Atlas 20030021 RSD 7/15 DM&IR TMCC Operation

The questions are about the TMCC operation of the engine which is why I posted it in Lionel.  Just saying...

@Charly posted:

When the engine stops I just need to reactivate that function and the train will continue on.  Could this be an antenna issue, dirt on engine or track.

That's classically a TMCC reception issue, so look at the antenna and try swapping the R2LC.  Obviously, cleaning the track isn't a bad idea, but it's fairly rare unless it's extreme that dirty track would do this.

Thank you for your response.  It did improve performance to clean the center of the switches.  (FasTrack)  My guess is that as a loco traverses the switch in the curved direction the roller does a "drift" action which causes more gunk to build up.  As this is a first Atlas 3 rail for me I have yet to determine how to take the shell off and Atlas hasn't put any info on their website.

Would installing a battery make any difference?

No, the battery ONLY keeps the sound running, primarily for conventional running when you change directions.  It has nothing to do with movement or signal reception.