Color me red = embarrassed! The mute button had been pushed. I am not sure when/how that happened. I took the locomotive and the sound module to a friend's layout and asked him to do the installation of the module –his hands and his eyes are considerably younger than mine, and steadier. In addition to the locomotive and sound module I took my controller. My friend, whose primary layout is in Sn3, had only recently begun an On30 shelf layout. He had track but no controller yet connected. My friend did what looked like a perfectly done installation. However, when on his track with my controller connected, there was no sound. A closer re-review of the installation only confirmed the original opinion. Back home I tried the Heisler on my track with my controller. (Thinking it might work there? One definition of "idiot" is someone who does the same thing over and over and over again, each time expecting a different outcome.) Another railroad modeler was able to check that all of the CVs were set to the factory defaults and he, too, saw nothing visually wrong with the installation. His suggestion was to call Bachmann which led me to finding this forum and then my post. Somewhere, sometime, moving things back and forth in disconnecting, connecting, disconnecting, connecting the controller the mute button had been pushed (presumably sometime when the controller was connected and powered on but with no locomotive on the track). Knowing that other locomotives of mine had run well, with sound, on the same track with the same controller everybody's attention was focused on the module and its installation. Kudos to you for a simple but powerful question. Thank you. A byproduct of this problem was finding this form which I will now be coming back to on a regular basis. Again, thanks.

I separately bought a new Bachmann Spectrum Sound Ready DCC-Equipped On30 14-Ton Heisler (Item 28804) and a new Bachmann Spectrum Plug-and-Play Sound Module for Bachmann On30 14-Ton Heisler (Item 44953). I installed the sound module according to the instructions – all CV defaults were unchanged from the (presumably) factory defaults. The locomotive was run a few times (so beautifully slow as to be almost not seen as moving! and faster) but it was not changed from the factory assigned locomotive number. The sound module is firmly seated, and all 21 pins are visible coming up through the board, so no pins are bent or not connected. The reinstalled rear light functions as it did before installing the sound module. Unfortunately, there is no sound whatsoever from the locomotive/sound module. Does anyone have any thoughts as to why there is no sound and/or any suggestions on what to try to diagnose and fix this problem? Thanks.