After thinking about setting up a train set for the first time in 20 years to honor my father who was a huge train fan I purchased the Bachmann Spirit of Christmas train and during assembly of the track I noticed that one of the pieces was missing a joiner - I thought it might be an issue but continued the process regardless to see for sure - I have a train that is completely dead - meaning that no beeps - no squeaks - no movement.  I pulled the offending piece of track and looked more closely to be sure that it didn't slide under the rail - no such luck.  I examined the rest of the pieces of track and verified that I am only missing one joiner - major disappointment. I had to explain to the wife that we have no train yet and will have to drive the hour back to the Hobby Town to see if they have spare parts.

Trying not to let this become a wet blanket. Our 3 year old grand daughter has never seen a moving train and I was hoping to change that.

So much for my statement - now the question - Would the train operate at all on any piece of track if one joiner was missing? I get no action at all and am concerned that something else might be an issue.