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J-23 Country Station (1972)

First written March 25, 2024

The Country Station (いなかのえき, later いなかの駅) was released in 1972 and depicts a smaller more remote station with an open station building with seating, a water closet (bathroom), a signboard, and, on Japan-made examples, a token exchange system.

The station platform is nicely molded with two different sets of stairs and a textured floor as well as raised details inside the station building. The small plastic token ring originally came taped down to the station platform. The token can be hung out of the window of a train and be picked up by the pole. These poles are somewhat fragile and the pole and token are often lost. When the tooling for the Country Station was moved to Thailand around 1995 the token pole was replaced by a second flat tree.

The signboard reads country station (いなかのえき) and has arrows pointing towards the mountain (やま) and sea (うみ). The bases are marked with the boy and girl logo and made in Japan. I have one country station from 1974 and another from 1982, and both are basically identical as far as I could tell. In 1988 the individual release was given the number J-23.

The first export Country Stations appeared around 1977 in Palitoy Discovery Time sets. These stations were made in Hong Kong and do not have the single tree but do have the tablet hook and tablet.

Wellsworth Station (Thomas series) (1992)

In 1992 a Wellsworth Station using the Country Station tooling was released in Thomas-series sets. The early Japan-made versions of this station include the token exchange tablet and hook, with the later Thailand version staying in production and being exported in Tomica World sets for many years.

Thailand-made version (1995)

The Country Station toolings were moved to Thailand for 1995 production. The tablet exchange hook was replaced with a second flat tree.

The Thomas-version of the station was also updated and exported in the later 1990s and early 2000s and was later updated with the new Tomy logo. Regular coloration country stations with different stickers were exported under the Tomica World range in the alter 1990s as well.

7488 Country Station (Tomica World) (1998)

In 1998 a version of the Thailand-made country station was exported for the Tomica World range. This version has a Tomica World sticker on the station signboard.

Updated version (2003)

In 2003 when the range was refreshed and updated the J-23 Country Station was recolored with the fence, station building, and water closet becoming white similar to the Thomas version with a brown station roof and green base. This version of the country station has updated licensing information and the new Tomy logo.

A variety of Country Station color variations were released over the years, mostly in the post-Thailand two-tree era. The country station was also exported a number of times and even ripped off for cheap usually Chinese train sets once or twice.