Ever had a locomotive that was running perfectly one day and completely unresponsive the next? No lights, no sound, no movement—just silence. It can be frustrating, especially when the rest of your layout is fine.
Let’s turn this into a collective troubleshooting thread.
What’s the first thing you check when a loco won’t move?
Have you run into decoder issues, dirty wheels, broken wires, or bad pickups?
Any tips for testing motors directly or using a multimeter?
Yeah, had that happen with my old GP38 a couple months back. One evening it was hauling freight like a champ, next morning it was stone dead. First thing I did was pull it off the track and test it on a short piece of powered flex track—nothing. Ended up popping the shell off and found one of the pickup wires had actually come loose from the truck.
Quick solder job fixed it. While I was in there, I cleaned the wheels and contacts just to be sure. Been running smooth ever since.
