i just had the same problem and it seems that it's either the gears are jammed with something or the drive shaft pops off in shipping and it will not go. i see alot of newcomers have had the same issue as i did and that's the simplest and most likely problem for brand new engines that don't work. bad quality control or like i said if the drive shaft gets bumped off in shipping, it's problems right out of the box. hope u got it fixed

i wasn't getting into taking it apart when it's the first train we owned. i looked at the disassembly diagram and said...NO!!! lol. i just took it back and got a new one, so my son could finally play with it. in the future when we get more engines i will get into the technical side of it. i did find a new hobby which was highly influenced my my 5 year old who was born with the love of trains lol. i'm sure everyone knows of the excitement in setting up a new layout which we have ahead of us.

thanks everyone for ur input...i'm sure i'll be back on here asking about something else very soon haha

yeah i'm not gonna take that thing apart haha...i looked at the diagram and i'm not getting into it. just feel horrible, my son was so anxious to get his first model train and i get him one and i have to pick one that doesn't work proper. seems like those back gears just are not catching. i could spin the wheel back and forth a little (about 1/8 of an inch and the gears do turn, but when it's under power they don't move.

i had it running for about 2 hours after i turned the gears back and forth a few times. idk what i did, but it was running good then it just locked up again. i'm thinking it may just be a bad gear or something. i'll see if i can take it apart depending how complicated it looks. it's gonn go back anyway bcuz i don't wanna keep messing with it. i could see if it was older, but i just got it out of the box and it was stuck. idk much about it, but it seems like a good set. could it be something i'm doing wrong??? like not railing it in the right direction. then again i must have taken it off and put it back on over 100 times already haha. he got a boat load of other toys and of course the train is the only thing he wants to play with lol

just got my son a Rail Chief set for Christmas and the back set of wheels r locked. the front wheel set is spinning on the track and is even moving the train very slow, but when i look ground level i can see the front spinning and back is just locked dragging. Is the engine broke or is there something i could do to loosen the wheels? i do have the train under power (i know they don't turn by hand). Any info would be great bcuz my son can't wait until he can couple the other cars to the engine.