As always seems to happen, summer rolls around and I end up spending more time doing things outside of the layout room than inside of it and this year was no exception. Between travel, side hustles, and a few seasonal interests I haven’t spent a lot of time with the layout this summer. But as we head into fall it’s time to start paying attention to the layout (and the website) again.
The first is a bit of a catchup, because I’ve had these new additions for a few months now but haven’t posted my thoughts on them.
I admit, I’m a bit of a sucker for unique looking trains. It’s part of the reason why the “story” of the layout is that it’s centered around a railroad museum and train servicing and restoration facility. That story gives me the flexibility to run everything from modern diesels to GG-1s and even the occasional international visitor. So for somebody who likes unique looking trains Broadway Limited’s PR5a Boxcar is right up my alley.
One of the things I’ve liked about BLI’s offerings is that there is great detail, and the PR5a is definitely well detailed. But in that detail is the first of my disappointments. I purchased the “passenger type” style which from what I can tell include additional marker lights – the blisters for those lights are on the model, but it doesn’t appear that they work, or are intended to work.
I was also disappointed with the sound package installed on the PR5a. Now, I get that there isn’t a recording of what these sounded like back when the Pennsylvania RR ran them, and that there probably isn’t an operating one today that you could capture a new recording of. But I’m really disappointed that all BLI appears to have done is made a few modifications to their diesel sound file to add an electrical crackle and some blower noises in place of diesel prime mover sounds and went on their way. All of the other sounds on soundboard are the same as what I hear from my SD40-2s – including the radio messages which are completely out of place in an engine that ran in the 1930s.
Then there’s how it runs. There are three larger drive wheels in the center of the engine with two smaller trucks at either end that essentially float. Those floating wheels have been an issue for me, as without anything to press the down onto the track besides gravity they have a tendency to derail often. Thankfully it’s just a wheel that comes off the track, but that’s a wheel that will snag on a switch as it passes over it.
I’ve also been surprised at how few Pennsylvania passenger cars there have been on the market recently. I admit, I prefer cars from after WWII, so I tend to avoid heavy weight cars. But outside of a few old Kato smooth side sets, which are essentially identical to the NYC smooth side set I already have, there’s next to nothing available in Pennsylvania markings other than heavy weight cars. Even the Kato Broadway Limited set from a few years ago isn’t easy to find without a silly markup.
But when I saw that Trainworld had the Broadway Limited Pennsylvania RR heavy weight two packs on sale I figured I’d give them a try since they were heavily discounted and I’ve been happy with BLI’s detailing. Plus they’re lighted.
They are detailed, and they run well for the most part, but like the P5a I’m disappointed.
There’s two “appearance” sets and from what I can tell the difference is either a brown roof or a black roof. But I have two big problems with these cars. First is the lighting, it’s great that these are lighted cars, but that lighting is bright white. I’m not sure why BLI didn’t make them dimmer and warm up the color of the light. But I’m positive that these cars even when running at night, weren’t particularly brightly lit while the halogen bulbs that lit them were also a lot warmer tinted. To my eyes, the lighting really ruins these cars, I’d rather they didn’t have any lights at all than the bright white LEDs that they have.
The other problem is the couplers, and this one really baffles me. The couplers on the two sets are at different heights! Because of that they don’t couple well with each other and they don’t couple to engines well. It’s not unusual for one or more cars to uncouple while going around the layout which as you can imagine is extremely frustrating.
I’ve only had these for a few months now, but I’ve already pulled them off the layout and packed them up. There’s a good chance that I’ll be trying to sell them at some point because I’m not really interested in running them.