Still Miserable? Sortof :( Broadway Limited Paragon 4 Smoke Units; the Blue Goose is a Flawed Model

Рет қаралды 5,850

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 69

@anb7408 Жыл бұрын

I turned down the cv values on all of mine to drop the smoke unit’s voltage to a level that wouldn’t burn it up. Still produces enough noticeable smoke without melting everything around it. No problems so far.

@officialpennsyjoe 2 жыл бұрын

Glad to see there was a better resolution for the the 4-8-4's. I personally would gut out their smoke units and electronics for more reliable electronics and features, but I am glad to see resolution. On the down side, I do not think having them sent at least twice now to finally work is what I would personally be happy with though, you seem more forgiving than I might be. Great video production. I definitely recommend opening up the Blue Goose and test it without the shell on the track to hopefully see what that clicking noise may be.

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for writing, Mr. Joe. Yes, I can see a good argument for doing that--at a minimum these things would sound better, right? I'm probably only at least somewhat happy b/c at least BLI's tech support has been very professional with me, which is better than I can say for someone else I've had a recent interaction with lol. I love your stuff and head over to your page often, keep up the good work, yourself!

@officialpennsyjoe 2 жыл бұрын

@@DoctorHobby I cannot agree more about BLI's service. TCS service for me has been overall positive too. Very interactive people from their service department too. Also, thank you! As a younger modeler, I like to share what I would watch and enjoy doing, and I want to be able to keep content interesting and fun. I stay tune to your channel on the work you have done. Really professional on your end!

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

I have to send a WOW Steam back.. it's been about 8 months, so hopefully they won't give me any grief! Best wishes to ya!

@anb7408 Жыл бұрын

FYI, if you’re having constant problems with electrical pickup, it’s not the engine. Just looking at your track, I see unsoldered joints. Run your fingers across the rails; if you pull back two black streaks, clean the track! My layout has two 94 foot ballasted mainlines with soldered joints and feeder wires every 4-5 feet. The track and every wheel on every car/engine running gets completely cleaned every three to four weeks. I have NO problems with voltage drops and all of my locomotives run just fine.

@jameswatson5304 2 жыл бұрын

All my BLI steamers had their smoke units removed. I wanted the weight increase more than smoke eye candy. Sounds crazy to some but I'm glad I did because my friend has had these smoke unit problems you talked about and more.

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

Just a few views of my channel and it Sounds pretty sane to me! Thanks so much for watching!

@jameswatson5304 2 жыл бұрын

@@DoctorHobby Thanks for the honest review. Keep up the good work. 👍

@UnionCentralSystem 2 жыл бұрын

I have a few BLI ES44AC locomotives and after watching your videos I have turned the smoke off, I am not taking a chance. Thankfully they have a on / off switch no need for CV's. Glad to see you have a lot more patience than me.

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

If anything, I'm glad that I help your enjoyment of the hobby by helping your rolling stock last longer! The steamers have hard switches, too, but they're on the bottom of the units--not nearly as convenient as under that little hatch! Take care and thank you for watching!

@hotdogpilot6319 Жыл бұрын

Sounds like a loco pickup problem. If the wheels have electrical wiper pickups and they're misaligned or deformed... happens quite a bit on UK loco's.

@Militiaman71 Жыл бұрын

I just got the BLI Greenbriar 4-8-4 and the smoke unit quit working after the first day. I've kept it from drying out. My first BLI locomotive. I guess faulty smoke units is a thing with these.

@johnhermanson5249 5 ай бұрын

The sound of the chuff as it passes is just weird. The diesel sounds (when the prime mover would be notching up) just sounds like the sound is speed up, not like a real engine picking up speed.

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

Current Erratum: It’s a Great Northern S2, not NP

@YukariAkiyamaTanks 2 жыл бұрын

Sometimes I think that bli locos are plotting their smoke units to blow up. While I personally have never had this issue I really hope there that there is some fix. Also thanks to your videos it got me back into spending more time with my own models! So thank you very much!

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

Is it... ?? "good" that I helped push you toward spending money?

@YukariAkiyamaTanks 2 жыл бұрын

@@DoctorHobby probably not lol

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

I’z sorry :(. I hope it does bring you joy, tho!

@modelrailwaybackshop 2 жыл бұрын

Seems like it's a spark from the insulated wheels making contact with the frame on it and it's something that's common with any brass built model...

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

Very, very possible… Continuing to investigate!

@thunderturbine8860 Жыл бұрын

I have a Paragon 3 K4 streamlined loco and a Paragon 3 Cab Forward, they both have random pickup problems i.e they lose power for no reason even when the wheels and pickups are spotless. I've heard more Paragon 3s exploding due to smoke units or just abysmal design flaws (i thankfully have not experienced this), thought that Paragon 4 would've been better, apparently not

@Mike-fx1eu 2 жыл бұрын

Got 6 locos and had 3 problems. That’s a 50% fail rate for BLI. They need to do better. I want them to do better to contribute to the hobby. Their RF-16s are great.

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

Yikes! A 50% defect rate is far too much for anyone to sustain. I hope you're able to have better luck in the future. At least you know you aren't the only one with these issues. Thank you for watching!

@gonebamboo4116 2 жыл бұрын

I'm two for two and afraid to open the other new BLI locos I bought

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

That was exactly my issue with these... Just didn't want more bad news...

@lipsnortheasttrains9128 2 жыл бұрын

Your dive rods might be bent which explains the click and short. I experience this sometimes when converting DC brass engines to DCC. Find where they touch, carefully bend them back and boom! Should resolve the issue. Sometimes it happens if you have a habit of picking up an loco from the wheels. It happens…

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

You might very well be right! Stay tuned and we’ll see how it goes!

