HO BLI Chessie System GE AC6000 DCC-Sound Diesel Engine Locomotive #618 Used Broadway Limited Imports

Description

As of 12/31/2020, see the Updates about this listing near the bottom of the listing.

!!!!   THIS ITEM IS NO LONGER FOR SALE   !!!!

Used HO scale Broadway Limited Fantasy Paint Scheme Chessie System GE AC6000 DCC Sound Enabled Diesel Engine Locomotive #618.
Item #: Unknown
Shell Painted by: Unknown

This is an interesting locomotive.  Everything about it except the paint scheme appears to have been made by Broadway Limited Imports.  Because of that, I have listed them as the manufacturer.  There is a slight possibility this is incorrect though.  I contacted Broadway Limited and spoke to one of the their Technical Support agents and she explained that BLI did not make this locomotive and she rudely hung-up on me.  I called back and they hung-up again when someone should have come on the line.  I called to see if they have any of the shell parts, most importantly the handrails.  But we never made it that far in the conversation as the lady explained without being able to identify the locomotive as being one of theirs, they could not help me.  Yet, all the documentation I retrieved from their site matches this locomotive.

If I was to guess, I would say some other company, maybe Fox Valley Models or Con-Cor, may have purchased some undecorated models from BLI and then painted the shell in the fantasy heritage Chessie System livery.  Athearn says that  since 2005, railroads have been unveiling heritage schemes on their locomotives. This is one of those paint schemes that never existed on this type of locomotive.  The real history of the locomotive was not conveyed to me by the consignee.  In fact, the locomotive was broken and inoperable when consigned.  Fixing it was quite an endeavor.  Then troubleshooting it to try to figure out how to program the decoder so that the locomotive functions properly also took some time.  Now it runs very good.  Although it has some cosmetic issues and paint blemishes in a few spots along with missing steps and front snowplow and grill, it is a great diesel locomotive.  From a distance, the cosmetic issues are hard to see.

Because I cannot find an exact match for this locomotive including shell anywhere on the internet, the features provided are from my own examination of this locomotive.

For starters, this locomotive is very heavy at 1 lb 11.6 oz (27.6 ounces).  It has a lot of DCC functions including sound effects.  I think it is a Blue Line model but it may have been upgraded.  I do not think it has a Paragon2 chip in it, but I could be wrong.  It does seem to have some stay alive capability for about 2 to 3 seconds.  It can navigate my 18″ radius curves with ease and pull train cars with the standard size coupler installed.

Features that I noticed:

• Plastic Sprung Knuckle Couplers (that I provided) — note: I bent the ends of the couplers upward a little after taking most of the photos and prior to the video.
• 12-wheel power pickup
• 12-wheel drive
• Dual flywheel motor
• Directional lighting (note that the I reprogrammed the backwards facing decoder to compensate for its orientation into the NMRA 8-pin socket, a provision provided for by the Blue Line light-board)
• Cab Crew figures including dashboard.
• 3-windowed cab
• Sunshade (only on the left-side.  It appears the one on the right side broke off and is missing.)
• Operating Ditch lights (that alternate when the horn is blown)
• Separately applied metal grab-irons
• Handrails are in bad shape in that a lot of paint has rubbed off of them and they are missing from the front of the locomotive and broken in 2 places on the right-side, missing the stair handrail on the left-rear side.
• See through steps (however, there are at least 5 missing steps from various stairs.)
• Very crisp and flat paint job.
• Trucks are very detailed with separately applied pieces.  Only 1 very small detail part is missing from 1 side-frame on 1 truck (very hard to even determine that it is missing).
• Snowplow, front handrails, MU Hoses, brake wheel, 2 front light lens covers, and a few other small details are missing.
• Separately applied windshield wipers
• 4 lift rings (missing paint)
• Has a small gap in the lower part of front shell
• Blackened low-profile wheelsets
• Dual Speakers mounted inside the gas tank.
• Adjustable volume sound system.
• Die-cast Metal Chassis
• Operates on both DC and DCC layouts.

Because this locomotive was received without it’s original box or paperwork, I have made a box for it and I have included the BLI exploded diagram.  You may wish to visit Broadway Limited’s website and review their technical documents for the Blue Line version of the AC6000 diesel locomotive.  There are 2 documents available that appear to fit this locomotive.  Be careful inserting and removing the locomotive from the box I made.  Use one finger of one hand to hold back the foam sheeting and then use the other hand to lift the locomotive up and an angle sliding it away from the other end as you pull up.  When inserting it into the box, do the opposite and hold back the foam sheeting on one side, insert the other side at an angle and lower the locomotive at an angle and slide back as you release the foam sheeting held back on the other hand.

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LISTING STATUS UPDATES

• 12/24/2020    Received replacement parts from Broadway Limited
• 12/27/2020    Opened and examined the parts that were sent.  I think I can use all but 2 of the parts.  I may still have to fabricate 2 more parts.
• 12/31/2020   Updated the status of this listing.
  • • • • • • • Starting soon after the holidays, I will start painting the new handrails that arrived.
              • The steps that arrived are Black.  I will deliberate on whether I will try to paint them yellow or paint all the other existing attached stairs black or dark navy blue.
              • The missing number board lenses will have to be fabricated by me.
              • Depending on the results of my endeavors to repair this locomotive, I may end the listing and buy it myself.  Or, I will put it up for sale.  If I purchase it myself, I may offer some of the replaced parts for sale, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
              • The price will remain at $2600 until I have finished the repairs and decided whether or not to sell the item or not.  The reason the item remains up for sale is because I do not want to end the listing until after I have completed the repairs and decided what to do.  I thank everyone for their interest.  However, please just continue to visit and check my updates instead of asking me if the price is correct.  The price is set to an unreasonable amount until I make my decision.  Thank you.
• 08/27/2023   Due to some sort of issue with the WordPress Plug-in that posts items on eBay, the majority of all eBay listings had to be reverified early this morning.  Now I am receiving warnings on every last one of my listings.  The plug-in developer says they fixed an issue, but apparently, they didn’t fix all of them.  2 errors were indicated with this particular listing.  Unfortunately, there were more watchers on this item than any other item listed on eBay (somewhere north of 23 watchers the last time I checked).  Since I already purchased this item from the consignor (a couple years ago) and it is now part of Henry’s HO Train Collection, I am not going to sell it.  I still haven’t resumed working on it in the past 2, going on 3 years, soon.  All the parts that I believe that are going to be available from BLI have already been received and are still waiting for me to apply them to this model.  I have a lot of open projects so this one will just have to wait until I get around to dealing with it.  As of today, it should no longer appear on eBay and it should now show-up in my Train Collection and Project categories.