I am contemplating buying a BMI sound steam locomotive. Other than the advertising claims, and MR's accolades (they always give them), I have not seen any real info on the quality of these models. Can anyone give me a owners' perspective on how they operate and sound? thanks in advance
Sorry for the typo... I meant a steam loco from BLI. Broadway Limited, not BMI. thanks again
I am not an expert in exactly what the sounds should be; but:
I have the N&W Class A. The sound is very good, as is the fact that it can run on either DC or DCC with sound on either. The mechanism is solid and strong, the detail is fair to good. I had an incident with it the first time out. One of the clubmembers was instructed to remove some unused track in a tunnel. Next to the dead track was our mainline. Yes, you guessed right. He also removed a section of the mainline. I heard the A go on the roadbed, then the inevitable clunk, chunk clack. Fortunately, the benchwork caught the engine and tender shell. The only thing to hit the floor was the tender floor. I snapped the shell back onto the chassis and rerailed the whole thing. It worked just fine. I discovered a little later that the pilot was bent just enough to prevent the swingout coupler from swinging out so I could do some switching with the engine. It is still on the repair track as I have not gotten a chance to look at it further.
A quick review on the others: Hudson, on the test track it ran smoothly back and forth. The sound was very good. The bell and whistle sounded very good. I was impressed with it, but did not buy one.
One feature of all the steam engines is that if they have a dynamo, you can hear it start and wind up when the power to the track is turned on. The headlight also comes on dim then brightens as the dyanamo spins up.
The On30 Narrow gauge engine is a very good looking item. the whistle sounds are good and there is a 'dip' in the sound when you release the whistle. The bell also starts off slow and low then gets louder as the clapper gains momentum and then gets slower and lower as it loses momentum and stops ringing. It had the timing of a hand rung bell. (ding, ding ding, ding) The biggest drawback to the engine is that the front coupler is O scale and non-working and the tender is HO scale bachman style. They did this so it can be used with the existing bachmann On30 equipment.
I was not impressed with the sound of the GG1. The motor noise was greater than the electric whine and other sounds that the engine made. The horn was a fair representation of the BLAT that I heard a few times I saw a GG1 in Rye NY, on the New Haven.
The E unit has been discussed here, but I will just stick to the sound. To the untrained ear (pun intended) it sounds like a diesel. Unfortunately there seemed to be some vibration through the shell and it detracted from the over all sound. (I did not try to correct this). The horn too sounded like a diesel horn and the bell was on an automatic ringer.
I am waiting for the diesel switcher. If it sounds good, I will be buying at least two of them.
I have also written about the Li> Sorry for the typo... I meant a steam loco from BLI. Broadway
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