My train will run but then quits until I pick it up and place it near the power source. Then it will run and stop. I checked the rail connections and they seem to be okay. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Flonder, Make sure you souder all of your rail joiners and also make sure you power leads are no more than 4 feet apart. I assume you are running DC Shannon WP LIVES ATSF LIVES
If you have a volt-ohm instrument, run one lead along the rail(s) while holding the other stationary. When you get to the end of the first move, then relocate the stationary lead where the other left off. I think you may find that you either have a broken feedwire to the rail, or a poor connection between rail joiners.
Flounder- You say "my train". Have you any other locomotives? Does the same thing happen to each one. If you have, for example, a steam engine, it might be a bad unit or it might jerk and stop until it is well into its break in period. What track are you using? How is the track affixed? Is the track not affixed? You can not rely on rail joiners to act as a conduit for electricity since they will loosen up over time without either solder or ballasting to "make permanent" the connection.
As others have suggested, it sounds like you have a voltage drop (or dirty track?) the further you get from the power source. As Fothergill mentioned, you can't rely on track joiners to conduct power reliably--corrosion sets in pretty quickly. How big is your layout? My big layout--single garage, 850 feet of track--has feeders about every 4 feet. My test loop--only 7 feet--has just a single connection but, after just a few days of operation, I'm seeing (actually hearing) a little voltage drop.
