I just bought my son his first train we got him the Pennsylvania flyer starter kit. Reading the directions it seems that the train should always start forwards however, it always starts in reverse. It came with a CW-80 transformer and the Lionel fastrack system. The reversing switch is on so it is not locked in reverse. I tried switching the wires around on the tranformer but that soesn't make a difference. Does anyone have any ideas? The train runs fine it is just annoying having to cycle the power to get it to run forwards.
When the train is running forward and you want to reverse it, you turn the throttle to zero, turn the throttle up, then down, then the next time you turn the throttle up again the train will be in reverse. When you finish playing with the train, you turn the throttle to the first zero in the reverse sequence. Then you have to complete that sequence the next time you play with the train.
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If everything works fine after initially cycling the loco into forward, then it sounds like the wires between the electronic e-unit and the motor were reversed during assembly at the factory.
If you just purchased the set it's still under warranty. So if you have an Authorized Service Center in your area, they should be able to flip the wires around for no charge while you wait. If you don't have an ASC in your area you can call Lionel to get a 'Return Authorization' (RA) number, and send it back to them for the warranty repair.
Or you could take it back to your retailer and exchange the set under the warrany. They might be willing to pull a loco from an on-hand set, rather than go through the hassle of trying to repack the set you purchased. If you go this route insist that the replacement loco be test run for proper operation before you leave the store.
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