Thank you for your help.
I reset the decoder to factory settings and then I soldiered the power strips to the decoder and that did the trick.
Again drop in my butt.
It isn't a drop-in install for sure, but at least you don't have to deal with bunch of individual wires to connect power pickups, motor, headlights (and sometimes add resistors). In the wired-in installs you also have to modify the light board, etc. Sometimes you also have to modify the frame to accept a wired-in decoder. So while it's not a true drop-in, overall it is not so bad.