After thinking about setting up a train set for the first time in 20 years to honor my father who was a huge train fan I purchased the Bachmann Spirit of Christmas train and during assembly of the track I noticed that one of the pieces was missing a joiner - I thought it might be an issue but continued the process regardless to see for sure - I have a train that is completely dead - meaning that no beeps - no squeaks - no movement. I pulled the offending piece of track and looked more closely to be sure that it didn't slide under the rail - no such luck. I examined the rest of the pieces of track and verified that I am only missing one joiner - major disappointment. I had to explain to the wife that we have no train yet and will have to drive the hour back to the Hobby Town to see if they have spare parts.
Trying not to let this become a wet blanket. Our 3 year old grand daughter has never seen a moving train and I was hoping to change that.
So much for my statement - now the question - Would the train operate at all on any piece of track if one joiner was missing? I get no action at all and am concerned that something else might be an issue.
One missing joiner shouldn't be an issue, unless the train derails.
Have you tried connecting touching the speed controller's leads directly to the locomotive's wheels?
Unless you have other misaligned rail joiners, the missing joiner should not cause the electric to go dead. I am assuming that since you stated that you just bought the set, that it is a newer set and has E-Z TRAK. I would assume that the curves are the 11,25 inch radius. B-mann does sell the curved, straight and terminal pieces separately.
I would check for other misaligned rail joiners and make sure that the plugs are securely in the terminal track and throttle box.
The missing rail joiner could cause problems, such as derailments. I would hit the hobby store for the replacement track section(s) and do it properly.
Many hobby shops sell these joiners. They are cheap and come in strips.
Separate them with a wire cutter. I always keep some around as spares.
Les