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Thomas the Tank Engine and Freight Cars Set (1996)

First written April 23, 2024

The Thomas the Tank Engine and Freight Cars Set (きかんしゃトーマス&貨車セット) was released on June 27, 1996. This was the first set to include the Troublesome Truck and Van as well as Ffarquhar Station and the brown Thomas-version of the old Super Rail tunnel.

This set was the last regular Thomas Plarail set to use a styrofoam insert tray. In 1999 an updated version of the set was released with a slightly different track plan.

Set contents

Quantity	Item	Photo
3 pieces	Thomas, Annie, and Clarabel (four wheel made in Thailand variant)
2 pieces	Troublesome Truck (laughing face) and Troublesome Van
4	R-01 Straight Rail
8	R-03 Curve Rail
1	R-08 Stop Rail
1 pair	R-13 Single/Double Point Rail
2 pieces	Ffarquhar Station
4 pieces	Tunnel

This set includes a standard Thailand-production mid 1990s four-wheel Thomas with Annie and Clarabel as well as the two new-for-1996 Troublesome Trucks.

The truck face is the original 1996 "laughing" face with open mouth, similar to the laughing face on the box van. The open truck and van share a common chassis. This chassis has been updated several times over the following decades. Although they were on their way out around this time, these examples still use the older single-split style rear couplings even though Thomas, Annie and Clarabel use the modern strain-relieved type.

Ffarquhar station was also a new tooling for the Thomas series for 1996 and appeared in many, many sets. The example seen here has a rather yellowed platform. The tunnel, also first used in the Plarail series in this set, is taken from the larger Super Rail system where it previously had grey tunnel portals.

Rails in my copy of the set come out of the Thailand-updated 1992 molds originally produced for Japanese production.

For the fact that it introduced the new Ffarquhar station and included the new Troublesome Trucks (also released in 1996 with Edward) as well as the first use of the brown Thomas version of the Super Rail tunnel this is sort of a neat set but in the context of Plarail and Thomas Plarail as a whole it is perhaps not the most interesting, with Ffarquhar and the tunnel being reused in many sets in the decades since.

That being said, I do think the inclusion of both Annie and Clarabel and the two trucks offers a ton of options for choosing to play with Thomas hauling trucks or passengers or both. The double track section near the station gives you some space to store cars you are not currently playing with.

Set name	Thomas the Tank Engine and Freight Cars Set きかんしゃトーマス&貨車セット	Release period	1996-1998, Japan
Train rating		Track rating
Accessory rating		Overall
Notes:		Price	3800 yen (1996)

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