New Polar Express O-gage Failed on Christmas Morning

Where did you buy your PE set from? If it was a local hobby shop, take the engine back and there's a good chance they can diagnose the problem and repair it. Alot of these new steamers have circuit boards that control the basic Forward-Neutral- Reverse function and those can be swapped out pretty quickly.

If you bought your PE train set from a private party or online and you can't get help, try the Lionel service dept. I had an Odyssey board go bad on my SD-90 MAC, sent it in, and it was repaired in a reasonable amount of time- turnaround time was 2-3 weeks if I remember. Lionel does get a number of starter set engines needing repairs this time of year, so it may take longer.

Geno

Just to reiterate what Todd mentioned, give it a good once over to make sure all wheels are sitting squarely on the track. Look carefully at the position of the flanges on the wheels to ensure all are in the correct position.  It can be tricky and even a slight mis-alignment will cause the green light to flash.

Good luck!

Thanks for all your post. I have had no luck yet with the repositioning, but when I initiate the power lever the train just barely moves while the green light flashes. I bought it online so I will contact a local hobby shop tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

Neal

Also, check the owner's manual and turn off the switch at the back for the smoke.  Sometimes this will restore the operation of the set, and get it up and running until you can send it to Lionel for repair.  The resistors in the smoke generator sometimes fail causing a short circuit.

Another thing to check would be to see if it has picked up any piece(s) of metal (Screws, nails, staples, tinsel, etc.) that may have fallen onto the track and are causing a short in the locomotive. Or anything such as cotton-wool, carpet threads, pieces of string, or suchlike that may have gotten caught-up in the running gear and are jamming the mechanism.

I'm not certain of this since we run our Polar Express with an LW or ZW but I seem to remember that the CW doesn't start up the engine right away but took a few seconds to "ramp up". At first I thought there was something wrong too but after a few tries we got used to this "anomoly" Maybe ours was broken but since we don't use the CW and the problem seemed to go away with the ZW I never gave it a second thought but it's been 3 years and no problems.

Jerry

Neal,

 Where are you located? many forum members myself included, would be willing to take a look if you are nearby, I have several locomotives that could pinch hit for your PE, if we couldn't fix your problem on the spot. I have read here of others offering the same help, the members on this forum can be very generous.

Doug

Thank you all for your responses and suggestions! I took the whole track apart and re-attached, cleaned it off, turned the smoke switch on and off, re-attached the transformer and all the connections....After doing that twice with no luck the third time it started working? Not exactly sure why but for now we have one happy son... and dad!

Thanks again!

Neal

Kudos to Dad for taking the time to find this forum and follow the help people provided. Nice job Dad! 

Neil, if you bought it on line, you need to contact them. A hobby shop won't give you help unless you bought it from them. It will need to be returned to Lionel if you can't solve the problem.

Neal, I bought a new engine this year and it worked great for multiple hours then all of sudden quit.  It was doing similar to yours where the track would immediately short.  I took of the engine cover and found the wires to the pickups on the trucks were loose.  A few screws loose they say.  The clearance between ground and hot is surprisingly small, so being loose they would touch.  If it happens again, try to buzz the train with a meter to see wheels to the pickup is shorted or not.

I know the sick feeling you have with the train.  Mine hit a box last year and burnt up.  Major disappointment.

I'll bet your 5 year old put a piece of tinsel across the rails when you weren't looking just to mess with you. That is good news about the locomotive. I am sure that you and your son are enjoying it together.

Does the plastic stuff even conduct?  I remember the "old days" with lead tinsel and that worked great to reverse my engine.  

According to the terms of the warranty he can return it to any Authorized Service Station or ship it back to Lionel.  It is his choice.  You can find the one closest to you here: http://www.lionel.com/Customer...ce&submit=Search

Make sure you set it to look for service stations.  Dave is correct that none of the dealers have any obligation to provide service or support for something they did not sell.  By the way Lionel has excellent email support. their address is TALKTOUS@LIONEL.COM .  Hopefully you wont need any of this information but I wanted to pass it along just in case. 

I hope you and your son enjoy this train (and others) for many years,

Merry Christmas.