Since the early days of Plarail Tomy has produced a variety of trackside accessories like trees, signals, and buffers. Shown here are several types of smaller Plarail accessories as well as some of their changes over time.
Early Plarail (then still called by its full name Plastic Rail) trackside accessories include "flyswatter" telegraph or electrical poles, simple static semaphore signals, and cross-style railroad crossing signs. These seem to have been based directly on Playskool New Tot Railroad accessories, with the Plarail rail standard previously being established based on Tot Railroad. These can be seen in old sets in the Plarail Museum and were even released into the 1970s in limited and obscure quantities.
Around 1964 or 1965 the classic standing tree debuted. The tree has a green conical top, a red base, and a white stem. Originally, none of these components had a region of manufacturing.
In the 1970s the red bases and inside of the trees were marked Japan. By the mid 1970s an entirely new tooling that was more refined was in use for the bases. Later on the Japan mark was dropped from the inside of the tree but the base mark remained the same until production moved to Thailand around 1989 or 1990.
Early Thailand-made standing trees are marked Thailand with a slot number also present on the base.
Also in 1989, square-based trees were included in the First Set, borrowing the base of the fir-style trees used for the Tomy Train series.
In the late 1990s a larger base was developed and used in export Tomica World sets. A rimmed version of the base appeared in the early 2000s.
Both appeared occasionally in the 2000s including in a few color variations for Thomas-series sets.
In the 2010s as more production moved to Vietnam a style of standing tree with integrated green trunk and wide red base was manufactured there.
Lately, this classic standing tree seems to be being phased out in favor of a simple single-piece tree facade... it doesn't look nearly as nice.
Articulated signals were first released around 1965 with plastic lenses that let light shine through. Originally, these were unmarked, but by the early 1970s the bases were marked Japan. This style of signal was used into the 1970s, with a later variation having stickers instead of plastic lenses, before being replaced with the more well-known design below around 1974.
This white plastic type was seemingly first used in the Layout Parts A around 1970 before becoming the de facto type around 1974, replacing the lens type in sets that year. By the early 1980s the rear of the stem of the signal was marked Japan.
Which color of "light" is on top changes at different points - I think you could probably hunt down most of these slight variations with the sticker either way around.
Around 1989 when production moved to Thailand the signals began being marked on the rear of the signal. The signal arms were still riveted in in the early 1990s.
By 1992 or so the arm was changed to use a plastic pivot.
Like the standing trees, a winder base was used in export sets in the late 1990s. Around this time, some signals had green lights instead of blue.
A version of the classic signal was produced in Vietnam in the 2010s.
After the New Tot Railroad American-style railroad crossing signs were phased out came these fairly simple crossing gates which could be opened. These gates were phased out in the late 1960s and replaced with the Railway Crossing in 1970.
Originally predating the Plarail name and sold as Plastic Rail Scenery Parts, these pine trees with three leaf canopy pieces were included with the Station, Elevated Rail, and were included in both green and pink as cherry blossom trees with the Farm Set diorama. They were also used in some Mountain Railroad sets. These went out of regular production around 1973 before briefly reappearing in the Layout Parts B set in 1977.
In 1968 alongside the introduction of the double rail track standard nice red electrical catenaries were developed to cross over the rails. Early packaging shows these were grey in development.
1990s Thailand-made double rail catenaries have markings indicated they came out of earlier updated Japanese toolings.
Not long after a standard single-track version was developed and began being used in sets. Early catenaries did not have a region of manufacture. Around 1979 the catenaries had JAPAN text added to the support structure. Around 1984 the text was refined. These single-track catenaries were sold in packs of six individually from 1969 or so into the mid 1970s.
Around 1970 this row of trees was released and used into the 2000s. The tooling for the flat trees was used on many, many other Tomy toys and Plarail accessories as well. By the later 1970s the base was marked Made in Japan on the bottom. It was sold in a two-pack in the 1970s and also appeared in the Layout Parts B pack where the trees were not melted into the base and instead supplied alongside it.
Red buffers with a concave connection on one side and a convex one on the other. Older buffers have a wraparound sticker and newer ones have individual emblems on the front and rear.
Included with the Plateau Lake in 1981 is this fir tree borrowed from Super Rail.
Used in some Mickey Mouse licensed sets, these palm trees appeared around 1983 and were also produced in Thailand in a 1990 set as well with orange bases. During the 2000s boom the tooling reappeared in a set introducing the Kyushu Shinkansen.
To fit over the LEGO-style studs that began being put on Plarail accessories in the late 1980s as well as the studs on the Tomy Train series. The square sign in blue above was included with the J-29 Horn Rail which was first manufactured in Japan, with the more common Thailand-production rectangular-faced sign tooling being used for the R-19 Automatic Turnout Rail POINT sign and the stop light used in the First Set and Tomy Train series.