I have a pair of these SW7s. I also have a Proto 2000 SW8. The BLI engines appear to be either underweight or underpowered in comparison to the Proto 2000. They don't run as well at low speed. They don't have as high a top end speed and periodically one or the other will just stop and lose the sound. I can start them up by simply touching them with my finger to reestablish contact with the rails. I have no problems with the Proto 2000 at all.
Is this typical for these engines and if so, is there anything I can do to improve the performance like adding weight or something? Thanks.
Tim Fahey
Musconetcong Branch of the Lehigh Valley RR
i was dumb enough to buy 2 of them. both are noisy and neither of them will pull a load. the problem is they are too light and they lack the traction needed to do the job.
i also have several of the proto engines and they are smooth runners (much better than the p2k geeps i have). they seem to have adequate traction and power for the tasks i assign to them.
in my opion, the best emd yard engine in ho scale is the old kato nw-2's. among the best running and most powerful locomotives you can find for yard service. only thing superior to the katos is an atlas gp-7 i rotate out of road service occasionally.
in fairness, i must say 2 things;
1-the bli's are the dual mode sound equipped engines being used on straight old school dc, and
2-i am operating a rather large layout that requires yard engines to handle road trains up to 35 cars in switching and transfer service.
the kato's are the only single unit yard engines capable of doing this. the p2k's need to be mu'd but they do play well together.
the paragons are such miserable weaklings, i should just cut my losses and dump them on ebay.
someone with shorter yard cuts on a smaller layout might not have the same opinion as i do but the paragons are only good for switching the car shop and caboose track and that is about all i use them for.
grizlump (grouchy german)
I have a BLI NW-2 that operated the same as your SWs. The hesitation was especially irritating until I cleaned the track and treated it with CRC 2-26. That was a year ago and I have had no problems with hesitating engines since the treatment. But be careful if you try it. A very small amount of CRC goes a very long way. I dampen a Q-tip with CRC and spread it lightly. The danger is that too much CRC will act as a lubricant which will even further reduce your traction. CRC is available at Home Depot if you want to try it. It would be best to start with a short test area to see how you like it.
tcf511 I have a pair of these SW7s. I also have a Proto 2000 SW8. The BLI engines appear to be either underweight or underpowered in comparison to the Proto 2000. They don't run as well at low speed. They don't have as high a top end speed and periodically one or the other will just stop and lose the sound. I can start them up by simply touching them with my finger to reestablish contact with the rails. I have no problems with the Proto 2000 at all. Is this typical for these engines and if so, is there anything I can do to improve the performance like adding weight or something? Thanks.
I have several of both, the BLI (Paragon2) and P2K, and I *love* the sound of the BLI version. But it doesn't pull anywhere near as well as the P2K does-- which, frankly, pulls a bit *too* well in my opinion. I hadn't really compared the top-end speeds before, but they're switchers, they're not supposed to go fast! I'm more interested in how slow they can go. Fortunately, both of them do pretty well in that department. What I'm considering doing with mine is pairing them up, a BLI with a P2K so that I'll get a pair that sounds good and pulls well and won't look as out of place doing it seeing as how there will be two locos involved.
One thing I have not tried yet though, and would be interested in finding out if anybody knows-- is how interchangeable the shells are between the BLI and P2K's.. ??
John
Does anyone have recommendations as to the best way to add weight to one of these?
tcf511
I too would like to know if anyone was able to add weight to this engine I've had it apart on a few occasions and don't see any way to add weight to it. You might want to check out a previous post about this engine from 2008 titled bli sw7 stalls, I had done what was suggested and it did improve the performance.
GOOD LUCK
Frank
1.
tcf511 Does anyone have recommendations as to the best way to add weight to one of these?
You could always strap an old iron to the top...
Actually, that was one of my problems too. One of my favorite locos is a P2K SW9 and I had to remove a bit of the weight when I installed the DCC decoder. Even still, it will (nearly) out-pull most of my other locomotives. The BLI one is a bit wimpier though, as I mentioned previously. I figured it was a little under-weighted also but am not sure really how to add much weight-- there's not a lot of room inside one of those.
I have a BLI NW-2 that runs quite well - of course as a switcher it's supposed to run at slow speeds, so the fact that another engine is faster doesn't mean the other engine is better. Anyway, I usually run it together with a Proto SW1200. The Proto engine isn't quite as smooth running as the NW2 at slow speeds. I've never tested pulling power but I'd guess they're about equal. By adjusting the CVs I got them to run together pretty well. Often on my switching layout they run at about 6 scale MPH - I just use the center-off direction switch on my Digitrax UT-4 or Zephyr to stop and reverse the engines, and let the momentum CVs make the engines coast to a stop and start slowly together.
Hi,
My BLI Paragon IC switcher runs like a charm. The sound is just fine, its pulling power works for me, and the speed is about right for a switcher. I run DCC with feeders every 3 feet, and the layout is in a climate controlled room. Ha, my only complaint is that its not in ATSF livery......................
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
zstripe tcf511 I too would like to know if anyone was able to add weight to this engine I've had it apart on a few occasions and don't see any way to add weight to it. You might want to check out a previous post about this engine from 2008 titled bli sw7 stalls, I had done what was suggested and it did improve the performance. GOOD LUCK Frank 1.
Thanks Frank, I changed the CVs as recommended in that thread on 1 of the 2 SW7s. It seemed to improve it quite a bit. What I have left now are two spots to check the track work. The 2nd engine that is unchanged still behaves the same way. I'll change it after I fix the trackwork.
I was thinking of getting a pair of BLI GM switchers, but after seeing these reviews I'm glad I didn't take the plunge.
I have a couple dozen Life-Like GM switchers, and they are the best running locos I've encountered so far. They even run better than the pricier Atlas, Walthers, and Stewart locos in my fleet of diesel switchers.
In my opinion, it is hard to beat the sound in these two locomotives. The simple fix of changing a couple of CVs is well worth the effort in my opinion. Otherwise these are fine and run very well at low speed now that I made the change.
When ever I am considering a locomotive purchase if it meets my era and appearance requirements I look at the reviews from this magazine's staff prior to the purchase. In the case of the BLI units they were not strong pullers however 2 of them mued should pull well enough to handle yard duties in my future layout, or work my steel mill. I believe they are rated at about 20 free rolling cars on straight and level track. In comparison the H10-44 is nearly twice that.
They look very good and sound great on a test track I rigged up. One tip from a forgotten source stated that yard switchers would many times not pull the entire train when flat switching as the shorter back up movements would actually save time by making two trips to empty a track than backing in and out with an entire train.
Also if heavy trains were going to be moved like over a hump it was not uncommon to see really massive older road power used to move the heavier loads. Some examples were the 2-8-8-2 H7s by the C&O and the C630's coupled to a trainmaster slug on the N&W.