Lionel 2-4-2 Steamer Chicago Northwestern

John - A pic of the underside of your engine should indicate the manufacturer (eg. Lionel, MTH, Williams) and would be helpful to Forumites who may be able to assist you. 🤔

If it is a later Lionchief loco, it will not operate without it's matching handheld control.

Lionchief do not run in conventional, would need Lionchief +2.0 to run that way.

Hard to help without knowing exactly what this engine is, lionel part number would help.

It's probably LionChief (the entry-level train set version.)  The easiest way to make it run would be to purchase its matching remote from Lionel.

Thank you! I think this really stinks that Lionel created these and they could not be run without their remote. I was hoping to give it to somebody who has a bunch of conventional stop. I see they changed and future editions they made so it could be run conventionally. Fortunately the control was packed with it and everything works absolutely perfectly. But whoever approved this at Lionel was a very dumb decision. Super glad I have MTH and DCS

LionChief = Runs on remote-only system.

LionChief Plus = runs on remote or conventional. (Flip the switch to change)

LionChief Plus 2.0. Go to Lionel’s website for information about this more advanced version.

We still don’t know which version you have because you haven’t provided any key information. A photo. The stock number. The cab number. All basic stuff.