I just purchased for my son a large scale big hauler train set.  It didn't work out of the package.  Both the 110VAC to 16 volt dc adapters were no good,  IT came with two kind of junky looking speed control boxes.  One was for use with the locomotive, and one was for use with the street car.

I was able to get the set up and running with an adjustable 110VAC to DC plug in adapter.  Really nice train, from what I have seen for parts I have discovered that since I also like the train quite well that my son and I now have a somewhat expensive hobby.

My question is when I toss out the junky controllers, what should I get to power the train?  I see that in front of the train behind the swing out cover above the smoke generator switch that there is a polarity switch.  Not sure what this does, but assume that it has to do with a different controller.

I was just wondering if some of you folks that really know what you are doing could give me some direction and offer a couple of suggestions for a better option for powering the new locomotive.  Are some of these power units adjustable so that I can run the street car and the locomotive on the same controller?  What about future bachmann large scale locomotives?

Thanks
Jonathan