DC in an AC world...

Back in January, I purchased an American Models SD-60 locomotive from a vendor at the World's Greatest Hobby On Tour show. It was the CSX road name which is increasingly difficult to find. I took the train out of the box this weekend at the Muncie and Western train show for it's inaugural run.

The end of the box. Some wag has marked the unit as "AC". It's a high rail model, and the DC box is bot checked.

It would not work.

It just sat there and vibrated. A couple of folks looked at it. One theory is that it was a DC model (everything I have is AC).  So I set it aside and got on with the show.

Today, I had a chance to look at it. Rich B. lent me a DC rectifier that I could hook up to my AC transformers. First up, I removed the body to inspect the chassis, the motor and the gearing assemblies.

I went to disconnect the headlight and the whole circuit board came loose! Talk about a tight connection!

I also pulled the body off another SD-60 in the collection for comparison.

The CSX engine and circuit board

The AC High rail circuit board. 

As the pictures show, the two circuit boards are clearly different. I placed the chassis on the track  and hooked up the rectifier. A little bit of movement! It would move and bit then halt.I'd throw the switch and it would go the other direction.

While I had it open, I checked the rotation of the motor shaft. It was experiencing some binding, but there was nothing obviously wrong. From past experience, I know that if you overtighten the plates that secure the drive shaft mounts for the large flywheel, the shaft can bind, so I backed off the screws until the two plates were snug but not tight.

I tried it again. Success! The engine would move back and forth. But only at very low power levels. If I raise the power of the AC transformer, the engine would slow and then stop. But at low speed, the engine moved and pulled the large intermodal freight string around the layout.

The CSX engine moving freight on it's demo run.

Verdict: This is a DC powered engine.

Well...poop. All my other engines are AC. So guess, I've got a DC engine in the collection. 

In other news, added a new box car to the collection. A nice Showcase line car for the DT&I.

Another SD-60!

Yes, another SD-60. I had the opportunity to acquire another American Models SD-60 locomotive from a sale on the Yahoo groups. These are getting hard to find and are almost out of stock at American Models. But this one is even more unique...its painted in the livery of the Montana Rail Link railroad.

MRL 3201 takes the track on Ray's home layout

Okay so the MRL does not (and likely has never) used the SD-60 in operations, but this was a rare opportunity to acquire and MRL locomotive in S Gauge.

Its nicely painted in the colors of the MRL with great looking decals and even a decal celebrating Montana's recent centennial.

The centennial decal

The only quibble I might have is that the locomotive number is located too high on the body. All the MRL pictures I have show the numbers in the blue paint below the black vents and exhaust area. But its a little thing.

I'm going to enjoy matching this up with a consist of MRL and Burlington Northern rolling stock. I'm very happy with the locomotive!