fall inside a hole
Mini Mini Rail No. 3 National Railway Set
Originally written August 11, 2025The Mini Mini Rail No. 3 National Railway Set (ミニミニレールNO.3セット国電) was one of the largest No. 3 sets in the early Bandai Mini Mini Rail sets sold with one of four different colors of JNR 103 series commuter trains. The example shown here was pieced together from a lot of mixed 1975 and 1976 Mini Mini Rail trains and accessories that included all of the pieces that would have been included in this set, and I suspect based on the trains and other rails in the lot that the original owner may well have bought a No. 3 set with yellow JNR 103 series train as shown here.
A sticker on the bottom of the box indicates which color of train is included - green, in this case. In addition to the orange, green, yellow, and blue National Railways Trains this track layout was also sold with a D-51 Steam Locomotive with passenger car and the Shinkansen Hikari.
Set contents| Quantity |
Item |
Photo |
|---|---|---|
| 3
pieces |
National Railways JNR 103 series commuter train (yellow) |
 |
| 2 | 801 Long Straight Rail |
 |
| 1 | 803 Short Straight Rail |
 |
| 4 | 804 Short Straight Rail |
 |
| 2 | 805 Short Straight Rail |
 |
| 12 | 807 Long Curved Rail |
 |
| 2 | 808 Short Curved Rail |
 |
| 1 | 811 Points (Right) (fixed) | |
| 1 | 812 Points (Left) (manual) | |
| 2 | 816 Cross Rail |
 |
| 4 | Signal |
 |
| 8 | Overhead Line Pole (single) |
 |
| 2 | Tree |
 |
| 2 | Tree |
 |
| 2 | N batteries |
 |
The original non-reversing JNR 103 series National Railways Train was produced in orange, light blue, green, and yellow as pictured in the same No.1, No.2, and No.3 sets as the other trains. As noted above, the components to this set were purchased in a larger lot, of which this yellow 103 series train was the only that appeared in the No. 3 set.
The lead car has a silver headlight, with the rear car having red tail lights. The front car holds the powered chassis with the intermediate and rear cars using the same unpowered chassis as most of the other carriages in the series.
Track in this set is the earlier type of all-grey track. The No. 3 set is the largest of the pre-Action Series sets, and includes both a manual and fixed turnout as well as two crossover rails.
Four signals and eight catenaries that clip into the road bed are included, as well as two of each of the earlier type of trees.