fall inside a hole

Later Action Series Mini Mini Rail trains (1978-1985)

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. Originally the trains only ran forwards but later the reversing Action Series was developed. A new reversing chassis that used the more common AA battery was designed for the later Action Series that began around 1978 or so. This chassis was used for all later Mini Mini Rail trains through the end of the range in the 1980s. The reversing switch was moved to sit in the center of the chassis and the power switch is now towards the front. Later Action Series trains that were not hauled by a locomotive had the power chassis installed in the middle car, so it was equally pulling and pushing the train in either direction - locomotive-headed sets often have a harder time reversing and pushing the train back up the track.

Hikari Shinkansen (1978)

The new AA-powered Hikari has the power chassis in the intermediate car which also had a pantograph added to the roof.

Blue Train (1978)

The new EF-65 was released with headmark stickers and Blue Train 24 series passenger cars as the Blue Train in the later Action Series era. It was sold individually and in the Action Series No. 2 Blue Train Set amongst others.

EF-71 Freight Train (1978)

New-chassis red EF-71 with white WHAM box car, yellow tanker, and Takara green guard's van. This train was sold individually and in the Action Series No. 3 EF71 Electric Locomotive Horn Set.

485 Series Limited Express Train (1978)

The 485 series Limited Express appeared in the later Action Series, now with running numbers on the sides of the cars.

583 Series Sleeper Express Train (1978)

The Sleeper Express was also released with headmark stickers in the later Action Series era, also now sporting car numbers.

C-62 Steam Locomotive (1978)

One of the new releases at the beginning of the later Action Series was the new C-62 Steam Locomotive to replace the forwards-only D-51. This one is new on a rather tattered card and has the included sticker sheet.

It is unit C62 2 and bears the Tsubame Swallow mark on its smoke deflectors, the real train having pulled the service in the early 1950s. This train was also sold in a No. 1 oval set, which is where this loose example comes from.

The front molding has a spot for a headmark, and the sticker sheets seem to have been included with sets from this time, but if the original owner ever applied one it has not survived. The tender clips into the underside of the cab at the back of the chassis. There is also a Bandai sticker at the front - I wonder if they realized after manufacturing that the tooling did not have their name or logo on the locomotive?

The locomotive uses a new unpowered chassis, with the powered reversing mechanism in the passenger car. It even has a running number on the other side! The older unpowered 10 series coaches can be used to extend one of these trains rather nicely.

Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen (1981)

In 1981 ahead of the opening of the Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen line the 200 series Shinkansen based on the 0 series Hikari was released. It uses the same tooling as the later Hikaris and is thus powered by the intermediate car. In addition to being green, of course, the snowplows are represented by stickers. It was sold in several sets including the Action Series Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen Set.

I do have two of these trains, but one is missing the powered chassis in the intermediate car... I suppose if I borrowed an unpowered chassis of the "regular" type from another train I could run a four-car train.

In the later Action Series era many new trains like the Skyliner, Red Arrow, orange TGV, and a white Tobu Railway commuter train with new end tooling on the old 103 series train were released. Most of these releases are fairly hard to find, unfortunately...