[mikeintoronto]

I decided to pick a train I like and I want to model around it and the era. What I've chosen is this Canadian National one by Walthers released this year:

Image from "The Credit Valley Railway Company Ltd."

It's pricey (to me) but it will likely be the only train I use. The first question is, this is an A and B set. Once the two are together, what is supposed to go next? Do I keep adding B's?

The second question follows. Intermountain released the same train and it is nice, about the same price. There are a few colour differences. Then, I went on ebay and I found the train by a different manufacturer, produced about 8 years ago, and the price was about 1/5th, I don't think it was DCC ready but still. So DCC aside, am I paying for a name or should I expect that the pricier train has more bells and whistles (so to speak), or is better quality?

And lastly, I noticed on a US site that the same train is for sale (Walthers I think) but there are other trains with the exact same shell, just painted as different train-lines which is fine, but how come some of them cost more than the others? I thought they would all be the same.

I know in time these questions will seem silly to me as well but right now I don't get it.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Boston&Maine]

It's pricey (to me) but it will likely be the only train I use. The first question is, this is an A and B set. Once the two are together, what is supposed to go next? Do I keep adding B's?

The A's and B's are the locomotive part of a train... They are usually in the form of AA, AB, or ABA, pulling a line of passenger cars... Here are some pictures to give you an idea...

AA with passenger cars:

AB with passenger cars:

ABA with no passenger cars:

 

[T-Man]

Cheep or OK

Alot of sights have well written descriptions on engines. Maybe even visit a hobby shop and have the dealer show you the motor. Cheep motors are cheep in price and basically toys. Try to set your sights on quality after seeing some engine guts you will notice a difference. Dcc is more because of the electronics and bells and whistles.

 

[mikeintoronto]

Oh I see! So there must be passenger cars of some sort that will go along with it. I'll need to ask the local dealer about that. You've been most helpful.
I saw a few internet pics of the real train from the Alberta railroad museum. The pics were good but didn't show much. I might need to research it more to see what the passenger cars were like on that train. It looked like a long line of cars with similar design to the locomotive. Do manufacturers usually make matching passenger cars?

I'll also ask them about the quality of the trains. I don't mind spending the big bucks on the locomotives since good quality ones have got to worth something, but I still don't understand how a different paint job can change the price of the unit.

 

[T-Man]

Sometimes paint jobs are connected with production runs. Numbers may be limited. It is odd to say price changes on paint. You can find all sorts of cars, passenger,baggage,dome and end view. They have most of the road names. They even come lighted.
I like the design.

 

[tworail]

Looks like a nice set from Walthers. There will definitely be no problem finding a matching set of passenger cars.

There should be some documented history on those locos too somewhere which will give you more ideas about the prototype. Would also be good to know what other duties they performed (ie freight/passenger, maybe they were sold to VIA later and repainted etc etc)

 

[mikeintoronto]

Looks like a nice set from Walthers. There will definitely be no problem finding a matching set of passenger cars.

There should be some documented history on those locos too somewhere which will give you more ideas about the prototype. Would also be good to know what other duties they performed (ie freight/passenger, maybe they were sold to VIA later and repainted etc etc)

I think the set is beautiful and I'm just making my plans to arrange some money to finance it I'm still very new so I don't know exactly where to look for info on this loco but I might try my library this weekend. The internet is a little sparse. If anyone knows, please feel free to tell me where to look or what you know

So regarding the additional cars, should I expect the store will have these and will they be made by Walthers? I guess I can just ask the shop.

Oh and one more question (that I could ask the shop). The locos have numbers on the side and I've noticed some people are more interested in some numbers vs others. Should I expect the shop has different numbers on different sets? Do I want certain numbers?

That's to everyone who's helped me so far.

 

[Boston&Maine]

Oh and one more question (that I could ask the shop). The locos have numbers on the side and I've noticed some people are more interested in some numbers vs others. Should I expect the shop has different numbers on different sets? Do I want certain numbers?[/QUOTE

Like the 9028 number on the picture in your original post? That is just the engine number, or car number if you are talking about passenger cars or rolling stock (freight cars)... You basically do not want any repeat numbers in your train consist because in real life they would all be different... For example, if you were to buy another A unit to make an ABA consist you would look for some engine number besides 9028 or 9029... Of course this is not real life, so it is up to you whether or not you actually care about the identification numbers

 

[mikeintoronto]

Well I worked hard and I was able to generate enough money and I set out first thing this morning and picked up the set. It's really nice. I was having a little trouble figuring out which manufacturer I was going to go with or what sort of locos I wanted (passenger vs. freight) and I stayed true to my original plan and got the ones in the pic above. I went with the sound and DCC version with the hopes of using a DCC set up in the future. (Right now I have nothing but a circle of track.)
I tried it out in analogue and it was so fun. I was disappointed it didn't have mars lights but I don't think this loco was supposed to.
Anyway, that's just an update.