I cannot call myself professional - I just love model trains and assemble railroad in my house from time to time. So consider me a noob I have DC layout and I don’t have any DCC controls.
From time to time, I buy myself a used DC trains from ebay - those I’m interesed in as models.
I bought used Marklin BR 24 058 H0 train.
Seller told me, that it’s DC, not a DCC train.
I tested it on my layout - but it’s running only backwards, despite of the polarity of my layout.
Thats how loco look like from outside:
I decided to check, whats inside the loco and unscrewed it.
I’m not professional, but I assumed, that this H0 loco should be from 1950-1970s. But inner components doesn’t look like that they are from that era.
So here are my questions:
Is this loco DCC?
Is it possible to fix the issue and make it run in both directions? (by changing polarity of network)
Henry is correct. Here’s a link to the same locomotive on Trainz.com. The website states " It runs on Marklin 3-rail track only".
If it says “Marklin” then it’s generally 3-rail AC. I found that out when I purchased a Marklin NYC caboose. I was able to convert it to DC by switching out the trucks. It would be a bit more extensive to convert the locomotive to DC.
If it were an original 3 rail AC Marklin and you put it on your DC layout, you would get an immediate short and it would not run at all, as both wheels have the same polarity. It also seems to be missing the conspicuous pick-up “shoe” for the 3rd rail. Thus, it seems that a previous owner modified it to run on 2 rail DC. The original Marklin AC mechanism uses a short high-voltage impulse to change directions. I have no idea how this is solved in this case.
I would try changing the polarity. My prediction: Now it will run only forward. I am not sure I would call that an improvement, but it would add another piece to the puzzle.
I think Bubba tried to kludge a 3 rail AC loco into a 2 rail DC one and messed up, so decided to sell it to an unsuspecting victim. Depending on the circumstances (ie: E-Bay, train show, hobby shop. some guy who placed an ad online/in the paper) you might try and get your money back. The best alternative is go to your local hobby shop and see if they can recommend someone who fixes sick locomotives.
You have an old 3003 model. I used to own one of these locos. Marklin may have made two rail versions of this loco under its HAMO line or later under the Trix brand.
The electronics in the loco suggest either an electronic reversing unit or some other modification. The rest of the guts look like the AC unit. A shot of the underside of the loco and the box would tell us quite a bit more…
If you aren’t getting a dead short there has been some modification or it could be a HAMO version that has issues…
This loco is a diesel so all that was needed was to swap the Märklin trucks with the corresponding Trix and solder the truck pickups to the correct pads on the decoder.
I concur that you might have been sold “A pig in a poke.”
Paying someone to correct the previous attempt at DC conversion could cost you more than purchasing a different unit new.
I suggest you try to get your money back through eBay before opening the proverbial “can of worms.”
Despite if the seller lists a “No Refund” policy in certain situations of deception by the seller you do have recourse.
Most of us in this great hobby at one time or another have fallen victim to deceptive sellers and/or deals that seem “too good to be true.”
An AC motor can run on DC power, but will not change direction with a polarity change. It would seem someone altered the engine from three-rail to two-rail, but didn’t realize that.
If you decide to keep the engine, it is not very hard to install a bridge rectifier so the AC motor changes direction with the DC polarity change. I was a three-rail O scaler long ago, and did it myself a couple of times (using the old “Fricko Converto”). A hobby shop could probably do it for you for the price of the bridge rectifier plus a small labor fee.
Perhaps sadly, Walthers still has a listing and part number for it (274-805). Of course, like so much else, it’s “Out Of Stock” and “Availability” Sold Out"… and I suspect this has been for some time now.
Fricko also made a ‘Transverto’ that attached to your 18VAC Lionel output and converted it to polarity-reversible DC…
Just to clarify my comments about the “Fricko Converto”…I wasn’t saying that the OP should try to track one down for his HO engine, I was just explaining that I used one (about 40 years ago) to convert some Lionel AC engines to DC using a bridge rectifier, and it’s not hard at all to do. Back then, that was new - or at least to most people, relatively obscure - technology; now, you can buy bridge rectifiers online for a few bucks that will do the same thing.
I have DC layout and I don’t have any DCC controls.
