Help with Daughter's IHC 4-4-0

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

As I was bringing it home in the foam box, It did a Humpty-Dumpty off the second story landing. It landed cellophane down in not-so-soft snow and impacted with enough force to force the cellophane out in the box.

There is no physical sign of damage, but it does not run. Trouble is I don’t know if it is broken or not. And if it is, how do I proceed?

What I do know.

It has a DCC decoder in the tender. Unknown brand.
It will not run on DC, but it does not shut down the transformer like the F2B did when it died.
It reads “good” on the programing track at the club–which uses a Digitrax system.
When it is on the main the throttle can’t find it.

What is my next step?

2

Loose wire to the motor?

–Randy

3

Did the decoder loosen or fall out? If it’s not all the way in it won’t run on DC or DCC.

4

The decoder is sitting in the tender with wires leading to the engine. I have not pulled the engine apart yet. Don’t know how yet, but I imagine I’ll figure it out. I’ll get to it tonight, I hope.

If anyone knows how to pull the IHC 4-4-0 apart, I wouldn’t mind a hint.

5

My idea is that perhaps your train is designed to run off of AC (alternating current) instead of DC.

Brian

6

AC? I hope not.

7

I can’t imagine that any IHC loco (sold in the US) would come wired for AC.