Help with Lionel Lion chief plus santa fe 2-8-2

You said you know how to take the loco apart.  Remove the boiler, support the loco frame, and turn the motor flywheel by hand.  Do the driving wheels turn freely?  In other words, is there a bind in the mechanism, jammed driving rods, etc.?  If you can turn the flywheel 20 complete revolutions (enough for one revolution of the driving wheels), and there are no mechanical binds, then other potential trouble sources are electrical (or electronic.) 

Broken wire (open circuit)- does it light up or make sounds?  Short circuit, blown circuit board, etc.  Note that LionChief Plus are radio-controlled and the handrails are the antenna.  They should be insulated from the metal boiler shell.  If the loco lights up but doesn't move, it may be an issue with the radio control signal, etc. 

If you don't have experience in these latter areas, you'll have to take it to a qualified repair person.

My new Lionel E6 did the same as yours; ran great for about 4 hours then quit and triggered the circuit breaker on my CW80; did that repeatedly - wouldn't budge; sent back to Lionel and the tech found a short in one of its trucks - didn't specify which.  So far, runs great.

Ted S posted:

You said you know how to take the loco apart.  Remove the boiler, support the loco frame, and turn the motor flywheel by hand.  Do the driving wheels turn freely?  In other words, is there a bind in the mechanism, jammed driving rods, etc.?  If you can turn the flywheel 20 complete revolutions (enough for one revolution of the driving wheels), and there are no mechanical binds, then other potential trouble sources are electrical (or electronic.) 

Broken wire (open circuit)- does it light up or make sounds?  Short circuit, blown circuit board, etc.  Note that LionChief Plus are radio-controlled and the handrails are the antenna.  They should be insulated from the metal boiler shell.  If the loco lights up but doesn't move, it may be an issue with the radio control signal, etc. 

If you don't have experience in these latter areas, you'll have to take it to a qualified repair person.

Sorry I was not so specific on what it would do. What happened was yes it quit operating completely. Meaning, when I tried to see if it was a dead spot, which was not the case, the loco would not come back on. I do know that it is not a mechanical problem because I would do what you suggested multiple times to see what it would do. Why I do not really want to send it in is because on the very top board inside the engine different parts of the board do not look clean. I will send a photo latter for y'all to get a better idea of what I am talking about. If possible a last resort for me would be finding a lion chief plus mike and swap shells with what I have and put it on the new frame. Thanks for your time and knowledge.