The Sound Steam D51 Set (サウンド・スチームD51セット) was released in September 2005 and featured a water-vapor "steaming" D-51 steam locomotive with sound and a flashing light effect as well as grey rails and several neat rural accessories.
Set contents
Quantity |
Item |
Photo |
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1 | D-51 200 Steam Locomotive with sound and steam features, tender, and carriage |
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4 | R-01 Straight Rail (grey) |
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1 | R-02 Half Straight Rail (grey) |
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10 | R-03 Curve Rail (grey) |
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1 |
R-08 Stop Rail (grey) |
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1 pair | R-11 Turnout Rail (grey) |
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1 | J-01 Tunnel (set variant) |
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3 pieces | J-12 Pedestrian Overpass (set variant) |
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1 | J-23 Country Station (set variant) |
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3 pieces | Water Tower and Coal Loader |
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1 | Pipette |
The train in this set is a new-tooling D-51 steam locomotive with the running number 200 used on some other Plarail D-51 releases. The locomotive has a filling port on the left side where water can be pipetted into the train for the water vapor "steam" feature. When the train runs, it makes chugging noises and periodically blows "smoke" accompanied with a red LED light inside the funnel to light the cloud and enhance the effect.
The locomotive is nicely tooled with lots of piping details, a few painted details, and a big tender. The coach has no regular coupling on the rear to prevent the higher-voltage motor from getting weighed down with lots of cars, it seems, although there are molding features to accommodate one.
The train is all connected together with a semi-durable rotating coupler, with the speaker, sound circuitry, and water vapor unit in the locomotive, the gearbox and motor in the tender, and the battery compartment in the passenger car. A power switch on the underside of the passenger car turns the train's steam and sound feature on, which is activated when the locomotive's rear wheels have spun around for a short time as measured by a cam that hits a switch inside the locomotive, and the power switch on the tender turns on the motor and gearbox inside. The front coupling on this example was taken apart and reattached with the screws on the wrong side at some point - when I took it apart I flipped it around the right way, so the screws cannot be seen when looking at the left side.
The sound circuitry and steam function of the train was previously used in the Sound Steam Thomas the Tank Engine which was released earlier in 2005. In fact, the plug with fiber wick that sits in the bottom of the water collection area between the front wheels is still produced in red plastic like Thomas'. In December 2005 a standalone Sound Steam D51 No. 498 was also released with a blue 10 series passenger car.
The three AA batteries in the gearbox provide 4.5 volts to the gearbox and sound circuitry, with two wires coming from the most-positive battery contact through the coupling connector, one connected to the passenger car's power switch to turn the sound and steam on and off. Quite often the wires in these and the Thomas version of the Sound Steam trains break, and I eventually traced the intermittent functionality of the sound and steam in my example - which was already repaired at some point in the past - to a broken wire in the rear coupling. The last gear in the gearbox as well as the gear on the driving axle are both made in metal!
This set includes a recolored version of the water tower and coal loader used in the Plarail More Talkative Thomas Set - actually, it seems to be based on the export version with the stopper situated between the water tower and coal loader so that the tender can line up with the coal chute and water spout. Originally, this piece included a white ladder piece connecting the tower to the base, but this piece is pretty much always missing from used examples, which this one was.
The orange controls interact with parts of the loaders - the lever on the left raises and lowers the water tower, turning the crank raises and lowers the chute and agitates the coal in the hopper, and the switch to the right controls the track stopper. Unlike the Talking Thomas set, there are no specific sounds from the train when the loader is interacted with.
The set also includes recolored and matching versions of the classic Country Station and Pedestrian Overpass as well as a brown variant of the tunnel.
The track in this set is a neat darker grey, which I suppose is to be more representative of a real older railway. The layout is like a large version of the classic Basic Set No. 2 layout.
This set is a great example of the 2000s boom of cool sets with neat technology and new toolings. The train is very cool and the accessories all fit the theme of a big strong steam locomotive servicing a rural line in the heyday of steam passenger service...
Set name | Sound Steam D51 Set サウンド・スチームD51セット |
Release period | 2005 |
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Accessory rating |
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Notes: |