Village Set Trolley's -- Which is Which?

[TrainArts]

Sorry, a very picky question...

In the Holiday Season the Christmas trolley sets must be popular. I was looking at buying one, but I can't reliably figure out which color building and trolley will come with what set.

If you look right here on the Bachmann site, the same photo is shown for:

25016 Village Street Car Set -- United Traction
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=357

and
25017 Village Street Car Set -- Christmas
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=356

Yet in the picture, the printing on the box shows a real Christmas trolley decked out in green and red with decorations, while the actual unit in the box is the tan United Traction trolley.

In addition, there seems to be a red building available with this set on EBay and other places, while the Bachmann site is the only one I've seen to show a beige/tan colored building.

Is there any consistency to these sets? What is the real difference between a 25016 and 25017?

Thanks to anyone who can help clear this up. I'd sure like to get a tan building with the proper green and red Xmas trolley.

Jim

[Shay Fan]

Jim,

The features depend on whether you are interested in HO or On30 Scale.

From what I can tell, only the HO set is available with a red building.
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=1209

Also, I believe Bachmann posted and identical picture for both On30 sets.  The picture is most likely for the United Traction set as I found a more fitting picture for the Christmas set.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/160-25017

I hope this is helpful.

[TrainArts]

Thanks for the info, the other set is the non-Spectrum set, for a few bucks more I'll stick with higher quality.

I appreciate the link to Walthers, about the same time you posted this an EBay seller, thefavoritespot train shop, replied to say they, like Bachmann, were mistakenly using the same photo for both the United Traction and XMas set.

I know different retailers have various prices, but the variability on this particular set is amazing. I see Walthers has the guts to ask $175 on this set, while I just bought it from the Ebay seller for $80. Even Trainworldonline has it for $99.

I love the Internet, it could be called the Deflation-net.

Thanks again for the info.

[JerryB]

<snip>. . . the variability on this particular set is amazing. I see Walthers has the guts to ask $175 on this set, while I just bought it from the Ebay seller for $80. Even Trainworldonline has it for $99.

Walthers is a distributer. In fact, they are the only distributor for lots of model RR products, many of which would never see the light of day if a company like Walthers didn't exist.

Walthers sells (at wholesale prices) to most of the model RR retail dealers around the country. If they sold directly to the public at wholesale or even discounted retail prices, their dealers would seriously object.

Their retail operation should be considered the resource of last resort, useful for items that dealers won't get for you. Walthers is good for availability information and to check MSRPs, but they are not the outlet of choice for normal supply chain (meaning discounted) acquisitions.

Glad you have found what you want at good prices!

Happy RRing,

Jerry