fall inside a hole

Plarail Emily (2004)

First written July 30, 2024
Expanded November 2025

Emily is a green steam locomotive with one pair of large driving wheels. She was first released in a PlaKids set in 2004 and later released in a regular three-pack in 2008 in Japan, with international versions appearing in between.

PlaKids Town Emily (2004)

Emily was first released as a set-exclusive component of the December 2004 PlaKids Town Emily Set which included an opening brake coach and conductor figure amongst other components. This was the only Japanese release of Emily until the three-pack release in 2008.

Emily is not powered in the engine but rather by a flat AA drive unit in her tender. The large wheels under her boiler which would be the driven wheels on the real locomotive have traction tires so that her piston rods move properly as she rolls. The couplings between Emily and her tender are thicker and were first used on Harvey in 2003. This example dates to November 2004, meaning it was part of the initial batch of sets produced before it went on sale in December.

4814 Emily (Thomas Motor Road & Rail (U.K.))/5580 Emily (Thomas Motorized Road & Rail (U.S.)) (2005)

In 2005 a three-pack style release of Emily with her tender and a matching traditional coach based on the branch line coach tooling was released in European Motor Road & Rail and American Toys R Us Motorized Road & Rail boxes. This three-pack was included in the 2008 U.K. Tomy TrackMaster range. The Toys R Us box has a different catalogue number, perhaps because the American release of Emily with track used the 4814 catalogue number in the United States.

4814 Emily with Track (Thomas Motorized Road & Rail) (2005)

In 2005 Emily was released with four curve rails in the United States. For whatever reason, this release uses the same catalog number as the three-pack release does in the U.K., with the American Toys R Us three-pack release using a different number.

The four curve rails are stored in the lower compartment of the folded inner cardboard tray.

Its a pity that pretty much all rolling stock is less common in the United States because these train and track packs were more common and sold more places than the three-pack releases...

As export sale continued, the CE and do not dispose marks were added to the tender chassis and coal cover.

I have another export Emily produced in the same month... I think these 2006 batches were fairly large, and were part of what seems to have been the most popular period of Motor Road & Rail sales in the United States.

T-36 Plarail Emily (2008)

On July 19, 2008 Emily was released in a traditional three-pack in Japan as T-36 プラレールエミリー with a grey brakevan with white roof. Having released after the Takara Tomy merger, the box has the Takara Tomy logo on the front as well as the slightly updated Thomas and Friends logo on the right side of the box.

It must be said, the brakevan is not nearly as nice of an inclusion as the green coach of the international releases... This example is from June 2009.

TS-13 Plarail Emily (2012)

In 2012 Emily was rereleased in the light blue CGI style of packaging, still with brakevan.

She was not rereleased in the darker blue style of box when the range was updated in 2018.