fall inside a hole

Tomy Freerail No. 2 Set (circa 1971)

First written February 9, 2025

The Freerail No. 2 (フリーレール NO.2) set was one of two Freerail sets released by Tomy around 1971, with the original releases following the format of a smaller No. 1 set and larger No. 2 set pattern of other Tomy toys.

The side of the box has several suggested layouts. There is a TP number but none of the other letter series Tomy seems to have used starting around 1972... A Japanese commercial for Freerail can be seen here.

Set contents

Quantity	Item	Photo
2 pieces	Steam locomotive and tender
2	Large spools of rail
	Track sections
1	Crossing piece
2	Switches
16	Track supports
3 pieces	Bridge
1	Station
3 pieces	Tunnel
2	Trees
1	Signal
1	Crossing gate

The only train produced for the Freerail standard was this steam locomotive with puffing smokestack and tender.

The track system is where Freerail gets its name, with white sleeper sections that can be slotted together to form the roadbed for the blue flexible I-beam rails that can be slotted in. The plastic crossing and switches connect to the white sections and the rail can be cut to fit up against the rail molded into the plastic pieces.

Because you are encouraged to freely cut the rail, the more different combinations you make the smaller and smaller the rail pieces will eventually be... When I first got this set, many sections of rail were cut fairly short, which is not necessarily that bad as it provides some already-short sections that I can use without feeling bad about cutting up rail, but there was also many unusably-small little nibs... I took some of the useable rail length from a third copy of the Montgomery Wards Little Engine That Could export Freerail set that I picked up around the same time as this Japanese Freerail set.

In addition to being bent into any flat layout you want, Freerail can also be lifted up a reasonable grade to go over the included bridges or other support structures made from other toys or books. I really quite like the look of the white supports and red "iron" sides. These bridge sides are the same tooling as the period Plarail Iron Bridge which transitioned from all-smooth sides with holes along the top to the much more common version with rivet and side plate details around around 1975, with that change being reflected here between the older and newer copies of this set.

 

A very generous 16 stackable brick supports are included to make the little train go up and around, and stacking the rail over books and the toys own box was also encouraged. There are also two Plarail-style trees of the era as well as a Plarail lens-type signal and early crossing gate.

The platform station in this set is the same tooling and color as the mid 1960s Plarail Platform Station.

 

The easiest way to set up a layout is to lay out the sleepers and any of the other plastic track components in the approximate shape you want to end up with. Then, starting from any plastic components, add rail into the sleepers, forming the rail into the position you want as you go. If you want elevated sections, it is probably a good idea to form them into the layout before you cut any rail.