fall inside a hole

Tomy Train 2 (1988)

Originally written April 17, 2024



Tomy Train 2, sold as TOMYTRAIN 2 and later Tomy Train 2 in Europe and Tomy Train No. 2 in America as shown here was the intermediate set of the initial 1988 series of Tomy Train sets. It includes an Amtrak-style diesel locomotive, yellow well wagon, red box car, blue caboose, and the standard Tomy Train rail road crossing and station. Inside the outer box is a sturdier inner tray that holds the set components and a foam insert that holds the train and figures. Other than the design of the outer boxes, I am not aware of any content differences between American and European Tomy Train 2s.


The sides of the box show off its different operating modes and features like the railroad crossing and magnetic couplers, LEGO compatibility, and two-direction and free-wheeling capabilities. My example has a pretty worn box.

Set contents
Quantity
Item
Photo
9 pieces
"Santa Fe" diesel locomotive with box car, well wagon, and caboose

3 pieces Driver and two passenger figures 
1 Straight Rail
3 Half Straight Rail
14 Curve Rail
2
Slope Rail (one of each type)
1 Stop Rail
1 Reverse Rail
2 pieces Turnout Rail (one pair)
Bridge Girder
2 pieces Bridge
5 pieces Road Crossing
5 pieces Station
3 pieces Fir Tree
1 Stop Sign

The locomotive in this set is a Tomy take on a red and silver Santa Fe diesel. The train includes a Santa Fe style box car, yellow well wagon, and blue caboose with unique grey roof. The locomotive uses the standard Tomy Train chassis and is too early to have a production sticker. Like regular Tomy Train rolling stock, the caboose and box car roofs come off as do the car bodies from the chassis.

The figures in this set are the earlier type with no magnets in the feet. Included are a driver and both styles of passenger.

 

The crossing has dropping, operating gates. Racks on the approaches slow the engine down.

The small yellow station platform works nicely with the two included passengers, although there are not many places for them to sit on the train... maybe in the box car or caboose.

The layout is similar to the "overpass" style Plarail layout and includes a station and railroad crossing, like many overpass layout Plarail sets.

The other small accessories - the fir tree and stop light - are nice, and they were included in every initial Tomy Train set. The square base signs and trees are compatible with the LEGO-style stud system and can be swapped and moved between different places as well as just placed on the floor.


Original 1988 sets all use the same shared instruction foldout, which shows the three initial sets as well as the early accessories on the front and assembly and battery instructions on the rear. Although American sets did not use the TOMYTRAIN branding, this early American leaflet (note added TOMY America blurb under the leftmost column of information) is almost a direct copy of the European leaflet from the time.

Although not as large as Tomy Train 3, I like the overpass-style layout of Tomy Train 2 and Tomy Train Road Crossing. I do think this initial 1988 lineup was somewhat lacking interactive destinations, but the 1990s Tomy Train sets largely rectified this.

This set was discontinued in favor of the Log 'n Load Train Set in 1991 in American. In Europe for 1993 the TomyTrain 2 set was updated to use the Hi-Speed Express train and Signal Station.