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You can of course also put rechargeable AAA batteries in the battery box. Rechargeable batteries produce a more constant output than regular batteries. Regular batteries start out with a nominal 1.5 volts each, but the output decreases over time, and also decreases if the load is high. Rechargeable batteries have a more constant output, for high-drain applications they are a better choice than regular batteries.

It's in the instructions, book 2.

9V users have been running plastic wheels on metal track for two decades. Haven't seen many problems yet. Wheelsets do eventually wear out, but not at the wheel/rail contact point, they wear out at the bearing. Plastic track won't make a difference there. The new ME track is exciting, I'm looking forward especially to the quad-length and larger radius curves.

Bought 3 copies, I'm looking forward it arriving in the mail.

The railbricks article also mentioned quad-length, which I think is the most interesting because it'd be $15 for 8 track lengths. I'll place an order once that becomes available. The half-length track is interesting too (I made one myself by cutting up a regular 9V straight and glueing it back together, that was quite a bit of work).

Two train motors should be no problem at all. Whether you go with a 8878, or use the 88000 with 6 rechargeable batteries, either way you'll have plenty of current. One XL motor can draw as much current as two train motors. The Emerald Night train runs with one XL motor. It has no problems pulling a 10 feet long train (I've tried it with 8878 and with 88000, either way it works fine). I have used the 8878 for lego technic, running 3 M motors at the same time, and that worked well. Two XL motors would be the equivalent of 4 M motors, my guess that that'll be OK too but I have not tested it.

According to the bricklink article, if you buy track in quad length pieces then you'll have the equivalent of 8 tracklengths for $15. Finally 9V straight can decrease in price (and if it does not, I can sell some of mine and replace it by less expensive ME track).

I don't think it'll make any difference. It should work fine either way. (PS. I have 8878 and also 88000, and have used them to run the EN. Either way it runs fine).

I got this book as a kid, what a great present that was. I remember spending lots of time on it, first build the easier ones (the ones that come with more instructions) and gradually I started to build with less and less instructions. It's time consuming though. The ones that have few instructions, you can really only build them if you have lots of free time.

To drive the compressor I think it would be better to use a rubber band. My 8868 came with worn out rubber bands, I replaced them (I found some in my spare lego's, they were a different color, but for rubber bands I think that's OK). Rubber bands are quite common. You might be able to find a non-lego rubber band of the right length somewhere in your home. If not, then I'm sure you'll be able to find them on bricklink at a low price.

I think there has been a change in the instructions. One of the gears that you can see under the train would slide off its axle when the train is pulling a heavy load (actually, that gear would tend to slide off when the train was running backwards). I added a 1x1 technic brick to my EN to prevent this problem. I've heard that in newer versions, this 1x1 technic brick shows up in the instructions (I guess that also means a change to the inventory).

Mine did not come with extra wheels (I bought it as soon as it came out). There have been some small changes to this set.

Starting to sound like Newt Gingrich.

Box doesn't matter, you'll love it either way. Same goes for original instructions or printed instructions. I'd pay only a few dollars more for a set that still has the box and original instructions (because of slightly higher resale value) but in the case of 8868 the box doesn't matter to me because I don't see myself selling my 8868 any time soon. The build is actually challenging. Make sure to get the tube lengths right (I recommend using a measuring tape). If they're too short then you'll have to take a lot apart to fix it (the fold in my instruction booklet messed up my measurement, the error was perhaps only 1 cm but that was too much). The rugged look, the sound of the motorized compressor, excellent play value, all in all this thing is awesome, you'll love it.

It could have been discounted because this was listed as a 9V set, and 9V was on its way out. Sorry about the mishap. I remember the K version (it was not discounted, while the regular version without track/motor was). I wonder if we'll ever see such favorable prices (train sets at 50% off) again.

This sold out because it was a 1 meter long train for $45 !! Have 2 copies, regret that I didn't buy more.

They are reviewing a set that they don't actually have. Click on the Thumbs Down button (review helpful? --> No).

