An old, blind cowboy wanders into an all-girl biker bar by mistake.   He finds his way to a bar stool and orders a shot of Jack Daniels.

After sitting there for a while, he yells to the bartender, "Hey, you wanna hear a blonde joke?"

The bar immediately falls absolutely silent.

In a very deep, husky voice, a woman next to him says, "Before you tell that joke, Cowboy, I think it is only fair, given that you are blind, that you should know five things:

1. The bartender is a blonde girl with a baseball bat.
2. The bouncer is a blonde girl.
3. I'm a 6-foot tall, 175-pound blonde woman with a black belt in karate.
4. The woman sitting next to me is blonde and a professional weight lifter.
5. The lady to your right is blonde and a professional wrestler.

Now, think about it seriously, Cowboy. Do you still wanna tell that blonde joke?"

The blind cowboy thinks for a second, shakes his head and mutters, "No ... not if I'm gonna have to explain it five times."

NOW, let me explain.  Using a multi-meter, I have CONTINUITY along the length of each track.  This tells me the track will conduct electricity and complete a freaking circuit.  When I hook the positive side of a 9v (the "v" stands for VOLT) battery to one track and the negative side to the other track, I can read 9.85v, on my multi-meter, across the tracks.  When I plug the transformer/speed control to the empty track and turn the speed control knob thingy all the way around to the right (where is says FAST), my multi-meter reads no voltage across the two tracks.

The transformer/speed control utilizes a single plug to connect the wires to the terminals on the tracks, so I can't check the voltage coming from the transformer without taking it apart or cutting the track connector off the little cable, stripping the wires and connecting the multi-meter to the bare wires.  THUS, voiding any warranty I might hope to have. So, there are no screw terminals on the transformer/speed control that I can connect the probes on the multi-meter to in order to do a proper test.

As far as being brow beaten over who I shouldn't have bought from and how I paid for it, I have no desire or time to continue that part of the conversation.

I have since learned that the eBay merchant is an authorized seller, so, I will simply return the entire set for exchange.

THANK YOU to Len, ACY, TwinZephyr and JerrysHO for giving constructive opinions and trying to help me solve the problem.  I was trying to see if it was something simple, that I overlooked, before I went through the pain of boxing this set up and sending it off for exchange.

I will let you all know how this turns out.

Thanks, musket

Jerry, thanks for the link.  I'll check it out.  This IS an HO scale and has the motor in the tender connected by worm drive to the engine.  I'm wondering if I should just change scales.  I don't want to get too deep into this.  It'll just be used at Christmas for the grandkids.

TwinZephyr, I didn't realize the acc. were AC and I AM getting AC power on those terminals on the power pack.  NO DC across the tracks.  But, I did get DC on the track when I hooked up the battery.

I can get the light to come on with your info.  Thanks.  After trying every combination of connections on the engine/tender, I was able to get enough juice to the motor which allowed me to turn the drivers with a little thumb help.  That's more that I got before.  They won't turn on their own.

I'll keep trying as I would like to keep The General.  They are hard to find and the eBayer doesn't have another one.

Thanks,
musket

I understand what you are saying, ACY, and I want to thank everyone for trying to help.  It seems that with the 9v test that I would atleast get the light to come on or hear the motor in the tender turning.

Now, I just had another thought.  If I hook the 9v battery to the track, would that be enough voltage to get some kind or response from the engine, IF it was working?

I am of the belief that it is extremely improbable that you have both a defective locomotive and controller. The controller is likely fine. Your problem is most likely related to a loose wire in the locomtive or a bad connection. You could also have a missing, loose, or broken part such as a universal. If your locomotive is several years old the wheels or pickups could have poor conductivity and could need cleaned even if it never was run.
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This is a brand new set and was still shrink wrapped.  That's not to say it isn't defective, however, it is less likely to have a missing part.  I think I'll call bachmann tomorrow just for any further test proceedures.

Well, I tried the 9v test and still got nothing.  I did notice the black wire from the tender to the loco was loose at the screw on the back of the loco.  I, also, was unable to get any voltage reading across the track nor from the accessory terminals on the controller.

Frankly, I think I have a bad motor AND a bad controller.  Any other ideas?

I want to get on the phone with Bachmann before I return it to the seller.  BTW, I bought it on eBay and I assume Bachmann will not cover repairs.  True?

Thanks,
musket

Thanks, Len. I'll try the 9v and the track test.

Len, there's no number but it's The General.  I got a fresh 9v battery and it tested at 9.8v.  I put it across each set of wheels, as I'm not sure which are the contact wheels, but I think it's the front truck.  Anyway, it did not run. I tried the wheels on the engine and the tender.

To ask again, do you know if I should be getting voltage across the tracks?  I may have more than one problem, here.

Thanks for your input.
musket

I just got my first train set in many years, so I wanted to test it out.  It's been a while, but it's not my first rodeo.  Saying that, I know the importance of proper track assembly.

So, everything is plugged up ready to go, and nothing. No light, no movement.  The first thing I noticed is that the engine's drive wheels won't move with my thumb.  Are they supposed to be that tight or should I be able to manually move them easliy?  I didn't try to force them.

I checked continuity on the track and that's good.  Should I be getting voltage across the track?  And what should it be?

Thanks,
musket