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EF-15 Electric Locomotive Overpass Panorama Set (1974)
Originally written March 4, 2024
The EF-15 Electric Locomotive Overpass Panorama Set (EF-15 でんききかんしゃりったいこうさ パノラマセット) was released in 1974 and includes an EF15 electric locomotive with freight train and was the first set to use the "overpass" layout with elevated section and offset lower loop. The set also includes a railroad crossing, line of trees, and some other accessories. In 1981 the same basic concept of the set was rereleased as the Electric Locomotive Overpass Set.
My copy of this set is clearly in rather poor condition, and was mainly purchased because it was the cheapest I have seen a set from this era go for in the time I have spent following Plarail listings and I wanted the 90 degree curves and old orange bridge girders. Although the box is in poor shape, I appreciate it as a well-loved specimen of the era... I can only imagine how many times the colorful box lid must have been taken on and off, with the original owner having crayon-scribbled through the age rating, seemingly in defiance of their own aging. Even worn the art is colorful and I love the design of the side panels and battery information... all the text layout is beautiful, I love the old Hikari-Go logo plastered on all sides of the box as well as the set tray... At the time the "overpass" layout was previously unseen and this set would establish itself alongside the numbered Basic Sets as a classic Plarail layout.
These early boxes have a cardboard lower layer with a vacuformed plastic tray to hold the components. The tray has a battery box to hold a C battery, something many Plarail sets incorporated at the time despite not coming with batteries. The sticker in the tray says, approximately, "When you are finished playing, please put the batteries in this box. Batteries must be purchased separately."
Set contents| Quantity |
Item |
Photo |
|---|---|---|
| 4 pieces | EF-15 Electric Locomotive and freight train |
 |
| 1 | R-01 Straight Rail |
 |
| 10 | R-03 Curve Rail (roughtop with Japan markings) |
 |
| 2 pieces |
R-07 Bridge Rail (one each up and down) |
 |
| 2 pieces | R-11 Turnout Rail (one pair) (roughtop with Japan markings) |
 |
| 2 | 90 Degree Curve Rail |
 |
| 5 |
Bridge Girder (orange clipless type) |
 |
| 1 | Country Station |
 |
| 1 |
Railway
Crossing (second version) |
 |
| 8 | Catenary |
 |
| 1 |
Row of trees |
|
| 2 | Standing Tree (Japan mark) |
 |
| 1 |
Signal
(Lens type with Japan mark) |
 |
The EF15 was manufactured between 1947 and 1958. Over 200 were built and they remained in use until the mid 1980s on freight lines. First appearing in Plarail form in the 1970 Electric Locomotive Set, the EF15 in this set is close to the original 1970 tooling and predates the lit version used in a 1980 set that all future EF15s were based on. The EF15 was available individually in a few different colors around this time. The EF15 in my set is missing the body shell and just has the original chassis.
The EF15 in my set is missing the plastic body shell. The chassis is relatively intact other than degraded rubber components which were replaced.
The later post-1980 body shell and chassis (seen on the left) are interchangeable with the earlier 1970s version. The main changes in the chassis are additional molded supports for the bent metal contact strips for the light mechanism and the body shell has a drilled-out hole in the front headlight where the bulb would be and a hole in either side of the body shell where the contacts were riveted in place. For the purposes of demonstration, I put the top of my 1984 EF-15 from the later Electric Locomotive Overpass Set on the 1974 chassis in photos of the EF15 on this page.
The short freight cars had just been introduced a year prior and are early variations with the less defined single split couplings. The brakevan is the only one that is actually original to this set, the well wagon and tanker are both Japanese-produced examples from my existing collection.
The station in this set is the Country Station that was introduced two years earlier. Being made in Japan, the station would have originally included the tablet for the tablet catcher feature.
The Railway Crossing is the 1970s version with plastic boom arm axles and round-based railroad crossing signs. It does not have the large made in Japan mark on the bottom, just the small one near one of the signs on the top. The standing trees are the type with just JAPAN molded into the base and the signal is a later black plastic signal with lenses - this may have been changed to the much more common white plastic stickered signal in later copies of the set as this changeover happened around 1974. Electrical catenaries have only a slot number, not the Japan text in their moldings.
Rails in this set are early roughtop types with the "V" split in the curve rails. The 90 Degree Curve Rails are made of a harder plastic and have cracked at both convex connectors and the Bridge Rails are similarly cracked at both ends as they often do. Some of the regular softer plastic rails in this set were also showing small splits and one curve rail concave connector snapped while I was putting the set together. The 90 degree curves are suggested for use in the elevated portion of the layout but there are enough bridge piers included and the track is laid out in such a way that they are not necessary at all and the 90 degree curves can be switched out for any other two adjacent regular curve rails with no problems.
The bridge girders in this set are the first examples I have had of these orange clipless girders. The rounded portions on the top fit inside the wells of the rails on the bottom of the track piece and the two small bumps in the middle sit on either side of the molding around the concave and convex track connector ends.
It is rather nice that there are eight catenaries in this set, it helps fill up the layout a lot more than the later overpass sets that came with six or four - or zero, in some cases. In fact, the accessory selection is rather nice in general, with not only two standing trees but also a row of trees and one of the nice lens type signals. My set is missing the signal and I completely forgot to borrow one of the ones that I do have to put it out on the layout. With the signal - especially the nice old plastic lens type - the accessory selection is very, very nice and shows the luxury of Plarail as a toy in this era.
I like this little freight train and the country station it services. It would have been nice to get the logs with the black log car but I do also kind of like how the little red EF15 looks hauling an empty well wagon and some fuel up an elevated trestle. I will have to get out one of my country station tablets and see if I can deliver the tablet to the hook by hanging it out of one of the EF15's windows.
Sometimes 1970s Plarail takes a bit of imagination. I kind of like it better that way.