Brand new niagara refuses to run

[NewYorkCentralgirl]

For Christmas, i recieved a New York Central Niagara and a bunch of track to add to my layout. i put the niagara on a long straight tht is seperate from the layout(DC) and turned on my controller.  The tender's light turned on, but the rest of the locomotive wont turn on its lights or move at all.  I am currently using bachmann easy track. All of the track connections look secure.
I tried my little prairie and it ran for a couple of minutes, but after tht only the smoke and lights worked.  Am i messing up the track wiring?
any help or tips to getting it to run would be greatly appreciated

[RAM]

long straight of track, I don't see how you could mess up the track wiring.  Let me ask you some questions that will help someone to answer you question.  You said that your layout is DC.  These new locomotives, are they DCC?  If they are, are you using the correct address?

[Jim Banner]

I assume the locomotive involved is Bachmann's product number 50301.  This locomotive has a DCC decoder.  But it is supposed to run on dc as well.  Are you testing it on dc or DCC?  On dc, "correct address" has no meaning.  On DCC, it should run on address 3 straight out of the box.

The only wiring error that I know of that might cause your problem would be connecting the track to the ac accessory output of a power pack.  Some DCC decoders try to interpret this ac as DCC power and may even run on it erratically.  Which brings up the question - does your Prairie have a DCC decoder on board?

So can you let us know the following -
- does your Niagara have a decoder on board?
- does your Prairie have a decoder on board?
- did you do your testing with a conventional power pack or a DCC system?
- if you used a conventional power pack, did you connect the track to the dc or the ac output?

[NewYorkCentralgirl]

okay my niagara does have DCC on board but i am testing with a conventional power pack
my prairie is a DC and i tried both the dc and ac just incase the ppl messed up the lettering, both failed, i replaced the feeder wires no response at all from either locomotives

[Daylight4449]

NEVER try the AC. I accidently did that this morning and the engine light and smoke worked but the enjing would just jerk.

[richG]

Put your multimeter on DC volts, say 20 volt scale Put a probe on each rail. Turn up the control on the power pack. You should see the DC voltage go from near zero to maybe 14 volts max if you have the proper connections.

Rich