brushes?

Axles?

Have you replaced the axles?  All of mine broke. Although with mine it was kind of obvious that something was wrong as the locos made lots of "clunking" noises as they tried in vain to move. 

Randy

Decoder issue?

It sounds like a decoder problem, try resetting it.

Okay...

It's not the decoder... as I mentioned, the decoder checked out, and a second decoder also didn't work, nor did the dummy plug, and running it in DC. It isn't the decoder. (or as my flatmate says "IT'S NOT LUPUS!")

The axles were all replaced the day I got it (a couple of months ago) It was new in the box when I bought it (new old stock... so... sitting unopened since 2001) so of course every axle gear was split (and thanks to folks here at MRH, replacing those was easy as pie... well, easy as eating pie... I mean... have you MADE a pie lately?)

The motor does move freely, and no... no lights. Again, it seems the issue is between the trucks, and the board.

It's the P2K style board, where all it is is an 8 pin socket, with 8 leads, the wires go in, and a plastic clip secures them. I have checked all of the wires on the board, and they are all seated properly.

Bolster pads... I'm still new at this... I understand brushes... what are the bolster pads?

I'm  going to check out the upper and lower motor clips right now (I know what they are at least, heh...)

 

FIXED!!!!

Okay, I don't know what the hell I did, but, it's working now, after not working for two days.

Well... no... I know what I did... I just don't know what part of that was the solution.

I removed the motor (without removing any wires) and checked the springs... they were tight as tight could be... I wicked some of the excess oil off the top side of the trucks with a Q-Tip... (none of that seemed to be working to fix it though)

So then I unscrewed the red wire that's screwed to the rear frame (power from the track consists of two black wires from one rail, that are soldered to a stem coming off the trucks, and one red wire that is screwed to the frame... I hesitate to say "positive" and "negative" as I'm running DCC, but... positive and negative) It seemed the red wire was sort of stuck to the frame, as if the black paint was holding it... I used a micro flathead to chisel it, and rubbed a quarter drop of DeoxIT where it would screw back in, and then wicked it off with a Q-Tip... I then said "screw it... this isn't going to work", put the decoder back in, put the shell back on, looked at the trucks, and gave them a wee bit of a squeeze, and then thought "may as well test it again" and *BAM* Working perfectly!

So I don't know if it was the mucking about with pulling the motor, and then putting it back in... wicking the couple of drops of oil off the top of the trucks... fiddling with the red wire (it's always the red wire... ALWAYS) squeezing the truck frames... or if it was just a combination of everything... but it worked.

I am really suspecting it was the red wire though... that maybe due to it's age (and as I said, it was stuck on even after I removed the screw) there could have been a bit of corrosion I couldn't see that I fixed when i popped it off, and put it back on... but, until someone else has this same issue (or I have the issue again) I'll never know for sure.

I was really hoping this was a common problem, like the "Life Like Bump" that folks helped me fix before... but it seems it's probably just something isolated.

Anyway... thanks a lot guys! Without your suggestions, I wouldn't have gone that deep into figuring it out, and my sweet little BL-2 would be sitting on the shelf!

(BTW.. the roommate's four year old, who loves Thomas the Tank, asked me why there were trains in a glass shelf... I said those were the ones i don't use very much, because they aren't DCC, or I can't convert them easily, or they just need some work... he asked "They aren't useful? You bricked them in?" The kids dad had to explain "bricked them in" to me, and OMG, Thomas the Tank is a horrifying show!)