For the issue of range, the receiver can pick up a locomotive from much farther than even 15 feet - it just needs some CV setting adjustments. The first thing to try would be to reset your receiver (unplug the power cord, hold down the button on the front, and then plug in the power cord while holding the button). The next step is to increase the transmit strength of the locomotive. Set CV213 to a value of 128 in the locomotive's decoder. After that, use the track power cord that came with the receiver to connect it to track power instead of wall power. Press the program button on the receiver. The light will start flashing. Program in Ops Mode, on the mainline as engine #1. Set CV143 to 1 Set CV141 to 40 Set CV136 to 50 Set CV135 to 60 Press the program button again when finished. The light will stop flashing. This should make the receiver very sensitive. CV143 is the upper scan channel. If CV142=1 (lower scan channel) and CV143=1 (upper scan channel), the receiver will only look for and lock onto channel 1 instead of scanning. This helps if the signal strength is weak. CV141 is the minimum signal strength to lock onto. The default is 121, so 40 is pretty low. Setting lower than 40 can cause it to lock onto background noise. CV135 is the signal strength above which the bass sound fades in. CV136 is the signal strength below which the bass sound starts to fade out. It must be lower than CV135. As a last resort, program the receiver and set CV132 (minimum bass volume) to 60, and try setting CV141 to a value lower than 40. This should get the range pretty wide to where the loco never fades out.