Tuning and Operating the BLI California Zephyr

[mlehman]

An update. Started having derailment issues with one of my mid-train CZ cars. It turns out that one of the two prongs that form the kingpin on the truck had broken at the bottom where it joins the rest of the top part of the truck frame. This caused the truck to pivot upwards on the inside end of it, pretty much due to the way the truck is balanced.

A call to BLI promptly brought a new pair of trucks (I found another truck with the same problem while checking the fleet over) at very reasonable cost. I probably cracked these in the first couple of sets of cars I adjusted the gauge on, before I learned to be just a little gentler.

Thought I'd mention it, as it's the kind of hard to diagnose problem that shows up depending on your line's maintenance practices...

Otherwise, these cars are running well. I'm very happy about my investment in them and BLI's service/support. Antonio, I may even try to get some pics up.

[AntonioFP45]

At the risk of being annoying..........my apologies But........................................

GUYS, PLEASE post some photos of those gorgeous cars!

Include photos of the areas highlighted in your posts. - Thanks

OK, now I'll go duck and cover.

[hdtvnut]

I have ten of the first production, and also had to spend time on them.  I still have one car that derails on occasion (35" min radius).  I think its floor was not installed right on one corner, but got off onto other things before fixing it.

Hal

 

[twhite]

Mike:

I have the first run of the CZ set--all 10 cars--and what you're describing on the latest run was also a problem with me for the full train--mainly the trucks.  After some adjustments, the ful train now runs quite well (I have 34" minimum radius and 2% interrupted grades), but even on the first run of these cars, there was some adjusting to do. 

So it seems as if BLI didn't address the truck problem between runs of these cars.  However, the time spent tinkering was well worth it--it's one incredibly handsome train.

Tom

[Forty Niner]

Mike,

Thanks so much for posting this info you have experienced, I have the full sets as well but haven't set them to use as yet but it will be nice to have your information handy should any problems arise, it will give a direction to the diagnosis of any problems.

Mark

RMR

[Jeff Stewart]

Mike thanks for the post!  I had many of the same issues and have had them in storage for three years now because of just how poorly these cars track in full consist length.  On my home layout can go around maybe once at incredibly slow speeds to allows trucks to track, no problems with all other cars.  Note I also have the UP City Series with a 16 car consist and I can run all day with NO issues at home or at the club, same with Walthers Hiawatha set running a 12 cars!

Coupler pockets are another poor design on these cars.  I understand With they attempted to do but in function they simply don't perform.  I may take these apart as well, as after negotiating my curves on my layout the couplers do NOT recenter after leaving the curve.  The coupler pockets stay off to the side in which they moved to negotiate the curves.  So far with my limited use and not getting to break my cars in the only way to recenter and bring cars back to close coupling distance is to stop the consist and actually backup and remove tension from coupler pockets.  BLI was a little to aggressive on their multi swing coupler box design. 

I did do some minor tinkering when I first purchased and one that did help two of my cars was to remove the wiper bar,similar to Kato SD40, and replace with ultra fine flexible wiring.  This allowed much better truck movement as it could rock from side to side without the stiff spring and more freely front to back with wires instead of bus bar spring contact.  Honestly I simply hated having to rebuild every car out f the box but I guess this is what you will have to do unless you have larger than 30" radius curves and billiard smooth table and track work.

Once again I will take the time and do some more tweaking to see if they can be improved to operational reliability.  These cars are beautiful and have a great presence on the layout and for shows and their poor operation is disgusting for the dollar amount.

[jimjet2]

Great review Mike.. I just got all my cars last week too but haven't had a chance for a full run yet...I definitly will check for those problems.
Thanks Again for the info..and I think it is a service the Mags should offer. A "Follow-up" review of a product!! I suspect maybe it's a "toes" issue but it would be nice if they re-reviewed an item after it has been out in service for a while and some of the bugs are showing.

Jim Spice
Beach Park ,IL

[fmilhaupt]

One thing that struck me while examining the BLI CZ dome-observation at the hobby shop- the lip on the coupler box cover (real Kadees- hooray!) on the rear of the car interferes with the coupler box mounting level, and appears to force the front of the coupler box down and prevent the coupler from riding at the correct height.

I suspect that there won't be too many who actually use that coupler, but it struck me as a little odd given all of the other details BLI attended to. At least that's an easy thing to fix if you need to use the coupler!

[electrolove]

Thanks Mike, your review is really good and helpful. I appreciate that you want to share your experience with us. [bow]

At the same time I'm worried about the problems. I think we deserve top quality for the money these cars cost.

[mlehman]

The third group of BLI's new California Zephyr cars has arrived. I eagerly put them into service on my layout now that Ihave enough cars for a full trainset.

For motive power, I have a four unit set of Genesis F-3s, although one of mine is a dummy B-unit shell mounted on a RTR F-unit chassis. The three powered Atheran units provide more than enough power for my 10 car CZ set.

