fall inside a hole
Electric Locomotive Set (1970)
Originally written July 30, 2025
The 1970 Electric Locomotive Set (でんききかんしゃセット) included the then-new EF-15 Electric Locomotive, freight cars, and the first Plarail automatic Railway Crossing.
As the front of the box shows, the very early production copies of this set had the original and short-lived grey chassis EF-15 with red-chassised freight cars. This set stayed in production up into 1974 with some later boxes having ST mark stickers applied. This example is from some time in between, with a black-chassis EF-15 but no sticker.
Set contents| Quantity |
Item |
Photo |
|---|---|---|
| 3 pieces | EF-15 Electric Locomotive with tank car and container car |
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| 3 | R-01 Straight Rail |
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| 8 | R-03 Curve Rail |
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| 1 | Railway Crossing |
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| 6 | Catenary |
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| 4 | Standing Tree |
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| 2 | Signal |
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The EF-15, sold as the Electric Locomotive as it was the only one in the range at its introduction in 1970, headlines this set hauling two also-new freight cars. The power switch is bent up at the end, as was the style at the time. As noted above, the original 1970 runs of this set had the early grey chassis EF-15 with alternate-color early freight cars.
Unbelievably, the rear drive tires still have a little bit of spring to them! This is the early version of the EF-15 body shell with the rear window having a round cutout around the motor shaft - by 1975 it was modified to have a taller rear window.
Like the individual release at the time, the EF-15 hauls the early 1970s tank car and container car.
It seems the tanker car in this example has been replaced with a later one at some point, as I don't think the axle box tooling was changed until around 1973. The older style has a plastic plug holding the rear coupling in, which was replaced with a metal pin and eventually a screw later on.
The rail in this set is the original all-smooth type. The curve rails have either a number on one side near the convex connector or a letter on the other.
New in 1970 was the original weighted railway crossing that automatically drops its gates as the train passes. Actually, the box for this set shows a prototype for the crossing with white crossing signs and red plastic around the weights instead of yellow.
There is a nice and generous selection of smaller accessories including two of the nice old lens-type signals that let light shine through, four standing trees, and six catenary, which fill out the oval nicely.
Both of the signals in this set were missing one of their colored lenses, with one also missing its arm and with one of its pegs broken off and stuck in the supporting pole. I popped the red lens out of the more broken signal and carefully pulled the other signal front off and put the red lens in its housing. Then I borrowed another signal for the pictures and videos shown here...
The track layout is a longer oval than the number No.1 oval sets, another element of the luxury of this early era of Plarail, and it can thus be reconfigured a few different ways... The set stayed in the range for several years.
| Set name | Electric Locomotive Set でんききかんしゃセット |
Release period | 1970-1974 |
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