@gonebamboo4116 2 жыл бұрын

You mean like pulling one out of your shirt pocket? Or trying to show off all the fine details while man handling it like a hogie from Subway?

@lipsnortheasttrains9128 2 жыл бұрын

@@gonebamboo4116 lol! Too bad this ain’t no 5 dollar foot long locomotive.

@hoscalerailfan 2 жыл бұрын

I know everyone's commenting about the BLI engines. But as an Amtrak fan, I couldn't help but notice you had a P30CH sitting on your layout. Will you ever overview it?

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

Ah! Excellent spot.. Yes.. very soon I’ll talk about it! Thanks for writing!

@jaymz5267 2 жыл бұрын

I personally haven’t had any problems with the smoke units. However, I had a lot of issues with the Paragon 3 locomotives not having capacitors. Probably my most problematic engine was the Pennsylvania streamlined K4s. It looks and sounds good, but it shut off and started up again on every frog switch I had. I even installed the GoPack and for some reason it made the problem worse. I’m probably going to send it to BLI and see if I can get it upgraded to P4. I know Paragon 4 has its problems as well, but it’s far better than Paragon 3.

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

Goodness, the smaller Paragon 3s are absolutely horrific when it comes to their pickups. I’ve had to install a gopack in every single one of them thus far… just …yeah… I’m not sure if the upgrade will even help, but I’d appreciate it if you let me know! Thanks for watching!

@jaymz5267 2 жыл бұрын

Hey by the way, the smoke unit on my Dreyfuss Hudson ended up crapping out on me. When your smoke units burnt out, did you send it back to BLI?

@codymarshall2540 2 жыл бұрын

I’m surprised that the BLI P4 S3 and BLI Brass Hybrid P4 S2 didn’t have smoke units blown up on you! Your lucky! To me I would avoid the Blue Goose, cuz I’m not crazy over it and the Smoke Units and Sounds are still my issue from BLI. I actually have BLI M1a, but it has a QSI Sound Decoder and it was good. No smoke unit though, which I’m glad. If I were to get a BLI P3 or P4 I would change the decoder to TCS Wowsound and just take off the smoke unit off before I have any problems with the smoke unit. Great video.

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

There’s always tomorrow! Thanks so much for watching, your comments, and for the encouragement! If there is another blow up, I’ll post it for sure lol

@titustracy3342 2 жыл бұрын

I bought purchased a blue goose from a second first owner and it’s hard to find parts for that thing

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

One of the new ones was already out on the used market?

@StevieWonder737 2 жыл бұрын

For the prices BLI gets they had damn well better support their product or they will be hard to give away at any price. Is BLI supporting the issues and offering real fix(es) or just replacing defective parts with other defective parts.

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

They’re offering the same poorly designed parts back, but these are at least new poorly designed parts, I suppose?

@caseyjones745 2 жыл бұрын

The units ran for 20 minutes without the need to refill smoke fluid? How much fluid do you initially use for fill-up? My BLI problem has been overfill.

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

It'll be about 6 drops, I think. The reason they ran for so long is that they were running at fairly high speed, so they weren't actually puffing all that much... Not like if they were going slow under load

@caseyjones745 2 жыл бұрын

@@DoctorHobby Thanks. Six (6) drops makes sense. You are right about high speed-eliminates smoke and chuff sounds, too. They look much better at slow speeds.

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

So as long as the boiler isn’t melting, they look great! I DO like smoke…just like it more when it’s working..

@jeffreyrule8143 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the update. You need coal loads in your hoppers. You are not making any money pulling empty freight.

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

Shhh! Not so loud! I tell my wife that I make money hauling these loads--that's why I need so much rolling stock! ;)

@eal8645 11 ай бұрын

BLI is a mass production company. Quality is their 2nd concern! I have T-1, run it less than 10 times. Now, it is not running!

@DoctorHobby 10 ай бұрын

Sounds about par for the course. Sorry you're having the same problems so many others are... It's a bummer to be sure..

@eliabraham6918 2 жыл бұрын

did you put some liquid smoke in them before you ran them? sometimes not doing that can burn out the smoke generator

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

Always do… see at 11 minutes exactly here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b3KpgKWofLmpock

@eliabraham6918 2 жыл бұрын

@@DoctorHobby I've seen other modelers put three to six drops in. try it like that.

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

We’re pretty far beyond that at this point lol… definitely not the problem. I think it’s a voltage or electrical bounce issue

@gonebamboo4116 2 жыл бұрын

I know what you mean. After opening two of my new BLI locos, I couldn't face the others. Still haven't opened them. Like a bad taste in my mouth

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

YEEEES! Exactly... Just didn't feel like writing them about blown smoke units YET AGAIN! Thankfully it appears I might only have to write them about a different problem with that blue goose.. Yay lol

@stephenrickjr.7519 2 жыл бұрын

Glad the engines you got back are OK. I still won't buy bli. Thanks for the info. 😊👍

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

Maybe one of these days I'll declare that I haven't had problems with BLIs for like... a year... then maybe it'll be ok to go back in the pool again. I apprecaite ya for watching!

@danshobbies13 2 жыл бұрын

I’m not impressed with BLI. Smoke units don’t work, when they do it melts the boiler. I have a problem with a diesel. It only works on address 3. If I change it to anything else, it goes haywire.

@DoctorHobby 2 жыл бұрын

Argh… unfortunately all-too-common glitchy electronics story from a customer. I’m sorry you’ve been caught by the same bugs so many of us have (and that fanboys have somehow implausibly been spared). Keep haulin’ and happy model railroading!