I have some questions, need help

The smoke juice syringe or eyedropper was there, and under it was a metal rod about 4 inches long with built in non-slip rough surface grip and an odd business end.  I guess.  It was a recessed oval or saucer end.  No idea what it could be used for.  It doesn't look like any wrench I would ever use, or screwdriver.  Anyone own a similar steam loco that came with one?

That's most likely the wrench for removing the side rods and associated gear. It has a hex head. A picture could confirm this supposition.

Who is the engine's manufacturer and what is it's product number?

Is this the tool in question:

If so, it is a Lionel nut driver for removing the running gear to replace traction tires.

This seems to indicate you have a Lionel Locomotive (but you didn't explicitly state). The Lionel Manuals are available online. Just need to know what edition of the 4501 you have...

As for running your presumed Lionel locomotive with MTH DCS... that sounds zany... There is a DCS forum that should be able to better help you in that regard.

That's exactly what it is.  Thank you.  Why wouldn't the owners manual have said that?  Somebody needs to tell Lionel that if they are going to put stuff in their boxes, they need to spell out what it is and what it's used for.  I shouldn't have to go on an Easter egg hunt looking for information on items sold with the train.  Something like, "this box contains the following items;"

1 locomotive

1 tender

1 bag with extra traction tires

a smoke fluid syringe

and oh yea, a wrench to remove the drive wheel so you can change the tires.

Thank you, I very much appreciate you answering my question.

Oh, It's the Lionel 2016 version of the 4501.  I wasn't running it using the DCS, I had changed over to one of my MTH diesels when I did that.  But I did discover that if you run the 4501 using the Lionchief remote setting, it will work using the TIU as your source of power and it doesn't start up until you turn on the remote.  All it does is beep until the remote is turned on. 

Barry

By the way I plan on buying your book when I finally get my train room set up.  I was running an MTH version of and ES44AC BNSF Diesel.  I simply set up a small oval on the porch, and using a brick I wired the brick to the TIU fixed in 1 and the track to the fixed out 1.  When I turned on the brick, the train remained silent.  I added the locomotive to the remote the way the manual told me too, then hit the start up button.  Easy.  I then began to turn the wheel one speed number at a time, and after 21 I was concerned I had a problem.  As I mentioned, it took up to 55 or 60 before it ever revved up and started moving in a speed that seemed.......fast.

What is zany about running a Lionel locomotive with DCS?    

There's nothing zany about it.  But if you don't have the proper box hooked to the TIU at the time, it doesn't work.  I was running the 4501 as a test to see if it was sound operationally.  Just because it came in a pretty box wrapped in nice protective paper doesn't mean it works.  Since it had a remote, I skipped the transformer as a power supply, and just used the brick hooked to the TIU.  It worked flawlessly.  I then packed it up, and headed to the basement to get one of my diesels.  I have never used DCS as a means of remotely running a train set.  For that matter, Lionchief just 3 minutes ago was the first time I had ever run a train remotely.  I wanted to see if my TIU was working so I slapped together a short oval of track, hooked the track to the TIU, turned on the brick, and the Lionel diesel I had mistakenly picked up to practice with suddenly fired up.  The moment I flipped the switch on the brick, the engine fired.  I hadn't even entered it into the remote, much less, touched the start up button.

So there is nothing wrong with running a Lionel or as the DCS system calls it, a TMCC engine, but if you don't have the proper box attached to the TIU, it won't work.  So I packed up the engine I shouldn't have used, got an MTH I could use, set it on the track, fired up the brick, and when it just sat there silent, I was encouraged.  The I fired up the remote, installed the engine, and pressed the 3 button.  It fired.  I was enthused.  I then began to spin the selector wheel northward, and the engine moved forward.   I was excited.  I then moved the wheel north over and over and over again and the engine just crept along at boring speed.  20 mph, 30 mph, 40 mph, is this thing ever going to take off?  Finally, 60 mph, it showed me something,  I was worried.

So I got on the O gauge site and asked some simple questions, trying to learn things from people who have been there and done that and used that and experienced that, and because I made some on faith assumptions about 4501 and Steam Engines and what I was trying to do, I confused everyone.  So hopefully this reply is enough background information.

Again I thank all of you who have replied for your answers to my questions.  But some of my replies have been along the lines of "just what were you trying to accomplish" so I decided to try to be more descriptive in my experiment.  I did forget one question.

I tried using the microphone on the remote.  I used it the way the manual said.  My voice did not emit from the locomotive.  What did I do wrong?  Is there a setting I missed?  I'll watch the dvd again, but in the mean time, any assistance is greatly appreciated.

John