In the years before I retired, I acquired a fair number of Lionel, MTH, and Weaver locomotives as well as both the Legacy and DCS systems. I salted everything away with the intention of using them on my "someday" layout. Well, that someday was Wednesday. I have the layout wired and, to see if the wiring was good and the control systems worked, I pulled out an engine and fired it up ... sort of. Rather than make a short story long, suffice it to say that everything worked except the engine. I had lights. I had the whistle. I had no movement. Even though it had never been run, the engine was DOA and, because it'd been over 4 years since I'd purchased it, it was no longer under warranty. I sent it back to the manufacturer today. I don't know how much it will cost to repair, but the lesson I learned from this is to test run every engine on a simple loop of track and not wait until "someday".
I have a Lionel, Milwaukee Road S3 that's NIB and I have to ask myself, do I feel lucky; well, do I? (Nod and a wink to Dirty Harry)
