fall inside a hole

Toy Town/Tomy Mountain Railway

In 1969 Toy Town began releasing a series of Mountain Railway (お山のシュッポー , literally "mountain shuppo," related to the sound of a steam locomotive) in association with Tomy. Originally sets contained steam locomotives and often focused on large mountains that could be climbed thanks to cogs sticking out of the side of the locomotives but later entirely flat sets and Shinkansen and commuter trains were released.

This was one of the longest-lived Toy Town toys, surviving well into the Toybox era including with a range of sets available in the 1970s and 1980s with the Mickey Mouse license attached in the 1990s and even limitedly with the Thomas the Tank Engine license in the early 2000s. Like Plarail and wooden train systems, this long-lasting standard meant that these toys could be passed down or bought at second-hand stores and components from the 1970s could be enjoyed decades later... Although it is not necessarily a direct intention of the design of a toy, I appreciate when companies produce compatible components across long ranges of time, especially for relatively complex systems.

A great Japanese website showing many of the Mountain Railway sets can be seen here.

Trains

Mountain Railway locomotives have front-wheel drive to traverse the flat tracks and two spinning cogs to climb mountains and interact with other components. Earlier trains had smaller cogs friction-driving the front wheels, with all four wheels being freerolling when the front wheels are not in contact with the gears.

This later Mickey Mouse locomotive has an off-the-shelf sliding power switch and is of the direct-drive type.

Several of the different steam locomotive variations can be seen here. Some of the other types of trains can be seen here.

Sets

Mountain Railway sets were released in a range of sizes over time and were even exported at various times like other Toy Town toys.

Year	Set name	Description	Photo
	Special Marfield Chugging Choo Choo	Large export set with mountain and interactive destinations
1996	Chip and Dale Acorn Rolling Set	Toybox Mickey Mouse set with Chip and Dale that loads and transports acorns