fall inside a hole

Plarail 1982 Catalogue

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The cover of the 1982 catalogue is a beautiful spread of early 1980s Plarail engines and accessories. The back cover says that it was printed in February 1982. I wonder if a new early 80s old power D51 would be able to pull all those cars up a bridge rail...

The second page talks a little bit about how Plarail is made from safe materials and inspires children's creativity. The opposite page has another beautiful early 1980s layout and some text about how the Plarail rail standard has not changed in the 20 years since Plarail began and that the easiest way to start is with any set.

The lineup at this time is absolutely incredible, so many classic older molds, all old power gearboxes, many individual releases, Hikari and Tohoku Joetsu shinkansens with lights, subways and limited expresses and the classic D51 and C12s...

As touted earlier in the pamphlet, many rails have not changed since their introduction in the 1960s, with large radius curves, the double track system, and older sloped bridge rails and joint rails on sale.

Pages 7 and 8 include many great old accessories like the old double track subway tunnel, the subway station, old railroad crossing, and old track piers.

Interestingly, instead of showing any sets, the last few pages of the catalog show some suggested layouts.

I really like when the three-way switch is used in a layout as something other than just the head of a yard. The two elevated sections and double track crossovers in the middle are also cool. Funnily enough you can see where some portions of the layout like the railroad crossing and signal station do not perfectly follow the regular Plarail layout dimensions. I would like to recreate this layout some day, but I am not sure if I have all the accessories.

This layout has an arguably even cooler use of the three-way switch. I also really like to be able to run multiple trains unattended at one time so I really like the three loops that make up the layout. The entirely elevated track running alongside the outer loop with the inner "yard" interwoven in between looks really cool. I would also like to recreate this layout some time.