Model Railroading > BLI SD-9

Would like to hear from owners of the Broadway Ltd SD-9 diesels, especially any  problems with the motors and sound system.  Thanks..

Purchased one about 6 months ago; not impressed. 

The engine has a lurchy start. I dont know if it is a motor problem or something else but even with hours of fiddling with CVs is still does this.
Sound is a bit odd, the prime mover likes to go straight up into notch 8 no matter what speed. The bell is also a bit quirky; when you turn the bell sound off it stops then about 2 seconds later the bell rings once. 

Personally I think BLI does their best with steam. 
 

Doesn't BLI use 3 pole motors? That would explain the hurky jerk starts.

D0wnt1me Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Purchased one about 6 months ago; not
> impressed. 
>
> The engine has a lurchy start. I dont know if it
> is a motor problem or something else but even with
> hours of fiddling with CVs is still does this.
> Sound is a bit odd, the prime mover likes to go
> straight up into notch 8 no matter what speed. The
> bell is also a bit quirky; when you turn the bell
> sound off it stops then about 2 seconds later the
> bell rings once. 
>
> Personally I think BLI does their best with
> steam. 
>  

Had two BLI diesels, both were junk.
 

Search the archives for BLI, and see how far back you have to go to find anything good said about BLI.  Let that be your guide...

Can't speak for the SD, but I have owned a Broadway RSD15 and SW7.  Both nice looking models,
both had motor and sound issues.  After sending them back to BLI and returned with no diff, I ended
up selling them on the secondary market.  I would not recommend them to anyone.

Couple posts below.......

Has anybody tried to remotor them?

Why not or what motor fits? Is the gearing ok?

Never had one, the shells sound pretty good especially for those unusual but iconic locomotives. The post about the Zephyr car was a surprise.

Doesn't BLI use their own propiority DCC decoders?  Before going to all of the "fun" of remotoring try running the motor on straight DC.
That will tell you if it's the motor or not. A simple decoder swap could be the fix.

MTH has their own DCS, which is not truly DCC.  That's a different can of worms, and deserves its own thread. 

Larry020 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MTH has their own DCS, which is not truly DCC.
>  That's a different can of worms, and deserves
> its own thread. 

Just another reason to rip their crap out and put in something that works.

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Doesn't BLI use their own propiority DCC
> decoders?  Before going to all of the "fun" of
> remotoring try running the motor on straight DC.
> That will tell you if it's the motor or not. A
> simple decoder swap could be the fix.
Only have four of their RSD15 changed out their sound  decoder to loksound and hav'nt looked back all good cheers Dennis