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Joined: Oct 2010
I have always wanted a Monon BL2 ever since I got into N scale...I have always been a Monon fan and railfanned the line...With the gift of one from a friend i got my wish...I wanted to use a M/T conversion to close front and rear but when I found out they are almost 12.00 I used some plastic from a Wally World "for sale" sign and some Atlas couplers I jerry rigged a body mount..The caboose is one I painted awhile back for my other Monon engine a Con cor F3...
![[Image: IMG_0898.jpg]](http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee264/Coxy2258/IMG_0898.jpg)
Jerry
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Very cool. How do the couplers perform? Any issues? Nice looking loco BTW. Ive always liked BL2s
Posts: 14
Threads: 7
Joined: Oct 2010
Sam they work pretty well...They are old Atlas that I picked up from folks that replace them with M/T's...Jerry
Posts: 1,817
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To me, BL-2's are to the diesel world sorta what Camelbacks are to the steam world ... odd, but interesting just the same. There is a tourist railroad in Honesdale, PA that sports a BL-2 on it's roster ... and it's quite possibly the
only motive power on it's roster.
For those interested in BL-2's, I offer the following Stourbridge Line links ...
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biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
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See I've always viewed the BL-2 as an early example of what went wrong with GM. Alco already had their successful RS series in production whent eh BL-2 was conceived - yet for whatever unknown reason they stuck with the idea of a truss-frame construction like F units, only lowered and narrowed in an attempt to get better visibility. How much development effort and money were wasted at EMD to sell a mere 59 locos that no one wanted, until they tried again and got it right with the GP-7?
This is intended in no means to criticize the model or the ingenuity shown in a DIY alternative to an expensive coupler conversion - just remarks about GM/EMD and the mentality that would lead otherwise intellignet engineers to design such a thing when there were already superior designs proving themselves int he marketplace.
--Randy
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Jerry;
Monon BL-2 No. 32 is alive and well at the Kentucky Railway Museum in New Haven, KY. They frequently use it on their excursion trains. The C&O used to use them on the section of the George Washington passenger train between Ashland and Louisville, KY. With their dual operating stands and unusual appearance I always liked the BL-2 myself.
Ed
"Friends don't let friends build Timesavers"
