Model Railroading > New BLI Plymouth Initial Thoughts

I decided to go ahead and order one of the new BLI Plymouth switchers that were released last month, since they offered one in ADM paint. Since I work for ADM, I have a decent portion of my layout dedicated to ADM traffic and elevators.

Today, I got my Plymouth in the mail, so I went down to unbox it right away. I'm impressed with the looks of these! They are die cast too, so they've got a decent amount of weight, given their small size. Pain is crisp and there's some nice little details on them.
They come equipped with NCE dual mode decoders. I run DCC, so this was a big plus for me. Before test running, I decided to clean my elevator track to make sure it was in prestine shape for testing this new critter. Straight out of the box, the little unit shuttered along as I broke it in. After about 10 minutes of running, it smoothed out pretty well. Still hiccupped on some switch frogs, but in general, it seemed to keep moving pretty well.
All 3 axles are gear driven, with a traction tire on the middle wheel. I was able to pull 4 fairly free rolling hoppers on level track before getting some wheel slip. That's good enough for my elevator needs so I'm happy with the pulling power.
Overall, not a bad little engine. The running performance leaves a bit to be desired, but there's only so much a manufacturer can do with such a small unit. The pulling power and appearance is great.
I would say these Plymouth units are on par with the track mobile that BLI produced a few years back.
Hope this provides some insight since I hadn't seen anything posted here about these being released.
(Can someone help out with the photos?)
-Caleb

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Is this better?

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

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1st picture the Australian version?   I'm sorry but I had too
Looks great to me

That sure is a nice little loco. Never thought I'd say that about a Plymouth, but BLI did a nice job with it.
I like your elevator set up too!   Funny, though, how that distant silo has a strong resemblance to a fire extinguisher   :o)  

Chief

That's the missle silo :)   Nice looking grain outfit.

SWChief Wrote:
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> That sure is a nice little loco. Never thought I'd
> say that about a Plymouth, but BLI did a nice job
> with it.
> I like your elevator set up too!   Funny,
> though, how that distant silo has a strong
> resemblance to a fire extinguisher   :o)  
>
> Chief

With that short wheelbase a capacitor is pretty much required to be able to run smoothly.

Is that first photo of the "Anti Gravity" version?

Mike
 

2720 Wrote:
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> Is that first photo of the "Anti Gravity"
> version?
>

Lionel

TAW

TAW Wrote:
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> 2720 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Is that first photo of the "Anti Gravity"
> > version?
> >
>
> Lionel
>
> TAW

Magna-Traction!

PHall Wrote:
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> With that short wheelbase a capacitor is pretty
> much required to be able to run smoothly.

That seems to be the Catch-22 situation here: little critters like these are the ones that need capacitors the most for smooth running, but since they are so small, there's no room to add them.

There's room for a TCS KA4 keep alive in the BLI Plymouth.

 

Michael Mosher
Millville, NJ

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mmosher Wrote:
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> There's room for a TCS KA4 keep alive in the BLI
> Plymouth.
>
>  

Replace the engineer's seat with the capacitor and have the engineer sit on it.
With a little paint applied to hide things of course.

mmosher Wrote:
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> There's room for a TCS KA4 keep alive in the BLI
> Plymouth.
>
>  


Thanks for sharing that! I hadn't opened mine up to actually see if there's room...good to know I can add a KA4 in there at some point!

If you had powered frogs it would run fine but the keep alive will help if the track gets's dirty.

Victor

Just wanted to put this out here in case others find it useful. 
NCE was able to provide me with a quick diagram of how tin install a keep-alive on the plymouth. The NCE N12 decoder was used by BLI for this model, and the attached photo shows where the wires are to be installed for the keep alive. 
Once installed, the plymouth runs great! A KA4 keep alive from TCS keeps the motor running at low speeds for a good 20 seconds or more!
​  -Caleb

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SWChief Wrote:
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> That sure is a nice little loco. Never thought I'd
> say that about a Plymouth, but BLI did a nice job
> with it.
> I like your elevator set up too!   Funny,
> though, how that distant silo has a strong
> resemblance to a fire extinguisher   :o)  
>

Elevator fires can be nasty.

TAW