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Bandai Mini Mini Rail trains

Bandai produced and sold the Mini Mini Rail (ミニミニレール) series of train toys in Japan from 1974 until around 1982. The trains are about the same size as N scale trains and run on rails 10.5mm apart, slightly wider than N scale's 9mm. For the first year or so all trains had a simple on-off gearbox, but starting in 1976 most of the range was updated to the reversing Action Series that also added an electrical cutoff switch. In the later 1970s the reversing chassis was redesigned to use a single AA battery instead of two N size batteries. Mini Mini Rail trains are typically three-car sets, with the motor and batteries located either in the locomotive or the intermediate car of the train. They use pin-style couplings which are easiest to assemble by putting down the locomotive or lead car and then adding more cars onto the end. All of the non-steam locomotive trains are designed to use the same chassis, with the longer unpowered intermediate and tail cars using a dummy chassis with the same footprint. Many toolings were reused with different plastic and paint colors to represent different trains and liveries as well as colors of freight cars.

Mini Mini Rail sets are covered on the main Mini Mini Rail page, and rail and accessories are covered on the Mini Mini Rail rail page.

Original Mini Mini Rail Series (1974-1975)

The original Mini Mini Rail trains ran on a non-reversing chassis that took two N size batteries. These trains were released in a series of different sets and reuse chassis components across trains. The original trains plus the later EF-65 were also sold in cardboard boxes.

Hikari Shinkansen (1974)

The initial lineup included, of course, the 0 series Hikari Shinkansen. The original trains were simply on-off with a metal power switch protruding out the side. Two N-size batteries are held in with the help of a plastic clip. The Hikari has head and tail lights.

The Hikari reappeared in the later eras - the early Action Series Hikari has the power car still in the front car, with a plated version also appearing on individual carded releases, and the later Action Series train moved the power chasses to the intermediate car.

D-51 Steam Locomotive (1974)

The original Mini Mini Rail steam locomotive, the D-51, used its own chassis with the same motor and worm drive system driving the rear wheels. The side rods are a stamped piece of metal and the other three pairs of wheels are unpowered.

In addition to being sold with a 10 series coach, the D-51 was also sold with freight cars when a few additional types were developed in the later pre-Action Series era. The D-51 was sold into the early Action Series era until the new C-62 tooling was produced for the later Action Series.

National Railways Train (1974)

Produced in four different colors was the JNR 103 series train, appearing in sets and cardboard box individual releases. In addition to the green shown above, there was also orange, yellow, and blue. These trains as well as a plated new train version appeared in the early Action Series.

Here is the yellow 103 series from the original forwards-only era. The front cars have silver headlights and the rear have red tail lights, with the intermediate cars having corridor doors on the ends. The later reversing types have car numbers printed on the sides.

D-51 Locomotive Freight Train (later 1975)

Appearing around the same time as the EF-65 freight train by August 1975 was the D-51 steam locomotive with some of the new freight cars for the range - a tanker car and a log car with logs.

The log car's stakes are rubbery and bend, and the tanker has some nice printing. The logs are affixed to the flatbed and are not removable. This train also appeared in a new No. 2 set.

EF-65 Freight Train (later 1975)

The first new train introduced for the series was the EF-65 Freight Train, which appeared by August 1975 as an individual boxed release at the end of the original era.

This earlier release seems to have darkened with age, perhaps with heat or smoke exposure, but it is also what appears to be the original tooling type with raised running numbers. It is number EF 65 1024, one lower than the later printed type. This particular one has a さちかぜ Sachikaze headmark sticker, the name considered for some 485 series trains circa 1975 which was included on the sticker sheet for Action Series 485 series trains.

The freight cars that came with this EF-65 also feel slightly different from the later ones, like they are made from a different more fragile and less soft type of plastic. Even though they are small, the molded details are nice and the printing and car numbers all look good, with the locomotive and caboose having red "lights" on the back.

I have a later example of the single-direction EF-65 locomotive where the number in the tooling was flattened out and replaced with printing, but it it missing its pantographs and only has the original container car... It uses the later style of square couplers, and the container car has the container installed the other way around. This EF-65 likely dates to the very late unidirectional era or the very early Action Series era. The EF-65 was carried forward into the Action Series and reappeared with both freight and passenger cars.