How's it going BLI customers and railfans! 

Welcome back to The Broadway Flyer! In case you missed it, at the end of each month we are releasing a monthly newsletter which is emailed to you or you can read on our website. To read our inaugural Flyer, click here! 

Before we dive in, we wanted to thank everyone who stopped by our booth at the NMRA show in Grapevine, Texas, from the 25th to the 28th. It was nice to meet so many loyal customers and get some new ideas for future projects! 

So without further ado, let's get started with our August edition! 

ORDER DEADLINES: 

Here are the approaching order deadlines for September. Contact your dealer today to guarantee you can get the paint scheme you want! To find the full list of paint schemes offered, click the link of each project. Keep in mind you can still order a model after the deadline, but in order to guarantee the model you want. We highly recommend putting in a pre-order beforehand before we sell out. 

• Stock Car with sounds, N Scale - Deadline 09/07/2023
• Stock Car without sound, N Scale - Deadline 09/07/2023
• EMD SD70ACe, N Scale - Deadline 09/07/2023
• ATSF Blue Goose, HO Scale - Deadline 09/14/2023
• UP Big Boy, HO Scale - Deadline 09/21/2023
• B&M Berkshire - Deadline 09/21/2023

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 

Last month we had 5 new projects announced, this month we have 3 new N Scale locomotives that we announced on August 28th. 

• AC6000
• ES44AC
• PRR M1a/M1b

All of the locomotives will come in Paragon4 and Stealth. The AC6000's and the M1a/M1b's are expected to arrive in spring 2024, and the ES44AC's are expected to arrive in the summer of 2024, this could be subject to change. 

PROJECT UPDATES: 

As of right now this is the current status, of projects through the end of this year. Some projects have been pushed back, most notably the Southern Pacific GS-4. While we are hoping for them to get into production much sooner. We encountered a mechanical issue during testing and are working on fixing it. We appreciate your continued patience and we hope to have these out soon! We know a lot of you have been looking forward to it. So below is our current production schedule through the end of 2023. Please note the Brass Hybrid Q2 Duplex is aiming for early 2024. 

You can always find the latest changes in our delivery date and status on our website, here. 

PRODUCTION SAMPLES:

Take a look at the latest pre-production samples that have come through the office! This month we have 3 new samples to show off!

(PHOTO): Our HO Scale C&O GP35. These will be arriving in September in both Paragon4 and Stealth! 

 (PHOTO): Look at the amazing details and color of our PRR Q2! This HO Scale Brass-Hybrid locomotive is available to order in both Paragon4 and Stealth.

(PHOTO): Our N Scale Reading T1's are expected to arrive later this year. This is our first painted sample to arrive to the office. What a gorgeous paint scheme! 

CUSTOMER Q&A:

On our  Facebook, and Instagram pages we asked for your questions! This could be about anything from our favorite railroads to current projects, to service questions. If your question didn't make this edition, don't worry! There's a great chance that it could be featured in an upcoming newsletter. Stay tuned and keep those questions coming! We are going to start off with a couple of frequently asked questions that we get across our platforms

Q: "Will you remake the California Zephyr, Daylight or make any new passenger sets?" 

A: As much as we would love to make new passenger sets, the tooling costs is just simply too expensive to redo an entire set. Higher tooling costs equals higher prices you, the modeler would have to pay. It's more cost effective for us to do passenger car projects as individual cars. It's not entirely out of the question for a future project but for the time being it's just too expensive for us to make at this time. We do however have several passenger car projects that are in development/design that we hope to announce soon. These passenger cars will be individual cars, but will be great cars to go with some steam locomotives we have already released.

Q: "What is the MSRP on ___ model?"

A: The best way to find out the price of a model is contacting your dealer. We heavily encourage customers to patronize their local hobby shops whenever possible. Not sure where your closest dealer is? You can find a list or search for one on our store locator page. Also even though we price it at MSRP, purchasing through your dealer or local hobby shop, will find a much more affordable price point. 

Q: "When will the new GS-4's be here?" - Ted on Facebook

A: While we were hoping for a September arrival, everyone of our projects got pushed back due to a delay at a factory we share with. With the GS-4's, as we mentioned above, we are still working on ironing out some last minute details and mechanical tweaks before they hit production. Because of this we can't give an exact date, especially with all the other projects we have in the works at the factory. We are now hoping, pending no new delays or setbacks, a November/December time frame is now in range. It could always be sooner though! Thanks Ted!

Q: "Well since everyone's asking, what's the likely hood of the ATSF 2900 or 3751s being done in N? Second, I noticed you guys are doing another run of the PRR M1s. Will these be retooled to match up with your other models? To have the permanent tender connection, functional Micro Trains couplings, and diecast bodies? I imagine so as the old M1s probably wouldn't fit in the modern jewel cases." -jaelon108 on Instagram

A: We are looking into adding a lot more new steam locomotives to our line of N Scale offerings in both Paragon4 and Stealth. We have 3 different locomotives in design right now. All of them are never before offered in N scale from us. We think N scalers will love them! Typically it takes anywhere from a year or two to get a functional design and sample. With that being said, we can't make any announcements at this time, but new models are coming your way! As for the M1's, yes they are retooled to have the permanent tender connection, Micro Trains couplings and diecast body. Thanks for your question Jaelon!

 Q: "Is BLI going to sell decoders for DIY upgrades to Paragon4? Primarily for steam locomotives." -Moises on Facebook

A:It depends on the locomotive you are trying to upgrade. Unfortunately, there are no options for Paragon 2 and earlier engines. Paragon4 was designed to upgrade and fix a lot of the issues customers encountered with Paragon3. Now, depending on the item number for your Paragon 3 engines you can do a decoder exchange if you have a functional P3 decoder. This would be $50. If you want to send it in to have it exchanged and put in the engine it would be $89.  If your decoder is not operational you can purchase one outright it would be $99. Furthermore, putting a 400A in the engine will not upgrade it because lighting pcb's will be different. This means most likely the you will not be able to use pro-mode. However, you will be able to take advantage of the built in gopack in the decoder. If you have any more questions, feel free to contact our service department! Our guys know the ins and outs of our models and all the details. Thanks Moises!

Q: "Will we see more smoke features in HO & N like we are seeing in the top tier o gauge engines?" Brian on Facebook

A: We are always looking to add smoke into our Paragon4 Sound/DCC locomotives. Our Stealth line does not carry smoke. When it comes to N Scale we wish we could add smoke to all our locomotives but some projects are difficult depending on the space inside the boiler. Diesels is very difficult to add smoke especially in narrow-bodied models such as ES44's and SD40-2's. 

Q: What other steam locomotives are you guys planning to make for HO scale? issaccope4 on Instagram

A: We have several steam locomotives in the works that are getting designed. The design process takes a while so we aren't quite ready to make any announcements on them yet. Both big and small locomotives are in line to be tooled/designed for 2024 and 2025. 

Q: "For those of you on the BLI team who are model railroaders, what railroads do you model on your layouts?" -Victoria on Facebook

A: A fun question to wrap this up! While most of our staff love trains and collect models, only a few of us are serious modelers. Stephen Wilder and Curtis Koch are two of the more serious modelers on our staff. Let's have them answer this! 

Stephen: "I mostly model freelance circa 1955, but my collection includes a little bit of everything. Heaviest portion of the collection is probably C&O, with Pennsy and UP closely behind. I've also got items covering the late '40s through present day, so I can't even stick to a single timeframe, let alone a single railroad :-)"

Curtis: "I mostly model the Santa Fe during the late 80's/early 90's but have some mixture of 50's steam, diesel and passenger trains. I also collect models of trains with some significance to me, for example I rode behind Union Pacific 3985 in 2002 when it came to Chicago and my dad and I rode in a dome car. I also rode behind Milwaukee Road 261 back in 2008 so I have a model of that as well. I don't have a home railroad yet but I am a member of the Orlando Society of Model Railroaders and run trains sometimes on weekends there. I previously was a member of the Garfield Clarendon Model Railroad Club in Chicago, Illinois." 


     Thanks so much Victoria and to everyone who submitted questions this month! Stay tuned to our social media pages for the latest information, and for when we will take your questions again. Also give us a follow on our social media accounts for the latest on projects, order deadlines and to be the first to hear of our new announcements. We are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. 


     That does it for this edition of the Broadway Flyer! Thank you all so much for your continued support and we're excited for more exciting models to arrive on your layout soon.