New bli northern bad news


K

Kurt

New Member
Finally got my new bli paragon2 northern. Put it on the track and no go. Finally got it to move if I helped it along. At times it would sound as though it was steaming down the track but it was not moving. Other times would run fine for a minute. Touched it and you could feel the gears grinding and not meshing. :( uess there is no fix other than return it. Anyone got any other suggestions? Got it from GREATDEALS4UONLINE on ebay. They have a 99.8% rating.


kurt
 
This is a known issue with the new 4-8-4's, especially the ATSF ones. You can get it repaired under warranty from BLI, as long as you are the original retail purchaser.
 
I purchased a Stealth Series J Class 4-8-4 from a guy on eBay. BLI produced these in late 2005/2006 for those who wanted the locos but didn't want to pay for DCC sound decoders. When I got mine in 2010, my decoder installer said he found a split gear. I contacted BLI, attached a copy of my invoice from the seller, and pointed out that it was sold as 'NIB'. BLI said sure, send it in, and it only cost me the one-way shipping. It runs still on my layout, and I have since bought the latest version of that loco in Paragon 2. It works like a champ.

Contact either your seller for an exchange or just get BLI to take a look at it. If my history is any indication, now with six returns to them for repairs (no one loco twice, and two were entirely my fault...still fixed for free, and one was a decoder!!), you'll have it back inside of about 4-5 weeks and it will be fine.
 
I bought the AT&SF Northern back in June and the smoke air pump quit working on it a couple months ago. I recently sent it in for repairs.
 
Sounds like a cracked gear. I purchased two BLI Y6B's and both had cracked gears. One of the Y's gears only occasionally meshed, and I could free roll the loco about 6" in either direction. The second one's gears didn't mesh at all and I could free-roll it down the track indefinitely! I pulled one of the Y's apart and there were teeth missing from the gears. Honestly, how does that even happen? The gears are nylon and require a great deal of force to break off the teeth. Both went back to BLI and were repaired but it took about three months.
 
Ive heard of various decoder issues with the Paragon 2 ATSF Northerns, but this is the first Ive heard about the drive train. My Northern I purchased the day they were released would not take a long address. Since starting to toy around with JMRI hooked up with my PowerCab, I have not had any issues. In your case sending it back to the buyer for another unit would be quicker but you could also get another problem in return. On the other hand, you should get a functioning locomotive back after sending it in to BLI. But as another poster said, that takes a few weeks. One other issue Ive had with another BLI locomotive I have is with the connection between the tender and locomotive. Have you checked to make sure the harness is seated properly? I had a couple of the connectors slightly back out of the harness. You can tell one has backed out if you can see the metal sticking out of the harness on the side with the wires. Just a thought.
 
Yikes! I got the exact same loco, I got it in Sept. Thank god nothing is wrong with it, everything has been fine and runs like a champ. (crosses fingers silently).

But you have to wonder, what are the Chinese people doing out there? I mean sending a loco with cracked gears and doesn't run, no testing? No testing by BLI either. Its very sad this happens on $300 locomotives.
 
Michael, most of these new BLI and MTH steamers cost $500+... At least at full MSRP.
 
You can get them discounted sharply at hogtrainz, modeltrainstuff, and at trainworld. I get mine from the refurbished section at BLI's website for even less, with full warranty. Most of the current Paragon 2 non-diecast sell for MSRP of about $399, with the larger articulated and duplex engines being exceptions. I get them fixed and warranted for about $240.
 
I believe that the problem lies in the "new" designs on these drives. Used to be the gears were big and wide, but not any more. These gears are now very narrow, and there in lies the problem. the gears can't take the torque needed to handle the weight of the locomotive and a train, so now more and more teeth are being sheared off. I first saw this problem with the first Athearn Genesis steamers, the USRA light 2-8-2, and 4-6-2.

This is why I won't buy a BLI, MTH, Athearn, or P2k, any of the newer steamers, except for Spectrum. At least Spectrum gears are still substantial. If they go to thinner gears, I won't buy them either, unless I can replace them with NWSL gears.

Look at brass steamer gears. They generally have very substantial gears, and very rarely do they have problems like this. Their gears are also easily replaced when and if needed. I own brass locos from the 1960's that still have their original gears, and are real heavyweight pullers.
 
The gears on my Y's had teeth broken off right out of the box. Neither had pulled a consist when I discovered the problem.
 
Cjcrescent said:
I believe that the problem lies in the "new" designs on these drives. Used to be the gears were big and wide, but not any more. These gears are now very narrow, and there in lies the problem. the gears can't take the torque needed to handle the weight of the locomotive and a train, so now more and more teeth are being sheared off. I first saw this problem with the first Athearn Genesis steamers, the USRA light 2-8-2, and 4-6-2.

This is why I won't buy a BLI, MTH, Athearn, or P2k, any of the newer steamers, except for Spectrum. At least Spectrum gears are still substantial. If they go to thinner gears, I won't buy them either, unless I can replace them with NWSL gears.

Look at brass steamer gears. They generally have very substantial gears, and very rarely do they have problems like this. Their gears are also easily replaced when and if needed. I own brass locos from the 1960's that still have their original gears, and are real heavyweight pullers.
Click to expand...

Boy those early Athearn Genesis mikes and pacifics wouldn't even pull their tenders, let alone any sort of a train! I have two plastic steamers, a BLI Santa Fe 2-10-2 which I took in trade and runs OK, and the IM cab forward. I may pop for an Athearn Mt-4 if they do one in semi-Daylight paint, but that remains to be seen. I believe someone is trying to use standard gears out of a catalog instead of actually designing a drive system. There are calculations that can be run for this that would tell you where the gear will fail. Somebody isn't doing their job!!! Naughty naughty!!!
 
Well got my northern back and it runs perfect. One question....... Any of you with this loco notice the third set of drivers from the front moves a bit before she moves? Maybe just the slack in the gears but is this normal? Like I said though.....it runs just beautiful. You can hardly see it moving at its slowest speed.
 
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