fall inside a hole

Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen Deluxe Set (1982)

Originally written August 2023

The Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen with Light Deluxe Set (ライド付 東北上越新幹線 デラックスセット) was released in 1982 based on the Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen line and new 200-series Shinkansens that operated on it. The set features the Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen with Light released individually around the same time. A made in Japan 200-series Shinkansen with working headlight, front switch, and plastic rim-drive gearbox is included as the lead car. The set includes a standard Plarail signal and tree as well as a much rarer fir tree, five overhead wire catenaries, a block tunnel, and the "高原の湖" or Plateau Lake released that year. The layout is a partially elevated oval. The number MS-31 on the side of the box shows that it was printed in 1982. Interestingly, the cover of the box does not seem to be specifically related to this set, with none of its major components depicted. It is possible the set was not developed when the photo shoot occurred.

Set contents

Quantity	Item	Photo
3 pieces	Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen with Light (200 series shinkansen)
2	R-01 Straight Rail
8	R-03 Curve Rail
2	R-06 Slope Rail
2 pieces	J-02 Block Tunnel (entrance and exit pieces only)
5	J-13 Bridge Girder
1	Plateau Lake
5	Catenary
1	Standing Tree
1	Signal
1	Fir Tree
5	Family Dolls (train driver and family of four)

The green and white 200 series Shinkansens entered service in 1982 to service the mountainous Tohoku and Joetsu lines. 200 series trains very much resembled the original 0 series trains with rounded noses, with 200 series trains having green trim where the 0 series had blue. The 200 series was the second Shinkansen class to be developed, predating the mid 80s 100 series trains with their shark noses, although some late 200 series trains were manufactured in the 100 series styling. 200 series have snowplows fitted to help deal with snow on the lines.

The Plarail 200 series is similarly based on the existing 0-series Hikari with light and reuses many of its molds and the mechanism for powering the front light. The chassis do include nice snowplows added in and the light in the front looks very nice. The Plateau Lake is a very nice looking accessory and the mountainous backdrop as well as the partial elevation of the layout fit the lines the 200 series ran on.

 

The main accessory is the "高原の湖" or Plateau Lake also released individually in 1981. The accessory features a molded plastic base with a "lake" and mountains with separately fitted animals, fence, and barn. As everything else in the set, it was produced in Japan and features then then-new curvy Tomy logo on the bottom. A small section at the bottom of the base provides two bumps to hook the accessory to the bottom lip of a piece of track. This and similar accessories from this era with small fragile plastic accessories can be hard to find completely intact. This is the only set the Plateau Lake was released in.

The signal and standing tree are made in Japan examples with the riveted signal arm. The less common fir tree is made up of a molded brown base and three different leaf sections that slot onto it. My 1982 example is missing the top section, and a second partial fir tree that I believe was reused for TomyTrain uses a different molding. The individual release of the Plateau Lake also included a fir tree.

A sticker on the front of the box says that the set contains five ファミリー 人形 "Family Dolls," which was Tomy's "doll" accessories at the time. Tomy has long wanted to include play figures in their sets with the Family Doll, Doll Play, and arguably most successfully Plakids accessories. The original five dolls were a train driver or perhaps stationmaster and a family of four with a mother, father, son, and daughter. My set retains only the driver and girl figures. The dolls have basic molded details in their torsos and articulated necks.

There aren't really any good places to play with the figures as there is no station or other place to stage a family waiting for a train. I put the driver in the battery compartment just to see what he would look like in there.

When I first got this set in 2021 the rim-drive engine could just about traverse the whole loop with new traction tires. The rim-drive tires are original but have dry rotted and no longer provide enough friction to get the train up the slope rails. Eventually I would like to replace or retrofit the rim-drive traction tires, but I have never worked on the more constrained plastic version of the rim-drive gearbox and would like to use a different method for replacing the tires than I currently use for replacing the metal gearbox rim drive tires. As noted on that page, I eventually found that using heat-shrink tubing did not allow the 200 series to climb the slope rails (although it did allow some other rim-drive engines to do so) and replaced one of the original tires with a shaved-down pulley. (August 29, 2023)

I filmed my new power Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen with Light on the set with three intermediate cars (click for video with sound). The last intermediate and the tail car are original to this set. When I eventually replace the rim-drive components on the old power one I will record it running on the set too.

Because of the slack in the Plarail coupling system, longer trains will often bunch up behind the power car like this when going downhill.

Although named a "Deluxe" set, the set has a fairly average number of accessories and a less complicated layout than even the classic "overpass" layout, with no stations for the new Shinkansen to stop at. The deluxe name is really to contrast the very basic No.1-style Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen Set from the same year. A pair of switches for a passing loop or even just one additional Bridge Girder so that one of the straight rails could be elevated to stagger the two slope rails would make the layout more interesting.