fall inside a hole
Toy Town Mountain Ropeway (early 1970s)
First written May 18, 2025
Toy Town's Electric Mountain Ropeway (びっくりレール空中きかんしゃ) is an early Toy Town toy with two electric gondolas that propel themselves up and down and around an aerial ropeway. As noted by the logo in the bottom left corner, this is a Toy Town-Tomy toy. The Japanese Safe Toy or "ST" testing standards were established and began being marked on toy boxes in 1972, so it must date to 1972 or later.
Unlike many other Toy Town toys, I am not sure if this one was exported. Other toys that appeared alongside this one in catalogues like the Electric Sky Plane were exported.
Set contents| Quantity |
Item |
Photo |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Gondolas |
 |
| 4 | Passenger animals |
 |
| 1 | Stationmaster animal |
 |
| 1 | Station base |
 |
| 1 | Sign |
 |
| 1 | Tower base |
 |
| 1 | Tower |
 |
| 1 | Pillar |
 |
| 1 | Turn rail |
 |
| 1 | Slope rail |
 |
| 1 | Iron wire |
 |
| 2 | Cedar trees | |
| 3 | Poplar trees |
The set includes two motorized gondolas that can each hold two of the included animal figures. Each one takes a C battery.
The final output gears on one of my gondolas was split and I had to open it to replace it. Undoing the four screws in the battery compartment releases the yellow upper portion from the battery compartment and passenger seats. There is a screw hidden under the sticker on the side, but the adhesive is so old at this point that it was not very hard to lift the sticker up. Inside, a mix of plastic and metal gears including two contrate gears that rotate the axis of rotation 90 degrees to transmit power up the hanging arm as well as a spring clutch to help prevent gears from stripping. Even unused, these plastic gears shrink slightly over time (they already start as a tight friction-fit to prevent slipping on the axles) and split around the metal rods they sit on.
My copy of the set was unused and still had the animal figures and trees in stapled plastic bags. Two Plarail-style standing trees and three flat Tomica-style trees are included.
The main station base has the lower turnaround point and the stopping station mechanism itself. The upright portion of the station has a lithographed tin wall around the ringing mechanism that is nicely illustrated. Slots in the top hold the sign and two trees which the instructions call cedars.
Four passenger animals and a fifth bear to man the station are included. The sign reads "station at the foot" - the station at the foot of the mountain.
The red button is labeled "perch" and will stop the gondola, leaving it perched on top of the gear in the station, spinning it and ringing the bell inside. The blue button is labeled "proceed" and releases the gondola. If it is pressed down when they approach, the gondolas will pass right through.
A wire holds the base of the cardboard tower apart at the correct distance, with a blue support tower that sits on top and holds up the upper turnaround. The blue sloped sections sits in between the two turnarounds and is held in with rotating clasps. The three flat "poplar" trees fit on top.
Here are the instructions for this set.
I also scanned the cardboard mountain.
Although seemingly fairly early in Toy Town's life, it seems like this toy did not sell as well as some later ones and can still be found unused as this one was somewhat regularly, although prices vary. Of the toys I have shown her, this is one of my partner's favorites.