lionchief

[Pmorgan_cym]

Hi all

I have done a good deal of googling on this and not yet found the answer so here goes.

I live in the UK and have an original Polar Express set. This cane from the 'offical' importer and has as such a less than perfect conversion to uk 240v consisting of a transformer and a rail king controller. Whilst away last week my wife informs me 'something went bang' our two year has been rather errm enthusiastic with the whistle and I suspect this and the less than perfect conversion has probably caused the controller to expire

I have long hankered after improving the set with trainsounds etc and I know the set up required to do this properly step down to 12v dc then a US spec inverter to convert 12v dc back up to US voltage and 60hz.

Then j came across the Lionchief sets for not a lot more than what i need to spend on transformers inverters new controller i can get a Lionchief set.

As well as extra track extra cars and sound there is one distinctcadvantage if what I read is correct lionchief simple needs 18v dc fed to the track. So I just need a suitable UK spec 18v transformer wbich is a fairly inexpensive easy piece of kit to source, with none of the comllexities and issues of 50hz v 60hx etc ro deal with. Is it this simple or am I missing something? Just seems win win to me.

[lionelsoni]

From what I read from Lionel on the Internet about Lionchief, it runs on AC or DC.  Because of this, I suspect that the locomotive doesn't care what the frequency is.  If so, you wouldn't need a DC supply, but just 18 volts of 50-hertz AC.

Perhaps someone running one on AC in the 50-hertz world can confirm this.

[Pmorgan_cym]

My understanding with the ac/dc issue was either/or I just wanted to confirm that as some sources quote 18v ac or 18v dc I guess a lot of that comes from people discussing compatibility with conventional Lionel equipment.

[BigAl 956]

There is Lion Chief and Lion Chief +. Both will run with their dedicated remotes on ac or dc. LC+ can also be run conventionally with a transformer without the remote.

[lionelsoni]

My point was that the fact that it will run on either AC or DC implies that it does not care whether your AC frequency is 50 or 60 hertz.  A transformer taking in 230 volts and putting out 18 volts at 50 hertz is a simpler device than a power supply putting out 18 volts DC, whatever its input frequency or voltage.

[Pmorgan_cym]

Fortuneatly one of the pieces of kit from my original set up (that works) is a 240 to 18v ac transformer, so at worst I just need a new bullet plug.