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Plarail Railroad Crossings
Early crossing gates (mid 1960s-1969)
The earliest railroad crossing accessory dates back to the mid 1960s and represents the crossing gates of an older Japanese railroad crossing. It uses a round red base like the standing trees or signals. The accessory bases at this time were not stamped with any manufacturing information.
Railroad Crossing (1970-1986)
In 1970 this much more stylish railroad crossing (ふみきり) appeared. This was sold as both an individual accessory and in several sets. The crossing gates have counterweights that keep them lifted until a train comes and depresses the rails making up the middle of the crossing which are linked into the arms, causing them to drop while the train is passing like a real railroad crossing. Early versions have thinner boom arm supports and a somewhat crude looking pin mechanism, but I do not currently own a crossing of this type to show. My earliest crossing is of the updated type with plastic peg boom arm axles that was in use by 1974.
By 1980 the boom arms and pivot were changed slightly to use a screw to hold the boom arms in place. It seems that the toolings for the older style of crossing may have been sent to Hong Kong and used in the Palitoy Discovery Time sets.
Railroad crossing signs were also separately fitted, although they were round pegs in the older style and squared clip connectors that probably better prevent the signs from becoming choking hazards on the newer style. The updated crossing has a larger Tomy manufacturing mark on the bottom. These crossings were only produced in Japan aside from some odd offshoots like the Hong Kong Palitoy version. In West Germany, Stelco produced a crossing based on this design but with an original tooling and rubber band boom arm mechanism instead of counterweights.
J-21 Electro Railroad Crossing (1981-2008)
In 1983 an electronic crossing that flashed the crossing lights and chimed a buzzer as a train passes was released. It is covered in more detail here. This crossing used the older style of unstickered crossing gate tooling as used on the 1970s crossing up into the 2000s.
J-18 Railroad Crossing with Sound (1978-2008)
Beginning in 1978 a small half-straight long railroad crossing with a shed that houses a bell which rings when the wheels of a train pass was introduced as 音入りふみきり or Railroad Crossing with Sound. This was a very long-standing scenery part and was given the J-18 designation in the late 1980s. The name also changed from ふみきり to 踏切. There are several set variants.
In 2008 the Railroad Crossing with Sound was replaced by the revised Tomica Town-compatible J-18 小さな踏切 Small Railroad Crossing, which incorporates the same shed tooling on a new base.
J-20 Rail Road Crossing (1985-1990)
In 1985 to go along with the Plaroad range Tomy released a new automatic/manual railroad crossing that worked with the road system. It is explored in more detail on this page.
This was the first Plarail crossing to use the stickered boom arms and the LEGO stud system for attaching crossing signs, something more commonly seen on the J-17 new Railroad Crossing.
J-17 New Railroad Crossing (1987-)
In 1987 the redesigned "New" Railroad Crossing (ニュー踏切) was released. This crossing has a red base with LEGO-compatible studs on it that can be used to attach two railroad crossing signs (or other LEGO-type Plarail accessories or, indeed, LEGO pieces). A similar counterweight system is used to make the black crossing arms dips downwards when a train passes, and the actual "crossing" section of the crossing is thinner but no longer goes over the articulated rail section like the previous version.
This is an earlier Japanese printing of the green cardstock backing that would have been included in the individual release hang-tag bags. It shows an old power Hikari with Light crossing the crossing and explains where to put the stickers and how to set up the crossing.
Early examples of this crossing were made in Japan, while the majority of examples have been made in Thailand since 1990 or so. The J-17 Railroad Crossing is still in print as of 2024.
J-32 Deluxe Railroad Crossing with Sound (1989)
In 1989 a "deluxe" crossing similar to the New Railroad Crossing but with larger signs and the sound bell gimmick of the R-18 Railroad Crossing with Sound.
The crossing has nice large signs and detachable slopes which are unfortunately both easily lost.
The dropping gate mechanism is the same as other similar crossings and the striker for the bell is an independent trigger right in the middle of the crossing.
The Deluxe Railroad Crossing with Sound was only included in the also-new-for-1989 First Set. It was first produced in Thailand and the tooling was updated to include "made in" around 1993 as other Thailand marks were. In the later 1990s and early 2000s like some other accessories the crossings were given production stickers following the same code as power car stickers - the number is the last digit(s) of the year (1999 in this case) and the letter's position in the alphabet is the number of the month (K is the 11th month signifying November in this case).
In 2001 the individual release J-32 was replaced with the J-27 Plastic Kids Railroad Crossing Set which contained the crossing in a slightly updated green tooling with added play features to work with the three included Plastic Kids or Plakids dolls.