European trains in the US?

[tjl0824]

I am looking into buying a set of trains made by ACE, however, I am worried about it not working on US current. Would I be alright running an English made train on 110 cycles?

Thanks, Trevor

[lionelsoni]

I don't think you'll be able to do that.  You're confusing frequency and voltage.  The British use 230 volts at 50 hertz (cycles per second).  We use 120 volts at 60 hertz.

They make both 2- and 3-rail trains.  They say their 3-rail wheelsets have a back-to-back distance of 27.5 millimeters.  Whether that corresponds to O gauge of 29.90 (1.177 inches), 31.75 (1.25 inches), 32, or 33 millimeters or something else is not made clear. 

You really need to contact the company to find out the track gauge, voltage, and frequency.  http://www.acetrainslondon.com/

[phillyreading]

Ace Trains might be safer to run the engines with a smaller watt transformer like an 80 watt unit than the 275 watt ZW. Also seen that Ace Trains has D.C. engines as well. You may have to use their track system, because Bob N. mentioned the wheelset spacing is differant by about 3 millimeteres, just enuff to cause constant derailments due to spacing with USA O gauge track sizing.

[lionelsoni]

You can't tell whether the wheels are okay from their back-to-back measurement, which excludes the flange width.  They might very well work on American toy-train track.

[Bob Keller]

I've got an Ace Mallard that I've never  had a problem with regarding the Z-4000 or derailments. I did have one spectacular derailment at high speed on an MTH Realtrax switch once. The switch tripped on its own and the train ran into my yard.  I didn't have a problem running any of the Ace locos I tested on my layout.  You might want to check, I haven't seen an Ace engine in a while and I thought I read somewhere that they are all designed for three-rail DC now (the Bassett-Lowke steamers I reviewed were also three-rail DC).