I did replace the couplers and boxes with Kadee #58's in the newer snap coupler boxes.
Programing the loco was much quidker too, using the settings for the first loco as a guide.
They do run quite smoothly, quiet with the sound off, and pull well.
The following tips are from BLI and may help with some problems when programming the blue line units.
BlueLine DCC PROGRAMMING Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): Q: What is the best method to program my BlueLine locomotives in DCC? A: We recommend programming BlueLine locomotives on the main in Ops mode. If you do not know the engine ID/Address, or if the engine does not respond, set CV08 to 8 on the PROGRAM track using direct mode programming. This will reset all onboard addresses to the factory default of 3. NCE PROCAB users, please note the following tips: 1. When changing from one 4-digit address to another 4-digit address, first reprogram the engine to engine 3. Then program to the new 4-digit address. 2. When programming on the program track, the NCE system will not be able to read the CV's from the BlueLine locomotives unless the PROCAB has the latest available firmware from NCE. The BlueLine engines can still be programmed. Simply press 'ENTER' when the controller gives the "CANNOT READ CV" message. DIGITRAX DT400 users, please note the following tips: 1. When changing from a 2-digit address to a 4-digit address, the system will ask if you want to enable 4-digit addressing. Respond by enter "Y". 2. When changing from a 4-digit address to a 2-digit address, you must first enter the address, then manually reset CV29 back to its default value of 6. When using a LENZ Silver MP decoder, cut the green wire to prevent the headlight from going out when the bell is activated.
Tilden wrote: Now, here is one thing I don't fully understand. Even when you adjust the sounds down, they are set to come on full when the engine starts. You can adjust them down again by double clicking on F8. Personnally, once I get the sounds where I like them, they can stay there, having to re-adjust them every time I start the loco is a step I would rather avoid.Tilden
The Master Volume is set by CV133. Its range is 0-15. The default is 15. If you do not want the volume to come on full when the engine starts, set CV133 to the desired setting. The engine will then start at the new volume.
Bob Grubba
4884bigboy wrote:When you blow the horn, do all the other sounds stop? That was my biggest complaint on the Blueline SD40-2.
The sounds on the AC6000 (and SD40-2 and all Blue Line engines) do not stop when the horn blows. They do get quieter to make the horn more pronounced. If you do not want this, set CV 183 to 100, which means when the whistle blows, the background sounds will be at 100% of their normal volume. Setting it to 80 or 90% sounds pretty good.
PS-This can be set with DC Master if you don't have DCC. You don't need a decoder to do this.