Heh, I guess I should have uploaded a larger version of the picture so the screw was more readily visible.
Yeah, it was a screw hanging on to the motor magnet and it was the same type as the screws on the underside of the frame.I figure it was probably there since the locomotive was assembled at the plant. I guess I got the bonus screw with this one. Maybe it was causing some sort of short that was screwing with both the directional lighting and the motor itself.
It seems to working fine now after giving it a good long two hour run at various speeds. I have another Atlas Train Master which runs great and hasn't given me any problems at all.
When you say an "extra screw clinging to the side of the motor," do you mean just a loose screw hanging on the magnet? That shouldn't be there, obviously. (Sorry, my ancient eyes can't really see the detail level.) Since it's a new engine, my guess is that it got picked up during assembly. Or, it could have been a loose screw on your layout, and it got picked up by the engine. Just hanging out on this forum will expose you to people with a few screws loose, too.
How does the engine work without this extra screw? That sort of thing could cause numerous weird problems. How do other engines work on your layout? Intermittent behavior can be caused by dirty wheels and track, as other have pointed out, and also by loose wires providing track to the layout, or not enough power feeders to the track, or loose rail joiners. Sometimes, these problems only show up with one class of locomotive, either because the weight is different, or the wheel spacing gives better contact on some than others, or because some engines are just fussy.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Those were the first two things that I did before popping the shell off.
Clean the wheels and track and give it a try.
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
I have a Atlas Silver Train Master which is being a little glitchy lately. When running it on my small DC layout, sometimes the directional lighting flickers and the locomotive seems to slow down slightly with the flickering. Now at the same time the lighting on the opposite end of the locomotive flickers on briefly. It doesn't always do this all the time though and it's very intermittent. There's less than 2 hours of use on the locomotive so far.
I did remove the shell to see if there were any loose connections, but I did find something weird: An extra screw clinging to the side of the motor. It's visible in the photo below:
Anyways, the connections seem to be secure, but could there be something up with the circuit board?