First released as a Plarail and B/O Tomica accessory in Japan in 1996, the Elsbridge Station Crossing was also released individually for the Tomica World range in 1999 and included in multiple export sets.
<--J-24 Plateau Station | J-26 Thomas the Tank Engine Funny Scene Set --> |
On the 17th of July 1996 the Thomas the Tank Engine Railroad Crossing Station (きかんしゃトーマスふみきりステーション) was released for the Thomas Plarail series of train toys. This was released like a regular Plarail accessory as J-25 and was first marked up for B/O Tomica.
Although the crossing station was intended for the Thomas series, there is nothing that is that specifically Thomas about it (unless, I suppose, you know the names of stations in Thomas the Tank Engine).
The station crossing includes the main base piece with rail stopper and road platforms as well as the crossing gates and fences as well as separate station and signal box buildings and two flat trees.
The two station buildings are nice with stickers all the way around, with the signal box having a nice staircase and walkway. The box shows different sticker designs for the buildings and the brown area around the trees.
In the Thomas the Tank Engine television show, Elsbridge Station has multiple station platforms and a pedestrian bridge connecting to a station building that is similar to the building included in this accessory. A level crossing with white gates and red circles as well as a signalbox is also located near the station.
The crossing is a straight and a half long on the rail side and one straight road long.
Although it looks pretty nice thematically, fitting the Thomas aesthetic and Plarail and Motor Tomica systems nicely, it is not as "automatic" as some other previous crossings. The Tomica Automatic Railroad Crossing has an automatic mechanism but it requires multiple rollers and stoppers to function properly, with Motor Tomica being larger and longer than the older Plaroad system which had the automatic (but one-way) J-20 Rail Road Crossing. The J-13 Cross Drawbridge is also not automatic and uses a similar button system. When a vehicle has stopped at the gates, the green button behind the trees must be pressed which lifts the spring-loaded plates to allow the vehicle across.
The little fence sections are often broken and can be swapped between crossings by pushing the stems up out of the bases. The bases of the fence posts are melted down to hold them in place, so pushing the melted plastic back into a shape that fits up and through the hole lets you swap them over and reattach them to a different crossing base.
In 1997 the Thomas the Tank Engine Railroad Crossing Station was rereleased in new Motor Tomica packaging.
The example shown here is a 1999 reprint of the 1997 Motor Tomica box.
For a period in the early 2000s, Tomy was putting production stickers on regular accessories.
The track stopper fits in nicely between the fences. The spring-loaded crossing gates are very neat and resemble the style used early on in the Thomas television series.
First included in the Europe-only Thomas Deluxe Set in 1998, in 1999 the Thomas the Tank Engine Railroad Crossing Station was released in yellow Tomica World packaging in Europe. In 2000 it was rereleased in red Tomica World packaging, again only in Europe.
In 2003 the crossing was released in blue European Thomas Motor Road & Rail packaging. This version of the crossing was also included in several European and American export sets. After 2004 or so the base was updated with the new straightened-off Tomy logo.
In the September 2003 Plarail Thomas and Elizabeth Railroad Crossing Station Set, the station crossing was rereleased in a new Wellsworth Station color variant with different stickers. The base also has nice new white lining at the platform edge. The tooling of the base of this version is still the old logo type.
At some point in the mid 2000s the tooling for the base was updated with the squared-off Tomy logo. This version of the crossing was used in late export sets.