Broadway Limited 3234, N-Scale EMD E7A diesel engine

I love traveling. And I really appreciate the fact that my job requires me to visit different places from time to time. It's pure fun unless the journey is almost as long as the stay. Then it's good to plan something extra to sweeten the deal. On my recent trip my reward was a new American locomotive.

It's a diesel engine, and it's made by Broadway Limited - a company I had no experience with before. It's an N-scale model of a popular (in the United States) EMD E7A locomotive. It is DCC-equipped, and features many sound functions. I've bought it on-line from the well-known ModelTrainStuff store and it arrived in a surprisingly impressive plastic box.

The box is really big (for an N-scale product, that is). It could easily fit three or maybe even four such locomotives. But it also makes you feel like you're buying a premium product and actually provides a nice unboxing experience. Not to mention that the model seems to be really well protected with the thick layer of foam around it.

Here's the model itself. Removed from the transparent plastic wrap and awaiting its first inspection.

The very first look at the engine in a strong light reveals a nasty surprise. The locomotive came in dirty which is well visible in the photo below. Those look like some oil stains. And the plastic wrap feels a little sticky, too. Well, I guess I just have to clean it then...

The remaining content of the package consists of:

• 24 pages long Operator's Manual
• Assembly/disassembly diagram
• Registration card (extending the warranty to 2 years, and this offer does not seem to be limited to US citizens only)
• Alternative parts for the model
• Small desiccant bag

The Operator's Manual is pretty comprehensive. It covers DCC operation in great detail and - given the complexity of some of the functions - is actually an interesting and useful read.

The replacement parts allow modification of the model's front look. In particular, one can get rid of the front coupler and replace it with a seamless pilot. That's a great idea considering how unusual this locomotive would look like pulling cars and going backwards at the same time.

Alright, it's time to take a look at the model. The first impression is very good. The engine is heavy and does not feel fragile. Except for a few small details it makes an impression of a sturdy piece. I'm not going to test it, but it does not feel like it would break easily...

It looks pretty nice, too. It's not extremely detailed but it does have quite a few handrails here and there. These are made of metal unlike the horns on the top which are purely plastic. The "door part" at the back is not fixed and can be moved a little. At first I thought it was broken but it seems it's really meant to be this way. Nice!

The engine is painted with rather discreet colors. I'm not a fan of such a soft look but it does make it appear more realistic. And the paint job is done very well overall. I like the "Wabash" flag at the front of the locomotive very much. Great detail!

Let's enjoy some more photos then...


So how does it run? In my short tests it performed very well. It ran nicely at low speed, and very well at high speed, too. It does get a little bit loud at maximum velocity but it's unnaturally fast then, too, so it's a scenario nobody will ever use. It rode smoothly, did not get stuck even once and did not derail.

Let's talk about the DCC functions. This model features over two dozens of those. Seems like every new DCC locomotive I buy is even more advanced than my previous one. So what's new here?

We get a lot of sounds. Horns, bells, couplers, brakes and many, many spoken dialogues. There's a lot to choose from and some of them even happen to play out at random during regular operation.

Talking about "random" - this engine really feels alive. It rarely produces just the engine noise and seems to feature a complex logic allowing it to make the experience more interesting by generating effects by itself. This is very nice but also a little complicated. The manual helps here a lot but... I still failed to force the engine to produce a brake squeal sound automatically when slowing down.

Last but not least - the locomotive's decoder allows recording "macros" which can later be replayed. Unfortunately I was not able to test this functionality. Using Roco Multimaus controller I am able to access only functions from 1 to 20. And the macro recording feature can be found at number 26.

But luckily there's still a lot to enjoy even with a limited controller. Here's a demo of some of the model's functions:

Summary

Having spent a day with my new purchase, I don't regret buying it at all. It performs very nicely, offers a lot of functionality and obviously is much cheaper than similar models from the European manufacturers. It does not look extremely detailed but the full-scale original is not very complex either.

I definitely love the product as a set taking into account the comprehensive manual and the alternative parts. Better than usual "unboxing experience" made me feel like I bought something special. I hope the time shows that the feeling was justified.