"C" battery powered engines

Where were they stored for such a long time Fred?

I'd say about six, seven years.

The only thing I could think of is to see if the wire connections are fine. If they aren't you may need to replace those. Another thing is maybe the motors could be dead, so you might need to replace those too.

The wire connections seem fine to me, cosmetically that is. I could try to check out the motors.