RickO posted:Keep in mind in the future, dirty track can make weird things happen as well.
When my legacy locos get flaky, I start by giving the track a good cleaning, even if it doesn't look dirty.
Lastly, by posting your solution here, you'll likely be helping someone else down the road who has a similar problem and pulls your thread up doing a search.
Sometimes folks don't come back and post their results/ solution to an issue leaving unanswered questions.
I second the advice about track cleaning. It also applies to the wheels and center rail rollers of your trains. I've sometimes had problems even with LED illuminated cars because the wheels and rollers had accumulated, well, crud on them that interfered with with picking up electric current from the track. MTH DCS controls are also liable to problems with dirty track/wheels.
Strange that the VL ATSF steamer had the same RUN/PGM issue as mine. Don't know how many of these Lionel had manufactured but even a few with this basic mistake is too many.
Don't know what could account for the engine not reversing. But I wonder about the drive train binding somewhere including the side rods etc., which are pretty complicated on this model.
Finally, thanks for posting the solution.
