Lionel MPC era General 4-4-0 locomotive issues won't move

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

Hello,

I was given an old MPC era train set with a General 4-4-0 steam locomotive, tender and cars. It didn’t come with a transformer so I had had a friend pick me up a standard AC Lionel one that came with starter sets. I place the engine on the track and it just vibrates like crazy. I can roll the drivers both ways with my hands and if i lift the drivers they try to spin but won’t completely. It defintely is a cheap low end set as the cars have plastic wheels and only operating coupler. Is this engine powered by DC only? I have DC power packs but can’t find them anywhere! Any help is appreciated…

I had knee surgery in September and really can’t go to the basement to search through my or my son’s train stuff to find a power pack. Just wnated to set up a train around the tree which I did and wasn’t easy with my left leg in a brace.

thanks,

Joe

2

That set is DC only. It can be run on AC with either a full wave bridge rectifier for one direction only or a 103 type reverse unit LIKE THIS for F-N-R operation on AC, which is how Lionel did it with later versions.

3

Thanks, I thought this was the case with this. I’ll send my son searching for a DC power pack in the basement…

4

[#welcome] aboard!

I have the red James Gang General plus a few other MPC era locos and I’ve thought more than once it would have been nice if Lionel had labeled their DC only locos in some kind of a permanent manner.

Becky

5

Lionel made a type 4060 transformer that can run either AC or DC powered locomotives by just switching the wires to a different terminal set. Not very powerful, but for small engines it will work.

Larry