Help with electric problems in Bachman set

Solved: Thanks Diligent_Affect8517!

Hi everyone,

My wife bought me a Bachman Santa Fe train set for under the Christmas Tree in honor my dad who was a long time enthusiast. The set worked fine the first year. This year, however, the engine stutters and stops on the tracks. When it stops, pushing it gently will get it going for a bit, but then it will conk out.

I checked the electric voltage to the track using a multimeter, and it seems fine. I read through the posts here and cleaned the track. That seemed to help for a bit and the engine did a few solid loops and then stuttered and stopped.

Any suggestions or hints to get the train moving? I am not sure where the problem is and hoping for an easy fix (which seems unlikely now).

Thanks from a novice.