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D-51 Express Set (1972)
Originally written June 18, 2024
The D-51 Express Set (D51きゅうこうれっしゃセット) was released in 1972 and features a D-51 steam locomotive and two passenger cars with an oval layout with station and railroad crossing.
Set contents| Quantity |
Item |
Photo |
|---|---|---|
| 3 pieces | D51 Express Train (pantographed coaches) |
 |
| 4 | R-01 Straight Rail |
 |
| 8 | R-03 Curve Rail |
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| 2 | R-10 Joint Rail (one of each type) |
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| 2 | Y Type Rail |
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| 1 | J-23 Country Station |
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| 1 | Railway Crossing |
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| 4 | Standing Tree |
 |
| 2 | Signal (plastic lens type) |
 |
The D51 Express Train in this set is an earlier 1970s example with a black-sided all-metal gearbox with noisemaker clicker and drive drums. The side rods are the earlier style with metal crank pins. The passenger cars have the pantographs from the Super Express Hikari intermediate car.
The Railway Crossing in this set is the early 1970s type with the metal pin type axles. The Country Station is also a fairly early example and has the tablet exchange hook and tablet.
If you are careful with balancing the tablet inside of the carriage window, you can get it to drop the tablet off.
Track in this set is all-smooth and includes two joint rails and a variant of the Y Type Rail.
The signals in this set are the nice old plastic lens type - unfortunately, each of the signals in my set are missing one of the lenses each!
The y-type rails both end in concave ends, requiring the use of one of the included joint rails. This puts a joint rail on one side of the set, putting the set slightly off axis and using the flex in the joints to allow it to be completed.
This set originally included a copy of the 1971 "Tomy Plarail Series" pamphlet.
The Y type rails making a split around the station is a cool feature of this set and sets it apart from a simple oval set. The D51 and its two coaches look nice.
It is nice how many accessories these old sets come with - four trees and two nice old signals, and the nice country station... the layout can be expanded with some stop rails and a second train so that two trains can be sent around the loop in turn.
| Set name | D-51 Express Set D51きゅうこうれっしゃセット |
Release period | 1972-~1973 |
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| Notes: | Accessory rating could be a little higher |