fall inside a hole
Tomix Thomas the Tank Engine Starter Set
First written September 25, 2024
With the success of Thomas the Tank Engine on Japanese television and Tomy's Plarail Thomas series and other Thomas toys selling well, in the late 1990s Tomy began producing N gauge Thomas the Tank Engine ready to run trains under their Tomix name, with the initial 1998 lineup including this Thomas the Tank Engine Starter Set (きかんしゃ トーマススタートセット) as well as a train pack release. This is a complete train set with track mat, oval of track, speed controller, and Thomas, Annie, and Clarabel.
Shown here is a late 1990s example with the old Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends and Tomy logos - this set continued production into the 2000s with updated packaging and some component changes. These earlier production sets are from when Tomix was still handled and sold by Tomy's Hobby Division and have the old curvey red Tomy logo. In 2002 the operations of Tomy's Hobby Division were folded into TomyTec, I pieced one nicer copy of this set together from two copies which both had a few other Tomix Thomas accessories included.
Set contents
| Quantity |
Item |
Photo |
|---|---|---|
| 3 pieces | Thomas, Annie, and Clarabel |
 |
| 2 | 1002 Straight Rail S280 |
 |
| 8 | 1105 Curve Rail C243-45 |
 |
| 1 | 5503 Power Unit |
 |
| 1 | Track power connector |
 |
| 1 | Rerailer |
 |
| 1 | Track mat |
 |
This set includes Thomas and his two coaches Annie and Clarabel. The Tomix Thomas has a nice face and is a pretty decent representation of the character at this scale. The coaches are also nice, including details like Clarabel's guard's compartment which is often left off Thomas toys.
The set includes an oval of Tomix track. Late 1990s sets like this use the grey type of Tomix track with later examples from the 2000s using the newer FineTrack. Either way, the track connects together easily with integrated ballast and sleepers and a plastic joint in addition to the fishplates included in each section. One of the sets I have is fairly well used and the fishplates were bending up on the connecting side and impeding train travel, but bending the flanges back down helped.
The set includes the 5503 Power Unit, a basic controller with no accessory connections, just a jack on the rear for the track power connector. These units are designed for 100 volts, so using one directly off of American wall power will overdrive it by 20%.
The set also includes the track power connector and a rerailer that helps to put the trains on the track properly.
The set includes a plastic track mat that unfolds. It seems that either mine has shrunken with age or the loop of track printed on the mat was always slightly undersized.
My Thomas does not like to run all that well at lower speed while hauling coaches, although it runs fairly well at the second speed and above without pulling anything. Because his wheels are so small when he runs quickly his coupling rods spin pretty rapidly, which fits Thomas' image of a cheeky little tank engine well.