Lionel 027 electric handcars with figurines. Do they run on AC powered tracks, or DC tracks?

ALL Lionel engines including these motorized hand cars Run on AC track power.

The motors are DC; however a rectifier is wired into the unit’s electronics which converts (I.e rectifies) the AC track power to DC.

The instruction sheets for the modern ones call out that they can be run on either AC or DC.

As a sample, I just looked at a Charlie Brown hand car from the late 80's early 90's and also a Buzz and Woody hand car from about 12 or 15 years ago, I think.

As mack said, they are really just a DC motor with a rectifier in line with the track contact, so DC is passed to the DC motor just fine.

Also, while it isn't what you asked, the modern Bump and Go Trolleys are similar.  The ones that came with a small amount of track and a small power supply came with a DC power pack similar to those used for HO starter sets.

-Dave

@mack posted:

ALL Lionel engines including these motorized hand cars Run on AC track power.

Uhh... no.  There was quite a few DC-only sets produced back in the 80's I believe was the time frame.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Uhh... no.  There was quite a few DC-only sets produced back in the 80's I believe was the time frame.

Absolutely true.  Many of the starter sets from the late 70's too (not sure when they stopped with these, but a lot of the MPC ones were like this). 

The "Workin' on the Railroad" set I had as a young kid would be destroyed by using it with AC.

-Dave

John,

true to form, you are correct. However, the OP was asking about current production: “I’ve been looking at new Lionel electric hand cars”.

i saw no benefit to introducing the limited DC offerings from 40 or so years ago into the conversation.

we leave that for you to have the last say 

I have several new production hand cars and the instructions say they can be run on AC or DC

The new Lionel trolleys also say they will run on AC or DC current

Thanks very much for the answer!

I might get one that the little elves  on it, just to let the kids run it at Christmas time.  But, I've decided I won't buy any with cartoon figures on it, because I don't want the kids to view the train cars a just another  toy.

Mannyrock

Every version from the 18401 on will run on AC or DC. The 65 will run on AC, or just one direction of DC(would have to test to see if it is center rail positive, or center rail negative) as it has only a half-wave rectifier.