Blown speaker; smoked after a POP sound. A capacitor looks blown also..

Pictures would help a lot...

The bad news is, if it's a 5V PS/2 and a capacitor popped, it's very likely going to need a replacement board set.  Usually there's more to it than a simple capacitor failure.  The 5V boards had a tendency to die prematurely.

Thank you for your quick response to my question. You've been great support to us newbies. That's what I felt would happen. Not enough knowledge or experience  to have known for sure though. If the board set is shot, along with the speaker, is it possible to upgrade this engine to a PS3, and are there any ball park thoughts of costs involved. We got a great deal on the engine, (it being never used, but 13 years old in box), so before sending it back, I'd like to give an upgrade some thought. Is this a bad idea?

The "fix" is the PS32 retrofit board, it's a PS/3 board that has a piggyback board to connect to the standard PS/2 5V connectors.  Retail price for the board and associated bits is $238.  It's a fairly easy fit if there's room in the tender, sometimes the mounting of this set takes a bit more room.  These are the three parts.  Oh, you need a 4 ohm speaker as well, you have to replace the 16 ohm speaker, add another $10.

 PS3 Stacker Board $205.00 

PS3/2 Board (w/ black 5volt PS2 connectors) $25.00

Protosound 3/2 Heat Sink Bracket Kit  $8.00

This is food for thought. I would not attempt doing the upgrade on my own, so I would have to add in additional costs, but I'm still going to kick this around. This is a beautiful engine and a new one would be much more expensive, even adding in any upgrades to the cost  Thank you again.

You could have a tech test the board, but from the description, I don't hold out much hope.

It would be a lot cheaper to repair than to buy new...

Common situation.  The PS3/2 board would be my choice.

The seller of this engine is a great guy, so I can return the engine to him tomorrow. However, the deal was so good, and the engine being especially new/nice looking, that I'm having a hard time making the choice to keep it and upgrade it, or sending it back. You guys are great to respond so quickly. Thanks much John.

Ask him if he would go halfsies with you on the new board. If I were the seller, I would prefer that over taking it back and starting over.

good luck

 Great suggestion. I might give it a shot. The engine was a gift to me, so it would be nice if we could keep it. Thank you

Did the seller try to fire the engine up with the old white battery?  Hopefully you purchased it cheap enough to make the added price of new electronics still a good deal.  That engine is a very easy engine to do.

I can upgrade this for you. with the PS-32 after testing the 5V board and ensuring not repairable.  E-mail in profile.  G

No, the seller said to add a new battery before starting up. So right out of the box, before placing the engine on the track, we put a new BCR in place of the old battery. Maybe the engine sat on a shelf for too long and parts deteriorated? And yes, the price was great, but after talking things over with the gift givers, early this morning, we decided it best to return the engine. The seller is terrific, so it's a bit of a loss on all sides. Thanks for your interest.