Polar Express Dead Engine

It is under warranty - call Lionel they have a great service department or send them, your family the recpt. and see if the dealer will change it out. Lionel might not take returns to the new year. You can call them at 586-949-4100 or send them an email at talktous@lionel.com

Thanks for the contact info.  I was hoping there was something simple going on that wouldn't require going the warranty route.  Does anyone have similar experience?

See if anything is touching touching the track. See if anything is stuck in the wheels that maybe be shorting out the engine when it touches the track. Sometimes dirt or a piece of metal gets picked up in the rollers.  Make sure the connections are correct and that all the wheels of all the cars are on the track. If one is off / derailed the Engine will shut down. Their is also a trouble shooting guide in the Owners Manual to reference.

Little difficult to assist. I would call Lionel in the morning as their customer service team is top notch.

Separate the tender from the engine and place it on the track with no power. Then, supply power. Isolate the short to either the engine or the tender.

Call Lionel. You can do it and have the family ship if necessary. They will absolutely take care of you.

Another thought...try turning the smoke switch to off to isolate the smoke unit as the problem. It's on the floor of the engine cab.

One more thing to check, if the engine took a dive off a table, rear ended something, or some such, it could have bent the pilot down, though given the size of the thing on the polar express, 'cow-catcher' just might be the right term this time.  in any case, check if the vert tip of the locomotive is touching the center rail.  You could place a piece of tape over the edge to test this.  

Is she running it under the Christmas tree ? I had some tinsel wind up in the wheels and it caused a problem.

Once I pulled it out from the wheels it ran without shorting,

I had a similar problem when testing my 6-31960 transformer powered P.E. set.  It ran good for several minutes, then it stopped and the short circuit indicator on the transformer started blinking.  I removed the boiler shell and checked under the hood.  All seemed good but there were several wee connectors plugged into what I surmised was the reversing board.  I unplugged and re-plugged them and the loco has been good to go ever since.  That was in spring of 2008.

In case you're the least bit shy about removing the boiler shell and possibly voiding the warranty you should bring the loco to the nearset Lionel service station and have them check it out for you.

Pete