Old, Old Question...Should know the answer...but, I don't...Searching Forum did not help Either...so, please....

Can you provide an MTH item number for this engine.

If this is an early PS2 5v model there is a chance that the board may be toast, There was a bad run of capacitors during the 5v board years which caused many premature board failures.

When you power up the loco do you hear anything?  Any sound or is it 100% silent. You should at least heart a distinct click when power is applied. If you have transformer with an AMP gauge, it should draw some power usually around half an amp.

Thanks for the reply...this one is Railking 30-2360-1...appeared around 2003. 

Yep, that one is a 5v for sure. If it won't even startup in conventional, a very good chance that the board has died.

Proper diagnosis requires a meter to detect amp draw, but if there is no sound, lights or any other sign of life from the loco when you power it on in conventional mode, it has suffered from a board failure.

You could always swap in a new board set. Even ERR could be used if you can't get an original.  If you run conventional and have thin wallet, a $2 bridge rectifier would at least give you fwd. You could pull a BR out of a garbage picked stereo, tv , etc if need be (careful of high volt coil/wire on tv tubes) .

 I just plain don't like the idea of dummy locos with a perfectly good motor(s) in it

Thank you, gentlemen...not enough of a electronics guy to do anything too fancy.  I do not like the idea of a dummy with motors that work either!

Not sure what I'll do...but...thanks for confirming the death of this engine.

The direct approach is to replace the 5V board set with the PS32 board with 5V connectors.  That's the current "fix" for dead PS/2 boards.

Dug out my old steamer set #1475WS , 3 window 2046 with 5 freight cars.  Hasnt been run in almost 10 yrs.  Couple drops of oil here n there. That makes it 70 yrs old!   Runs as good as new.  No fancy circuit boards to replace.  Gotta love PW!!  PW all the way!!    JM2C 

Rob

Also need to know what  transformer you are using?

Bruce

To be clear did you place the engine on a track without DCS and try to power it up conventionally?  If not that is the first step.  Also ensuring it is getting power.

As far as DCS, you should delete the engine from the remote, then try to add the engine.  If it does not add, try a recover engine.  A sitting engine especially 5V can lose it's address and be out of address range for DCS.  Hence the recover engine process.  G