I do think there are people here that can drop that much in one bid. But I think the bigger issue is the one mentioned by Zeya, people bidding on this lot, when they determine their offer, they'll look mostly at the parts that they are interested in, and bid close to 0 for the parts they're not interested in. You probably know this, and that's why it doesn't feel good to sell, you know that if you sell everything in one go, then the price won't be great. You can sell large lots, but you have to split it up at least by genre. You'll probably also feel better if you sell gradually. Say you sell Cafe Corner. This frees up only a little bit of space of course, but now you have $400 in your pocket, maybe even more (I haven't looked at the price lately). That's pretty nice, and easy to get used to. That will then make it easier for you to sell more.

9V straight track now costs about $5 per track piece. I wouldn't buy it at that price anymore (I stopped buying when it went over $3 per straight track). On the other hand, I'm not selling either. Only the straight track (not the curves or the switches) will fetch high prices. I don't see how I would save a lot of money by converting my 9V trains to PF (I have a lot of trains, and they'd all need a PF receiver and a battery box, and in many cases there's no easy way to add a battery box and PF receiver).

I prefer tables too. I've had a few crashes (on a concrete floor!) but haven't had any broken pieces yet. Still, it's no fun if the train falls on the floor, you have to search everywhere to find the pieces. One way to decrease the chance of derailments is to lower the voltage of the battery box. Use rechargeable batteries instead of regular batteries. Rechargeable batteries produce 1.2V each, that way the battery box produces 7.2 volts instead of 9. This helps a bit, but if the train is short, or if you have a long stretch of straight track, it may still pick up too much speed to make it through a curve. I have considered replacing one battery by a dummy, thus running on only 5 batteries, i.e. at 6 Volts max. Also, make sure the track is tied down (e.g. tape, or lego plates) so that it doesn't shift when the train comes through.

Yes, you still need an XL motor.

I think it needs more than one passenger car to look good. You could buy another EN now, build the passenger car, but keep the engine+tender new in the bags. Wait until after the EN sells out on lego.com (that way you're sure to get a good price) and then sell your engine+tender.

There are two of these carriages for sale on eBay right now, you could check to see what they sell for, to see if selling is worthwhile. There's also a 4561 engine for sale, in case you want to complete your train. The 4560/4561 train had good play value because of the accessories, a loading ramp, etc. It looks OK when it's moving, but standing still, the engine looks strange. So I think it was a good set for kids, but not for AFOL's. This train set used to be quite cheap (I bought 2 and a half sets on eBay for less than $100 including shipping). However, 9V stuff has gone up, and even this train is not so cheap anymore ($100) although I guess that's probably still the cheapest 9V train. I took apart the two engines and rebuilt them plus some spare pieces into one longer engine to make it look a bit more realistic. It looks better now, but it's still not the best. If you sell a complete train for $100 (do you have all the accessories too?), compare with what you would have gotten for a 9V motor and a light, so you'd probably have about $65 for the two carriages, minus eBay fees, you end up with just below $60. If you use it as parts, the two black base train base plates plus the wheels together are probably worth $20 (if you sell it) or $30 (if you buy it, because then you have shipping fees). If you sell the carriages on eBay at auction, you might get a good price, but you might also end up with a low price. What you could also do is list the carriages on bricklink at a price that is worthwhile for you. If it sells at that price, fine, if it doesn't, then use it to make something else.

Build the B model. It has excellent play value, it can lift a scoop full of lego bricks, and it's much faster too, it's great fun to let it run over obstacles (it's pretty good at that if it's on a surface where it has traction). Of course, the main model has more exciting technics, but the B model is a great toy, you'll miss out on something if you don't build it.

I think that the answer to all these puzzles is the same: The current cargo train 7939 is selling faster than expected, however, lego has not increased production of 7939. This means that (a) lego does not see the need to lower the price, and (b) 7939 will sell out sooner than expected, so its replacement, 3677, must be released sooner than originally anticipated. Huge profits, are you kidding? Think about the time it takes to pack and ship all these items, the eBay fees, etc., it's hard to make money this way. If there was real money to be made here, then lego would do it themselves. The people that are doing that (I'm not one of them) are doing us a service by increasing the number of things we can choose from.