AC or DC-PW Lionel-How to tell?

I can't recall any postwar Lionel having DC motors.

Rusty

I was hoping it would be something simple like that.

Only one - the #65 - had a DC motor.

They will all run on DC or AC, though.

The 3470 and 375 also had battery powered DC motors to produce their animation.

Depends on the period you mean by "postwar."  Technically, we are still post war. 

Look at the motor.  The armature is the rotating part.  In an AC motor, which will also run on DC, you will see wire windings around the armature, that do not rotate.  If the motor is DC, there will not normally be such coils, but you may see a permanent magnet.

The DC motors are the 'can' motors as they are totally enclosed, and usually are not serviceable.

The AC/DC motors are the pre- and post-war types that have windings for the field. The DC can motors have permanent magnets.

Larry

In all of my experience, I have not seen a Lionel postwar locomotive with a D.C. motor.  I am an EER dealer and in general you will need an AC Commander for Postwar Lionel.  It would help if you could supply the number of the locomotive you are going to modify.  Actually, the motors in postwar Lionel and American Flyer motive power were Series motors and could run on A.C. or D.C. power.  The lack of suitable rectifiers with sufficient current capacity and an economical way to vary the voltage prompted the invention of the E-Unit and continuation of operation on A.C with the use of  a tapped or continuously variable transformers.  The smaller HO locos requiring much less current, were powered by 12 volts D.C. which was supplied by a selenium rectifier in conjunction with a fixed voltage transformer and a rheostat to vary voltage.  As solid state devices became available, first the selenium rectifier and later the rheostat were replaced.

In the prewar era there were a few places that had Edison's DC power system delivering DC power to homes. To accommodate this Lionel made a voltage divider, a large resistor, to run the toy trains.  the cord screwed into a light socket as there were very few appliances in those days, so houses did not have wall outlets. 

The difference between an AC motor and a DC motor is that the DC motor could have wound field, but if the motor was to also run on AC the field pole pieces would have to be made of lammenated steel.  This is done to stop the flow of Eddie currents that would cause the motor to heat and be inefficient.

If it's postwar or newer it will be missing the e-unit. These are MPC era trains 1975-1988. Removing the shell would confirm the presence on an e-unit.

Here's is a link to a buyers warning which explains it.

They will all run on DC, but put AC to an MPC DC engine and it's toast.

AFAIK, all Lionel engines up until sometime in the late 1990's had open frame universal AC/DC motors. Those are the Pullmore motors that we often mention here that were also used on the conventional classics series. DC can motors are in all modern Lionel engines (except CC) operated from rectified AC track power. I believe that the switch to can motors was done as a cost cutting measure and also to offer smoother low speed operation.  

And, there were many sets in the 1970's that were equipped with DC can motors.

Rob is certainly correct, there were a number of Lionel engines in the 70's and possibly 80's that had a plain DC motor and would only run on DC.

I have a Lionel RS-3, Erie-Lackawanna, that says "BLT 1-91" on the cab.  It has 2 can motors, both in the trucks.  They have no flywheels--can stop on a dime when you cut power.  Runs on AC.

Some earlier models ONLY had the DC motor, I've actually seen them.  There were some cheap steamers with DC only operation as well, they came in sets with a DC powerpack.

All DC can motored locomotives can run on AC with either a bridge rectifier or an electronic reverse unit. Running a DC can motor on unrectified AC will burn it out in a few seconds.

Larry

Larry, I'm not sure a DC motor would run with a QSI ACRU electronic reverse unit, no longer manufactured but still around.

The heavy duty Dallee units will operate both AC and DC motors. If the old QSI ACRU boards were designed similar to the Dallee units, then they too would operate DC can motors. My guess is that they would.

Larry

If.