I recently ordered 3 Bachmann locos, but as soon as they arrived I had problems. I bought 2 DCC with sound, and one DCC without sound.

First, a quick note about my setup. I don't have a layout yet, I just have 2 meters of test track setup to play around. It has some switches on it, but for debugging I unplugged those in case there was a short. I have a Zephyr/DCS51. Other locos (BLI, Athearn, Walthers) are working just fine on this track.

The DCC without sound actually runs fine. But I can't access it with JMRI, and I wasn't able to program it using the Zephyr using either programming track leads or on the main.

The two DCC with sound locos just don't work at all. When they're on the track by themselves, there's no sign of life at all (using CV3).. that is until I turn off the power to the track, then they flash. When they're on the track together, they flash their lights 10 times. When one of them is on the track with another loco, they do the 10 flashes sometimes and sometimes make strange noises.

Then it gets even weirder for me.. When the working loco is receiving commands, sound seems to kinda work from the locos. When the working loco is moving at around speed step 5, the locos can operate. (?!?!?)

Does anyone have any idea what's going on??

For reference, the units I bought are:

#62808 GP9 DIESEL (DCC EQUIPPED) - Pennsylvania (this is the one that kinda works)
#65409 Conrail - NS Heritage - GE ES44AC - DCC Sound Value
#66803 CSX - EMD GP38-2 with DCC Sound Value

Thanks!

John