I wish that CPKC Would acquire L&A Ten wheeler number 503 that's rusting away in Port Arthur, Texas.

Putting the iron through a plastic shell was basically a joke.

But. Fill me in.  I've not been very aware of availability of separate DCC only Decoders without sound, and a separate sound only decoder. If that's the case, can one piggyback a sound only decoder onto an existing Silent DCC Decoder.  Please elaborate on this for my enlightenment.

Getting professional installation of DCC is one of the best ways you can spend your money, in my thinking.  Unless you really, really like playing with electronics and extreme micro soldering.  Some folks do, more power to them.  But we have gotten people on here before whose first question is how to make the train go and the next question is how do I install DCC.  I've spent a fair amount of money having a pro install DCC/sound in well over 25 engines, but then, he is a friend and gives me good rates.  Because of that, I've never burned out a decoder or put my soldering iron through a plastic engine shell.

It's easy if you let a pro do it

Yeh.  EZ Command is just the thing in certain settings.

I don't know about calling EZ Command a "standard" system, Ralph.  If you don't want to call it a training system I can understand that, but I myself think "economy" system might be a better term for such a stripped down system.  I'd think that what you call "advanced" is more akin to "standard" in the model railroad world as a whole since I suspect a lot more of them are powering DCC layouts than EZ Command.

None of this, of course is meant to denigrate EZ Command.  For what it is, it is very good, and got me past the DCC Intimidation Stage, which DCC can really do to a beginner.

Maybe very dirty wheels and poor electrical connections within the locomotive.

You may have a voltage drop problem, either within the track itself being loose in places or with the power source.  It doesn't take much power to light up the headlight, it'll come on before the motor moves in many cases.  So the headlight might only say that something is there, not how good it is.  Get a multimeter somewhere and get a reading on your track.  My DCC system delivers between 13 and 14 Volts, apparently some others vary somewhat.

As much trouble as that thing has caused you, you should consider calling the Bachmann Service department and see if they'll work on it for you, or even better, replace it with a similar one. 

https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/techniques/how-to-wire-a-reversing-dc-loop/

Make the track level.  You'll never have level track on carpet. Put the track on the table or a piece of plywood.

  Carpet is terrible for Trains.  Inevitably, little fibers will get into every moving part of the Train.  The locomotive mechanism, the wheels, couplers, Everything.

The two words on eBay that make me smell a rat are "rare" and "vintage."

I stated the same in some other post.

"Consist" joins the list of bygone Railroading terms that includes the term "switch" that have changed meaning in recent times. 

Or disappeared, like "bindle stiff," "ashcat", "ballast scorcher", "hogger," and such.

If you like playing with a train, a limited function system is fine.

If you really want to more closely approximate real railroad operations, you need more.

I don't think it can be put more simply than that.