fall inside a hole

R-11 Turnout Rail (1974)

Despite becoming the "normal" switch rail, the R-11 Turnout Rail (ターンアウトレール) was not introduced until 1974, 15 years after the Plarail range was established and after points like the R-15 Double Track Point Rail, Y type rail, and other early switches inherited from the Tot Railroad track standard. Although first released in 1974, turnout rails were very briefly produced with a smooth rail surface before being transitioned to roughtop rails. The standard individual release is one of each "L" (two concave branch connectors with a convex entrance) and "R" (convex branches with a concave entry) points, and the bagged release was given the designation 32 under the 1970s numbering scheme and R-11 under the 1987 numbering scheme.

Dimensionally, these turnouts have the footprint of a standard R-01 Straight Rail (~215mm) and a standard R-03 Curve Rail (radius of ~215mm). These shared dimensions fit perfectly into the Plarail rail standard, and it is honestly a little puzzling to me that Plarail did not introduce them until the mid 1970s, but some other omissions like R-02 Half Straight Rails were also introduced around the same time. Child Guidance started producing a turnout like this for their adaptation of the Tot Railroad standard that Plarail is built on at least a decade earlier.

Roughtop rails (later 1974-1990)

Early roughtop turnout rails do not have any Tomy or Japan markings. The yellow directional-changing lever is a more translucent plastic. The rails have a cutout and allow for a single-piece, all-plastic directional rail to be implemented, as opposed to the two separate levers used on R-13 Single/Double Point Rails and the updated Tot Railroad parallel switch.

By 1977 a Made in Japan mark was added near the straight branch connector.

Molding slot marks appear on turnout rails by the early 1980s. These numbers identify which slot or set of metal toolings a particular turn rail was molded inside of, so defective rails coming off the production line can be traced back to a specific mold that can be inspected for problems.

Around 1983 or 1984 the yellow directional decider lever was changed to the more solid yellow type. These rails continued to be used into the new power era.

These Japanese toolings continued to be used in some sets with primarily Japan-made rails into the early 1990s, including in a dark blue color for the 1990 Mickey Poppo set.

Treaded rails (1989-)

In 1989 Tomy began producing Plarail in their Thailand factory, with Thailand-made turnouts appearing soon after. These turnouts were new toolings with treaded rail surfaces and large L and R marks. For whatever reason, the L turnouts have a large slot mark (1 or 2) after the letter while the R rails do not.

By 1993 an updated R rail with no large letter but small slot marks was in use.

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