Does anyone know if these are AC or DC?
No idea, but I do like the group.
Rich
I don’t know and would hate to guess.
I do not know what is in it, but neither Lionel nor Gilbert made an engine with an AC motor. All engines had either a DC motor or a universal motor. So it is almost always safe to test one with DC power. The exceptions are engines with TMCC boards that were not DC compatible. That is not a TMCC engine.
Thanks @AmFlyerTom I use traditional AC and I think a handful of 70s 80s Lionels were DC only, including a couple of these docksiders. These blue ones were circa 1992 I believe, just not sure about them. Hard to find info online
I know that when recently shopping for an 8700, I ran across one on the 'bay that still had the DC warning label across the bottom of the locomotive. If they appear to have a can motor in them, they are likely DC. You can give it a quick test on AC and see if it just buzzes and doesn’t move - just don’t go full throttle, just try it for a couple of seconds, and it won’t damage the motor.
I know the red RI loco is DC.
Thanks everyone
A great way to test, is to take a cheap, basic HO transformer, hook it up to some Lionel track, and try using it. If it is a DC engine, then the transformer’s direction control will change which way the engine runs. If it isn’t, the engine will behave like your typical Lionel designed to run on AC.
There are other methods, like opening the engine up or looking up from the bottom to try and spot if it has a can motor in it, or briefly applying AC to see what happens, but I think testing with a cheap DC transformer is the safest way to check in cases where you aren’t sure.
The Santa Fe is definitely a DC engine. The 8200 I believe was usually if not always AC, I have one in rough shape.
-El
Good ideas @El_Fixes_Things