I have the old set that I bought new back then. I had some issues with mine but without a doubt the old acala set has to be one of my favorite most advanced sets lionel ever produced. The new set had me interested but after learning that the doors don't mechanically open and close by the touch of a button I suddenly lost interest. To me that is the coolest feature out of the whole set if anything I would rather see the tilting be removed over the mechanical doors. I love the tilting thought. I wish they new set had all features the old set had but with improvements and love the rear unit powered because when operating old set with single powered unit I found that sometimes when in reverse the cars would lose it's synch with other cars because of the pushing of all 6 cars instead of pulling. Just found the set much more reliable when in forward motion and when adding the 3 additional cars it wasn't as reliable so having that powered engine in the back would have helped huge in my opinion and less wear on the tires especially when climbing the grades.
I wonder if the rear powered engine from the new set will work with the old set? If so I would be interesting and picking up a powered rear unit to go with my old set.
I also would hope the same sound files were used in the new set because they sounded awesome as I think they were original sounds taken from real acela crew. I especially love the black guy voice collecting tickets from passengers...just think he sounds great so legit.
Bottom line without the mechanical doors it's a no go for me especially for that price.
Just my opinion.
