fall inside a hole

D-51 Deluxe Freight Train Set

First written October 29, 2024

Taiwanese company Dah Yang produced a few knockoffs of Tomy train sets around the 1970s including ones based on Super Rail and the set shown here based on Plarail, both converted over to use a copy of Yonezawa Shushupoppo-style track. Based on the era of Plarail sets that these sets emulate, they were probably developed in the early-mid 1970s.

D-51 Deluxe Freight Train Set (#2001) (later type)

There seems to have been two types of this set, both number 2001, but one with a station, two trees, and two more straight rails was sold as #2001S. The station is a copy of the Plarail Country Station and can be seen on one of the panels on this set's box.

This is actually a later example of this smaller set from after they reformatted the train and its gearbox to use two AA batteries. Stickers were placed over parts of the box to illustrate these changes over the C battery style gearbox used in older sets that was more similar to the original Plarail D-51, but over time several of them have fallen off of my example.

Set contents
Quantity
Item
Photo
1 D-51
1 Flatbed
4 pieces Log car with logs
6 Curve Rail
1 Straight Rail
Railroad Crossing
1 Signal  

The train in this set was originally developed as a closer copy of the Plarail D-51 but this version is the later type revised to use two AA batteries. The D51 on the box is even a dark blue like some early Plarail D-51s, although it seems that the C battery version was also produced in black.

The copy of the set I found a few months ago had extras of both carriages included... I have a Plarail flatbed that is probably a little older than this set but not one of the old Plarail log wagons. This set also includes three plastic logs. For whatever reason, small rubber bands were around most of the wheels of the carriages when I got it, but this really prevented them from rolling well on the track... I took them off.

The track is copied from Yonezawa's Shushupoppo train series, which I wouldn't mind finding some of some day (yeesh, more trains...). The crossing in my set is missing the weight components and does not function properly anymore.

Here is the circuit set up. The gear on the drive axle in the revised direct-drive worm-drive is split and does not function properly anymore - I need to make some kind of replacement (actually, I'd like to find the older more-direct Plarail rip Dah Yang D-51).