fall inside a hole
Child Guidance Motorized Shuttle Train (1969)
First written April 26, 2024
In 1969 Tomy manufactured for Child Guidance an advanced shuttle train-type toy with an operating lift and turntable with sidings that are all powered or reachable using just the locomotive. This is one of the more advanced Shuttle Train type toys and uses a fairly simple but effective system to pilot the train around the layout using just two buttons. Robert Genin, who is also listed on the Child Guidance Kiddieland patent, is credited on the Shuttle Train patent, which was filed for in later 1969 in America and 1970 in some other regions. The set was first released in America exclusively at Sears for the holiday 1969 season and was available elsewhere in the early 1970s. The 49-44649 seen on the box is the Sears catalogue number.
Unlike most other shuttling train-type sets, the Child Guidance Shuttle Train has multiple cars that can be coupled and decoupled and the turntable control system makes it so that the player can make the train traverse any section of the layout in any order they want. In Japan, Tomy sold this set as Action Plarail (アクションプラレール) with an angled sticker over part of the American box. In Spain it was sold by Geyper as Tren Minero.
Set contents| Quantity |
Item |
Photo |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Locomotive |
 |
| 2 | Tipper wagons |
 |
| 2 | Straight rail |
 |
| 3 | Siding |
 |
| 2 pieces | Sloping rail |
 |
| 1 | Turntable |
 |
| 1 | Turntable signal bridge |
 |
| 5 | Signals |
 |
| 1 | Signal platform |
 |
| 1 |
Chute |
 |
|
Cargo loads (two types) |
 |
The locomotive in this set bears some resemblance to the earlier Child Guidance Joy Ride train and the Plarail Amusement Park locomotives and incorporates a whistle powered by part of the gearbox similar to the larger Plarail amusement park series train. The large red lever on the roof does not control power but rather direction and it hits against signals on the layout to trip into reverse. This is an electrical reverser as opposed to a mechanical one and it sits to the left of the gearbox, with the whistle to the right. The whistle may be worn out but it seems to be geared rather quickly and produces a fast but somewhat weak chuffing that can only sort of be heard over the motor - it is almost nice that it is not a loud incessant whistling and instead is almost more of a chuffing.
The actual power switch is the smokestack of the locomotive - rotating it clockwise rotates a cam inside that closes a small gap in the front battery contact when it is properly inserted on the chassis. The bottom of the chassis is marked Japan and has a large exposed gear that keys into the turntable, lift, and incline on the layout. The hubs of the front wheels are extended outwards to catch inside the guide in the incline section.
The tipper cars come in two slightly different varieties, a pointier flat green style and a rounded blue style. Both use a simple tipping system that is activated by a metal pin pushing up on the small wedge piece under the tipper beds. The couplings are metal-reinforced and somewhat resemble the Joy Ride couplings/smaller Plarail couplings. The loads are some fairly solid foam logs and some small hollow plastic balls - I am not sure exactly how many or what color they all came in originally.
The track is all specialized for this set, although it is a similar gauge to Plarail/Child Guidance Railroad/common wooden train sets. Most sections are marked Japan. The siding rails have a slot for a signal that will trigger the locomotive to reverse after it has picked up or dropped off a car. The button at the end of the siding lifts the yellow bumper, which sits under the truck's coupling and holds it up to uncouple or prevent coupling.
The incline track has a rack that engages with the gear in the underside of the locomotive and has guards that catch around the extended front wheel hubs, allowing it to be fairly steep. The prototype shown on the box has a much more open design that was probably less safe for children but I think looks really neat. The ascending track comes in two pieces and uses two rotating white supports to hold the joint. Tomy used similar joints on some other tracked toys like Magic Skyrail/Gripidee Gravidee.
The turntable is really neat and sets this set apart from other shuttle train-type toys. The turntable has two buttons, a turn button and a stop button. When the locomotive enters the turntable it is always in reverse gear, flipping into forward when it hits the overhead signal gantry at the end of the table. The locomotive is then caught by the two white pegs and the gear engages with the cog in the table, running the table around a rack molded into the underside of the table. There are slots in the base of the table that correspond to each potential exit that a linkage connected to the stop button fit into. Slots are only present at the appropriate offset from exits and pressing the stop button before an exit leaves the linkage braced upwards and ready to pop into place. When the table locks the gear on the locomotive can no longer turn the cog in the table as it has locked up and it instead begins to climb off, (usually) overcoming the spring holding the white pegs up, which the engine now overruns. The "turn" button is really just a reset for the stop linkage, dropping it back down, and it must be hit after the train leaves but before it returns or else the engine will hit the reverser, hit the locked table cog, and simple continue back out the way it just came in.
This offers some neat options for shunting operations, and you can start with one car loaded, unload it in the chute, return and drop that car off, fetch another, and load that one instead...
The main structure of the set is this loading tower with large lift and chute. The train can drop off loads from the different cars and then pick them back up at the bottom by powering the lift up and down until it can collect from or drop off into the wagons. A signal support hangs off the back to provide the reversing signal on the top level.
The lift and chute are interconnected between the top and bottom station and perform a few functions when the train interacts. When a train arrives at the top, it hits the reverser and is held in reverse against the cog-drive for the lift, lifting the carriage until it hits the metal pin that tips the truck and dropping the catch for the locomotive when it arrives at the top soon after.
When a train arrives at the bottom station, it reverses and engages with the cog down there, driving the lift down and triggering the chute to empty when it reaches the right level, pushing against the release for the catch and letting the train go soon after.
Here are the English instructions from my copy of the set. One side shows how to set it all up. You can really start the cycle anywhere, but they suggest starting with the two cars loaded and in siding and the engine on the turntable, which makes sense to me.
Here is part of a complete cycle - click the GIF to get the longer MP4 video version with sound. This is really quite a neat set, although admittedly I think the engine runs a tad slower than it might need to - the siding operation and entire turntable system is rather ingenuous, running the entire set off of borrowed power from the little engine. Unlike traditional shuttle trains it offers much more player interaction in a way that actually matters to its operation compared to the controls on a toy like Big Loader - although this gives up the entirely automated operation of older tin Shuttle Trains and cycling toys like Big Loader. The patent for the toy notes that traditional train sets are either too small to really be able to play out the railroad fantasies a player might have and that a traditional train system will require purchasing many sets or accessories as well as a decent amount of space to play out railway operations, and I do think the Motorized Shuttle Train offers a very interesting all-in-one alternative with multiple action features, semi-realistic operation, and a very high elevated section.