fall inside a hole
Mini Mini Rail No. 2 Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen Set (~1981)
Originally written September 12, 2025
The first Mini Mini Rail set to include the Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen was this No. 2 Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen Set (ミニミニレールNO.2東北上越新幹線セット) that was released at the end of this intermediate period of AA-powered Action Series trains.
It would seem that this set was perhaps quickly taken to market, and the box is actually one of the older No.2 set boxes with Tohoku Joetsu stickers over the original text on the box - the ST number still dates it to 1978, but it is likely that this set came out in 1981 before the later Action Series green box Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen Set, which was fairly similar.
I wonder which set this box was printed for... probably the L Limited or Blue Train versions of the No. 2 set.
Set contents| Quantity |
Item |
Photo |
|---|---|---|
| 3
pieces |
200 series Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen |
 |
| 2 | 801 Long Straight Rail |
 |
| 2 | 803 Short Straight Rail |
 |
| 6 | 807 Long Curved Rail |
 |
| 3 | 808 Short Curved Rail |
 |
| 2 | 811 Points (Right) (one each fixed and manual) |
 |
| 1 | 812 Points (Left) (fixed) |
 |
| 1 | 815 Stop Rail |
 |
| 1 | 818 Forward/Reverse Switch Rail |
 |
| 4 | 822 Double Curved Rail |
 |
| 2 | Signal |
 |
| 4 | Overhead Line Pole (single) |
 |
| 4 | Overhead Line Pole (double) |
 |
| 3 | Standing Trees |
 |
| 1 | Buffer Stop |
 |
The train is the original 200 series Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen, the second type of Shinkansen train and the only one after the original 0 series Hikari to be made for the Mini Mini Rail range. The tooling is the same as the Mini Mini Rail Hikari but it does have stickers added to show the snowplows as well as painted head and tail lights like the Hikari.
Being a later Action Series train, the powered reversing chassis is in the intermediate car and takes one AA battery. The lever hanging out of the side of the intermediate car hits against the flags on the levers of the reversing rail to make the train go the other direction - it is an electrical reversing mechanism. The power switch is a sliding switch on the bottom of the car and two hanging pegs create a cutoff switch to turn the motor off on a raised stop rail section.
Track in this set is the later bluish roadbed with grey rails type. The Mini Mini Rail track system has double-track parallel curves as well as two types of switches, a manual type and a "fixed" type that always sends a train straight through, that can be positioned to cross over between the double rail tracks.
There are two signals and three trees as well as a buffer stop for the siding and a nice assortment of single and double track catenaries that slot into the roadbed.
The number 2 set of this era was rather luxurious, with a double-track section and the ability to run a train around in a reversing loop or around an endless loop, depending on how the one manual point is set. The 200 series is also a very cool train, perhaps my favorite of the Shinkansens, and it is one of the more common Mini Mini Rail trains introduced in the 1980s. The layout and contents are similar to the slightly scaled-back Action Series Mini Mini Rail Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen Set.