fall inside a hole
Super Rail Limited Express Tsubame Set (1979)
Originally written June 9, 2024
In 1960 the 151 series electric locomotives took over service on the Tsubame Limited Express train on the Tokaido mainline between Tokyo and Osaka. The 151 series was commercialized for Super Rail and was sold in this set and individually as a three-car train in 1976. This set includes an oval of track with a controllable reversing section and was released as the Super Rail Limited Express Tsubame Set (特急つばめセット).
My example is marked with N-28, meaning it was printed in 1979, meaning it is a later printing. The original 1976 printing has a more colorful age rating section on the front of the box. The following year, the Tsubame Express was rereleased with a light feature and this set was rereleased with lights.
Set contents
| Quantity |
Item |
Photo |
|---|---|---|
| 3
pieces |
151 series Limited Express |
 |
| 1 | Straight Rail |
 |
| 3 | 1/2 Straight Rail |
 |
| 8 | C Curve Rail |
 |
| 1 | Return Control Rail |
 |
| 4 | Line Catenary |
 |
| 1 | Colored Light Signal |
 |
The train in this set is a three-piece 151 series electric limited express train with stickers depicting the Tsubame service that are Romanized Tubame like the Plarail L Limited Express. The mix of molded, painted, and sticker detail is nice and the pantographs on the intermediate car, although not articulated, are very nicely detailed static representations for a toy train.
A C battery fits inside the front power car. The gearbox has a revering system built in with a hanging reverser lever that the "Return Control Track" engages with.
The Return Control Track is a half-straight-long section that includes two levers that, when flipped, will reverse a train that enters the rail from the side the lever is on.
The overhead line wire frames used here have cool toolings and the light-type signal has a molded ladder. The curves in this set are all the small "C" radius curves.
Even though this is a fairly small set, the return control rail gives it some additional play appeal. It is obviously a pretty simple set, but I think that smaller sets that come with a train that players may not already have with some track and a few accessories has a place in toy train ranges both as "introductory" type sets but also as expansions onto existing collections - another train, a loop of track, and the reversers could go well with a set that included switches and another type of train to run around between different rails, reversing them out of each other's way...