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R-04 Double Track Straight Rail

The double track straight rail (ふくせんちょくせんレール) was first released individually and in sets in 1968 as part of the new "fukusen" double rail system. The double rail system offers rail and accessories specially designed to make running two or more parallel tracks easy. The distance between the center of the connectors (and any other translated point between the two rails) are 60mm apart. The individual release went out of print in the mid 1970s and was rereleased as R-04 in 1998 after the previous R-04 Large Curve Rail went out of print in 1997.

Smooth rails (1968-1974)

The first individual release of the double track straight rail was in 1968 in the early Fukusen Plarail packaging as ちょくせんレール or "chokusen rail," which translates roughly to parallel straight rail (chokusen refers to a set of two parallel lines). This was the first style of accessory packaging to use the "Plarail" name instead of the earlier Plastic Rail and to use the merry-go-round Plarail logo, both of which began appearing on sets around the same time. The tags and rear card are shared between the initial five double track accessories with a sticker placed on the front with the individual product names. The earlier releases of the double track straight rail included two double track electrical catenaries.

In the early 1970s the double track straight rail was released in the blue "Hikari-Go" tag packaging.

Roughtop rails (1974-1975)

Around 1974 the smooth rails transitioned to "roughtop" rails to increase traction of locomotives. Mid 1970s double track straight rail released in the blue Hikari-Go tag packaging included roughtop rails. Around 1975 the double track straight rail went out of print.

Treaded rails (1998-current)

When the double track straight rail was reissued beginning in 1998 it became the new R-04 and got a fresh tooling with "PLARAIL" molded into the top surface like some other fresh track molds did around this time. The bottom of the "lower" rail is marked 1998 and the upper rail has a molding slot mark. Three Thailand-made double track electrical catenaries are included in the individual reissue instead of two.

In the 2000s after the new Tomy logo was introduced a new molding with the squared off Tomy logo on the top of the rail was developed. These rails are still dated 1998 and have circular date stamp and other production markings near the inboard connector as well as slot markings.

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