hi all I was thinking of geting one at clerance prices,but after a search on this site seems a lot of people not to happy with these units . Im just getting started and dont want to invest any dollars in something that would be a poblem child right out of box.disapointment is not a good way to start a project.any have veiws that would give me an idea that this would be a good investment .or should I look for something else......I an thinking of going dcc right from get go maybe the blueline mike are better with a decoder installed........thanks for any advise
Read about Tony's Train Exchange's experiences with some of them.
http://www.tonystrains.com/tonystips/2008/091908.htm
BLI responded that Tony's tester didn't have the tender properly plugged into the back of the locomotive and that Tony was going to retract his criticism.
But Tony has not removed the criticism from his web site and it's been two months now.
I have four BlueLine diesel engines and have had absolutely no problems with them; the sound is fantastic compared to other brands, and the detail is very good. A teen club member has a BlueLine 4-8-4 that has given him no problems, so it seems to be isolated to the Mikado.
What's confusing about all of the above is that there are two versions of the Mikado -- heavy and light; and neither Tony's site nor BlueLine distinguishes which one had the problems mentioned by Tony, so all of this has to be taken with a grain of salt.