I have had my Polar Express for 3 years now and I only use it during the holidays. I pulled it out set up my track and ran it without any problems. Went to turn it on today and it won't run. It doesn't make any noise at all. All the lights in the cars turn on, but the whistle and bells will not make any noise. The light on my remote (which is how I run it) does turn on steadily and I changed the batteries too. I have taken off the engine and checcked the wheels and did find a little bit of cotton wound around which I took off. But still nothing. Can anyone help me?
Perhaps a broken wire or solder joint from the contacts in the drivers to the internal pub board. Since the rest of the equipment works. obviously power to tracks if the coaches light up. Who made that set?
shane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
It sounds like you have a DCC system, because you talk of a bell and whistle. Can you check the address of the locomotive and make sure it's what you expect? Sometimes engines just lose their addresses and that needs to be reprogrammed.
Also, can you run the system other than using the remote? If those batteries are dead, the lights in the cars will come on but the engine will get no commands. Can you operate the engine headlight?
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Which scale is it?
By the way, since you're new here, welcome aboard.
You will find that your first few posts are delayed, because they are checked and moderated. This keeps out spammers and trolls and Nigerian Railway Tycoons.
It helps to supply lots of information about your system when asking for help with problems. Things like which control system you use and which manufacturer made a balky engine can help isolate a problem fairly easily.
Lionel makes a:
Lionel also has a "Lionchief Remote" Not sure if that is what you have but on their website is a youtube video on updating the controller firmware.
Bachmann make a version with smoke, no mention of sound. (HO)
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Any troubleshooting in the instructions to consider?
You are all so kind to respond. I again made sure the wheels were clean, no obstructions and when I put it back on the track its like it wasn't. communicating with my remote. What I did not do the first time was remove all the cars to see if there was a problem there. I didn't think there was since there were lights and I thought they rolled well. I was wrong. As soon as I took the other cars off, my engine started right up with all the bells and whistles! I want to thank you all. I live in Hawaii and there is not a train store in the whole state so I was a bit panicked. This is part of my Christmas village and this year I want to put it on YouTube. For me to send my train to the mainland to get fixed would put a real damper on everything. I am all grateful you are just a few clicks away. I am putting a photo of of this year's layout but I haven''t added the snow and background yet. Again thank you and Aloha.
Thank you all for your responses. I am not only new to trains, I am new to forums so I hope I am doing this correctly. When I watched a YouTube video that told me to take all my cars off the track and add them back one at a time. Since their lights came on and to me they rolled well I didn't do that. Well I finally did and there must have been one that wasn't seated well. Everything works well now. I live in Hawaii and as far as I know we do not have a train store. So when it didn't work I panicked a bit. It is comforting to know you are all here to help. Thank you, thank you.
[/quote][quote user="Hawaii train"]
[Kindess begins with understanding we all struggle at times]
That one misaligned wheel catches us all from time to time. Glad it was a minor issue.
There are model train shops in Hawaii. I've never been to them, but they're easy enough to locate with Google, searching for "Model train shops near me" or something similar. You do have the added complication of a state separated into islands, but you're probably more familiar with that than I am. Even if you don't need anything, a visit to one is a worthwhile trip if it's not too hard.
Glad too hear you've solved this problem.