I have no idea what all the failures are in the caps, but I'd be more inclined to think they're using cheap substandard caps than the failures caused by running on AC. If running on AC through a bridge rectifier and a cap to convert to DC is such a problem, every locomotive with a DC can motor we run would have the problem. Of course, any electronic reverse unit and all the command stuff would be dropping like flies. However, that simply isn't the case. So, if the LC/LC+ is failing in less than a year, I'd have to presume that someone screwed up either designing the circuit (seems unlikely as it's dirt simple to make DC from AC), or they bought cheap floor sweepings with the capacitor order.
As far as the example of bridge rectifiers catching fire, that sure sounds like more design failures. Millions, or maybe more like billions of bridge rectifiers are used all over the world in all sorts of electronic power circuits. Once again, if they were so prone to catching on fire, there would be a lot more care in designing them, not to mention some protective shields. I've personally shipped thousands of boards that use a bridge rectifier and a capacitor to rectify track power to DC. As amazing as you might find it, none have ever caught fire, and I've never even heard of a bridge rectifier or capacitor failure. A couple of bad solder joints pretty much describes the failures observed.
In any case, I'm not going to get into a wizzing contest over the failures of LC/LC+ capacitors or bridge rectifiers. If it makes you feel better to run everything on DC, by all means, have at it. I'll not even mention the fallacy of putting track power (even if it's DC) directly into electronic circuits with no filtering of voltage spikes. (Oh darn, there I did it and I did mention it) I'll continue to use my tried and true AC transformers, and I won't lose any sleep worrying about premature capacitor failure.
I'm checking out here, I don't see that arguing this point is going to prove anything. I'm arguing with a straw man with no means to discuss or refute what was supposedly stated. Trying to discuss something like this through a middleman is a pointless exercise.
