Thanks to all who responded. John, I remember now your posts about the couplers on these. What you encountered sounds exactly like what I've run into - a balky coupler that requires smoothing out of some surfaces. At least without looking at it yet, that's what it sounds like it could be. I'll fire up the screwdriver tonight and dig into it.
By the way, the engine also exhibits the jerkyness at low speeds on curves that was reported by others. I assume this is also due to the overly large holes in the siderods, as reported in the earlier thread. Per your advice, John, I ordered and received yesterday from Lionel some replacement siderods from earlier docksiders, with the smaller holes, and will be doing that mod as well. Thanks for the advice.
