fall inside a hole

1982 Tomy Super Rail Black Catalogue

Click photos for full size

This January 1982 Super Rail Black catalogue shows the range at pretty much its largest, with the widest range of different trains and accessories available. It was at this time that the very nice bogied Shinkansen 0 and 200 series trains with headlights were released.

Run, Super Rail! Carry your big dreams with you anywhere... this page shows a very neat promotional layout with large trains and lots of rail. The blurb to the right markets the precise details, availability of rail and scenery, and the automatic control options available in the system.

More about the automatic control system, the controllable Return Control Rail and the static reverser plates, the very cool Uncoupling Rail and automatic coupling and coupling feature, and the speed-change mechanism that was then-currently used in the EF-66 with lights and had been seen in a few other older trains.

The trains available at the time, three-car sets on the left including the new Tokaido Hikari and Tohoku Joetsu 200 series trains with lights as well as the older, smaller Hikari and other older trains with light features. The right page has individual power cars, also mostly with lights (the pictured freight and passenger cars were not included, although some of these trains appeared in previous and contemporary sets - this catalogue is from a copy of the Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen with Headlights Set).

Individual carriages and freight cars as well as a five-car freight car set with some variations of the regular cars.

Track packs including the newer crossover section and accessories like a neat switching stoplight and a detailed station.

This catalogue doesn't show any of the sets, but there are some suggested layouts in the back. The English SUPER RAIL text in the upper right has a very 1970s feel to it...

Two more even larger layouts... the turntable with sidings and large elevated section is rather nice on the largest one, although it might be harder to run multiple trains than on some of the smaller ones.