Hi, new at this so bear with me. Have a question to show how dumb I may be. I have the Dry Gulch set. It says it is DC operated. Have a Polar Express transformer. It will not run the Dry Gulch engine. Can someone help me understand the difference of AC/DC operation? Thanks, I have a lot of trains and just fixing to start building my only layout I will ever build. I have trains that are and can run on anything and I have a couple of dc trains. Will they be able to run on the same layout? Please someone help me, and forgive me for not knowing the differenc, thanks, Doug, I am a TCA member and also DDicker on ebay, thanks again, Doug and if allowed, my email address on ebay is BlueAngel17@charter.net, if not, just delete it from this post…
You can run an A.C motor on D.C.
You can not run a D.C. motor on A.C.
Problem is that you can not reverse the A.C. motor running on D.C. like you do with a D.C motor.
You Need a field reversing unit.
Doug, to add to what Spike said, the vast majority of Lionel locomotives came with an open frame AC motor that ran on AC current, which gets reduced down to safe voltage levels via a transformer. Sometime in the early 1970’s Lionel began experimenting with DC can motors in low cost beginner sets. These sets came with a power pack very similar to the Tyco/Bachamann type that came with HO sets. These DC only locomotives will not work with a normal Lionel transformer that puts out AC current to the track.
In the late 1980’s, Lionel and others began more extensively using DC can motors but now with a circuit board reverse unit that also had a bridge rectifier built in to it, allowing the locomotive to run on either AC current from a transfromer or DC current from a power pack.
Your Polar Express loco is of the type with the circuit board in it. Your Dry Gulch loco is of the type with the DC motor but no circuit board.
You could opt to run the DG loco with a power pack: if you don’t have one, they are pretty inexpensive to get a basic one, but it won’t have enough juice in it to power your Polar Express set… maybe just the loco but no lighted cars. Then you could run the PE loco with that transfromer that came with that set.
You could also purchase a circuit board reverse unit (I’m not sure which loco the DG one is, but you’d probably need a tender to go with it to put the circuit board into, wiring it to the loco via some kind of tether. The circuit boatds are around $13-15 plus shipping.
You could also make bridge rectififer box with a DPDT switch to control loco direction, but I’m not sure the newer Lionel transfomers will work with this. The old ones will. I tried using one of these switches I made with a solid state K-Line transfromer and it didn’t work right. PS, I run my layout on DC current.
If you have any more questions just ask, and I’ll try to help. You could also sell the DG loco and buy something with the circuit board in it, li
See this current topic:
I just remembered that I do have Electronic reversing replacement units for your A.C. engines.
They are $40.00 each. They contain directions for installation.
Hey Brian, Sounds like I may as well sell the Dry Gulch. I bought it as Like new/mint. I have never ran it or only took it out of the box to look at it. Think you might want to buy it? Will give a decent deal on it. think it is worth around 200 bucks, but can sell for a little less than that…and if not buy it, what should I try to sell it for? thanks, doug