My layout has a 28" minimum radius and about a 3% ruling grade. I've been running a shorter, 6 car CZ set with the cars I bought from the first two groups of cars to arrive with no problems, but filling out the consist immediately brought several issues to the fore. My track is generally in excellent condition. I can run freight trains all night ling with nary a derailment, but such was not the case with my first attempts to run a full consist CZ. Obviously, a train of long passenger cars will tend to point out any minor issues with the track, but I can run 86' hi-cubes and 75'+ auto racks on it with no problem. But further investigation showed the issues mostly don't seem to be track problems.

First, the trucks on the latest group of CZ cars seem to have a bit more flash on the bolster pin. This split pin is cast integral to the truck and attaches it by snapping into a hole in the underframe of the car. Most of the trucks on my group of cars from the third batch had excess flash on the pin. This is easily remedied by simply scraping it off with a kinfe blade. There are four flassh lines that runn vertically on the pin. Smooth the flash lines off and reassemble, checking to mkae sure they pivot freely.

However, the car must be disassembled in order to get access to the truck. After cleaning up this flash, the truck is much more free to pivot. This only seems to be a factor with this third group of cars, so perhaps the mold for the trucks is getting worn or something.

The next thing I discovered are the many instances of wheels gauged too narrowly when checked with the NMRA gauge. There are two major issues with this problem. First, these too tightly gauged wheels can lead to derailments. Second, I have several curved Waltehrs/Shinohara curved 28"/32" and 24"/28" turnouts in a yard lead. The too-tightly gauged wheeelsets are prone to causing a short between the running rail and the bordering, opposite polarity point rail.

To correct these issues once again requires the cars to be disassembeled in order to get at the trucks. Use the NMRA gauge and then twist and gently but forcefully pull apart on each wheelset that needs adjusted. These were mostly VERY tight and let out a small cracking sound when you manage to break the wheels loose. In fact, in going through all ten cars, my fingers got so sore that I had to don some gloves several times in order to accompli***his. I feared I'd break the truck a couple of times, but managed to get all adjusted without damage, except for sore fingers.

I made a run through the entire set, adjusting those wheelsets that were really bad. This resulted in considerable improvement, but there were still problems, so I went through the entire set again, being extra careful that all wheelsets were at the optimal gauge.

I also found some trucks were a little warped, so that they don't set all four wheel on the rails in a level fashion. A little twisting -- until the truck sets level -- will solve this problem. Another poblem I found on one car was that the metal part on the inside of the truck sideframe that acts as both a bearing for the wheelsets' pointed tips to run in and to pickup interior lighting power was both warped and had several burrs on it. Again, a bit of adjustment and filing helped this issue.

The shorter baggage car still derailed with a full train, even after truck adjustments, so I added a bit of weight to it. This solved the problem for me and may be more generally recommended for good operation, as it seems a bit light. Generally people have remarked that the BLI CZ cars have operated well, but I suspect, based on my own experience, that people have been running relatively short trains as they've waited for the rest of their cars to arrive. Now that it's possible to run a full consist, the extra weight and required tractive effort are causing what previously were relatively minor issues to be amplified.

The BLI literature enclosed with the cars makes no mention whatsoever of lubrication, but the chirpping of metal on metal indicated to me it is required with these trucks. I used a plastic-compatible oil and carefully put a single small drop of oil at the bearing surface/axle needlepoint interface. This immediately quieted the squalling when the cars were moving and made them considerably more free-rolling.

Finally, be careful when reassembling the cars. Several of them gave me fits before I got the underframe seated properly back into the body shell. If it doesn't seem to be engaging the catches properly, take it apart and reinsert the underframe again. The tool provided with the cars for this purpose works pretty well, but some cars needed extra care in reassembly. They way the interior parts are set up makes assembly on work one way, so if things get turned around when you've got them apart, simply look for the way that the holes line up with the pins on the inteerriors and you can't go wrong.

You should also be cautious about the underframe details when working on the cars. For the most part, these details are simply mounted with a pin pushed into a hole in the underframe without glue. Thus, they are easy to reattach if you knock one askew. I did break off a receptacle set on one car by applying too much sideways pressure and breaking the mounting pin off, but a bit of glue fixed it.

While early reviews have generally praised these models operating characteristics, now that the full consist is available, I suspect that other modelers will run into many of ths same problems I did. The trucks are definitly the weak link, although it not a design flaw, per se, simply poor quality control. BLI will need to pay some attention to this.

In general, I'm very happy with my BLI CZ cars in terms of value and appearance. And spending most of a day tuning the cars is not too big a deal, I suppose, but others may have higher expectations and simply return problem cars for warranty service. This is really not necessary if you encounter most of the problems I've mentioned, as long as you are careful to follow the directions on how to disassemble the cars. Odds are that, like me, you'll get the routine down cold by the time you've gone through your CZ consist.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL