The Broadway Flyer: May 2024
LAST CALL for Conductor's Club locomotives!
Good news for Conductor's Club Members! We have reached our minimum order for Stealth locomotives. This means that our Stealth orders will be built! So if you've been on the fence about placing your order you still have until Thursday to do so!
All locomotives must be pre-ordered here by May 30, 2024.
If you choose to purchase the Paragon4 or Stealth locomotives, you will be charged $100 plus shipping now, and will be invoiced for the balance and sales tax prior to shipping. Shipping is scheduled for December 2024.
Here is the pricing breakdown for each locomotive:
- Paragon4 Sound/DCC HO Scale Challenger $349.99
- Stealth DCC-Ready HO Scale Challenger $249.99
- Paragon4 Sound/DCC N Scale Big Boy $299.99
- Stealth DCC-Ready N Scale Big Boy $199.99
There is no limit to how many you can order! So if you want to order one for yourself and one for a friend, you can do that! Click here to place your order today!
The next edition of the Conductor's Club newsletter will be coming in June, so if you recently signed up and haven't received the newsletter, you will be getting one soon!
In The News:
Samples and Renderings:
We've got a lot of good renders for you to check out! First up is our PRR PB70 and Z74D Business Cars. These cars have era specific details along with individually controlled LED lighting. The Z74D cars have interiors lights, marker lights, and platform observation lights. All cars will have onboard capacitors to ensure that even over dirty track the lights won't flicker. Plus they would look great behind a render of a particular locomotive we are working on!
Please note that these are just renders and details are still subject to change.
Above is the interior of our Z74D Business cars. You can see we went the extra mile with cigarette stands and comfortable seats. Your HO scale passengers will love these cars!
Below you can see the two variations of the Z74D along with the platform observation lights and ground lights.
Above is the interior of our Z74D Business cars just with the outer shell removed. Here you can see the details of the seating arrangement, bedroom compartments, dining room table and kitchen.
Now for the biggest gem in this edition! Below is a few renders of the PRR S1 that we are working on! Like we mentioned above, wouldn't those PRR cars look great behind the S1?! If you are a Conductor's Club member, you saw the CAD drawings we were working on in a previous newsletter! Here we have more renders of the locomotive. We hope to have an official announcement on these locomotives soon.
Delivery Schedule:
Order Deadlines:
Customer Q&A:
Q: "Update on the shay locomotive?" - Derek on Facebook
A: We are currently tweaking the designs and tooling to make the locomotive navigate 18 inch radius curves. We heard a lot of feedback from customers that have smaller layouts and they would like to have one. So we are making those tweaks. Our sample is still making it's rounds at shows so if you are going to be at the St. Louis RPM meet, Trainfest in Milwaukee, or the NMRA show in Long Beach, it will be there!
Q: "Any chance of more small steam like a 4-6-0? A camelback would especially be appreciated like the one Lionel makes in O." - Brian on Facebook
A: We have camelbacks on our radar! However we don't have any timeline of beginning designs on it. We have several 4-6-0's on our radar as well. Before we decide on doing the research/designs of smaller steam locomotives, we want to produce some other models first.
Q: "How is the N-scale ATSF 3751 coming along?" - Nick on Facebook
A: The designs are nearly completed! We are currently narrowing down the road numbers we want to include in this first run. Nonetheless they are coming! We are also still awaiting some feedback on the locomotives designs. We want to make sure these are done right which is why it's taking a bit longer than we had hoped.
We think that they will be great additions to your railroad when we announce them! You N scalers have been very patient in waiting for the announcement and we appreciate your understanding.
Q: "I would love to hear insight on how you decide what models to make and how you go about designing them. Separately, description on the differences of how HO and N scale models are designed would be interesting to read about. I'm sure it's not a mere matter of taking a design and making it smaller." - Matthew on Facebook
A: Good question! There are a lot of variables that influence our choices in what we decide to make. We take many customer requests into account, and if there is significant demand for a particular model, we will consider making it. We also look at models that haven't been made recently or at all and determine whether it's worth revisiting them. Factors that influence our decision on which models to design or make include when a model was last made, whether there are multiple versions we can offer (such as different road names, paint schemes, or road numbers), and if we can record sounds from an operating prototype for a locomotive. Road names are important when offering a model, as some sell better than others. Additionally, we monitor what other manufacturers are offering, just as they monitor us.
One common area where modelers think we can save money is by tweaking tooling or reusing chassis on certain locomotives. For example, we received many requests for NKP/Pere Marquette Berkshires after announcing the B&M/AT&SF/SP T1a and T1b locomotives. The thought process is that the same wheel arrangement means that you can reuse the chassis for other locomotives. However, just like the prototype, those locomotives have many differences in various areas. So it doesn't make sense to use a chassis that doesn't fit the measurements of a different locomotive type.
When it comes to the differences in designing HO and N scales, size limitations are certainly the biggest challenge we face. For instance, we have been asked by N scale customers if we are going to put smoke units in N scale diesels. As much as we'd love to, you can't fit one of our smoke units in a narrow-bodied diesel such as the ES44, SD40-2, or SW7/NW2. Even for other diesels such as the F-units, although they are not narrow-bodied, installing a smoke unit leaves little to no room for the Next18 board in the locomotives.
Q: "Any chance of getting some new Norfolk and Western steam? I'd love to see M class 4-8-0 or maybe a streamlined class K2 4-8-2!" - Jake on Facebook
A: We have a few N&W steamers on our radar but have not decided to design yet.
Q: "Are you guys hiring?" - Ben on Facebook
A: We were looking for applicants but it has since been filled. We were looking for an audio engineer/recording technician to record, edit and mix sounds for our locomotives. Tasks include field recording of diesel and steam locomotives, editing and mixing audio files, researching the locomotive to be produced and ensuring the acoustic quality of the models. For future applications, stay tuned to our social media accounts as we will post job listings there. You can always send in your resumes to jobs@broadway-limited.com.
Q: "Will the new Kenifick business cars have a factory installed current keeper?" - Don on Facebook
A: Yes they will! All of our passenger cars in both HO and N scale have those in them so there won't be any flickering light in your cars.
Q: "Given the Class D Shay on the way from Broadway, is there a chance at seeing any other logging locomotives, like the Climax (both B and C classifications) or the Heisler?" - Matthew on Facebook
A: We haven't ruled it out! The shays have sold very well so far. If you have a suggestion of a particular Climax or Heisler you want us to build, submit it to our Product Suggestion portal!
Q: "Hi I just want to ask what are other benefits for Conductor Club Benefits for those outside the US?" - Adam on Facebook
A: You get the same perks as everyone else! Including the extra year of warranty, 10% off our outlet store, etc. The only difference would be what you pay for shipping.
Q: "In a previous flyer, it was mentioned that work is ongoing for HO brass hybrid UP 2-8-8-0 locomotives, how far along is the work on this project and what variations of the locomotives are you doing? As built or rebuilt, coal burners or oil burners? A mix of all of it?" - Caleb on Facebook
A: We are probably 15-20% along in this project in terms of designs. We have a lot of projects in the list so it may be a while before these designs are completed. We will have more information on the different versions to share once designs are further along.
Q: "Would you consider an HO scale model of a British Gresley A4? After the Trix/Marklin release of the HO Flying Scotsman, I would be 100% on board with a BLI A4 with all of the usual BLI features! OO scale just looks too goofy with other HO stock…" - samt1500 on Instagram
A: We aren't opposed to looking into steam locomotives outside of North America, but it's not likely anytime soon. The overall demand for certain models for North American steam, far exceeds the requests for models from European steam. If our inbox or product suggestion portal was flooded with requests for a Flying Scottsman, Mallard, or Black 5, then we'd look into it more seriously. However for now, we are focused on North American steam and diesel locomotives.
Q: "Would you consider doing Santa Fe business cars? The 400 series superintendents cars would be perfect seeing how the choices now are either brass, or an old Walthers kit from the 70’s" - owen0_221 on Instagram
A: We absolutely would! However, we don't have any planned. So far the Kenefick car has blown us away in terms of orders that the demand is there for us to add more for customers to order. Before we get into those other cars we will most likely bring UP cars 114, 101, 102, and 103 already designed. We are also currently just began gathering data packages for Union Pacific Power Car #2066. Outside of the UP cars, the next business car types we would look into would be the theater cars.
Q: "Could we see the Nickel Plate Road 765 and Pere Marquette 1225 Berkshire in n scale?" - 1950's_railfan
A: It's possible! As we've answered before, we like to see how new products do in HO scale first before going to N scale. If something doesn't sell well in HO, it's not feasible from a business perspective for us to offer it in N scale.
Until next time, happy railroading!
-Curtis and the BLI team
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