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Thomas the Tank Engine Exciting Cruise Set (2010)

First written April 5, 2025

The Plarail Thomas the Tank Engine Exciting Cruise Set (プラレールきかんしゃトーマス うきうきクルーズセット) is a Thomas-series Plarail set released in July 2010 that features Thomas and Cranky recreating a classic 1970 regular Plarail set with a steam locomotive that boards and powers a ferryboat around part of the layout where it disembarks and continues on.

A sticker on the front of my box references the inclusion of a bonus passenger car. I have seen this sticker on a few other boxes for this set online, but mine nor the others I have seen still have it present to even know what car it was. I think this was probably an inclusion done by a store or retailer as opposed to Tomy themselves, or it might even refer to a separate giveaway item awarded at the point of sale...

Set contents

Quantity	Item	Photo
1	Thomas with surprised face
1	Ferryboat
2	R-01 Straight Rail
2	R-03 Curve Rail
1 pair	Banked Curve
4 pieces	Cranky and pier
1	Ferryboat arm
1 pair	Ferry entrance and exit ramps
1 pair	Straight water
4	Curved water
2	Standing Tree (brown base and trunk)

This set comes with a surprised-face Thomas looking roughly straight ahead, differentiating it from the earlier Jet Engine Thomas and Doki Doki Mountain Set Thomas. These Thomases were produced in June 2010.

Also included is the ferryboat that Thomas or another train can ride in and drive the ferry across the water track. The ferry has its outer rear wheel powered with a traction tire. A round cutout accommodates the metal arm that keeps the ferry at the right distance and also causes Cranky to swing. The ferry is large enough to hold the larger Thomas series tender engines.

There are only a few pieces of regular track in this set - half of the loop is made up of the "water" track for the ferry and the on and off ramps.

Another neat inclusion is an updated version of the old TomyTrain banked curve in green with stickers.

The pier section is made up of three stickered pieces with the large center section having a mechanism that links the movement of the ferry to Cranky's swinging. Cranky's pier is also compatible with PlaKids, with a few different slots to put them in.

The base is nicely stickered and has a few other tooled details. The Thomas & Friends logo is hanging out around the back.

Thomas boards the ferry and swings around Cranky as it traverses the curve. At the other end, a catch holds the ferry in place until Thomas triggers the release on the exit ramp.

As noted, this set references a 1976 Plarail set with a D-51 steam locomotive that boards and powers a ferryboat around a curve, causing a seagull to fly around above a lighthouse on a pier.

As you could see above, Thomas struggles a little bit to get the ferry across. There are a few mechanical issues that have developed with age - this set is very nearly 15 years old at time of writing! When I first got it, the white protrusion in Cranky's base to connect to the ferry arm was not properly linked to the mechanism that actually drives Cranky. Upon disassembling the base and removing the screw holding the two pieces together I found that the key molded into the side of the ferry arm clip that fits inside a keyway in the geared mechanism below had shorn off and was rattling around inside the base. I glued this bit of plastic back into place and the two parts are interlinked again, although I suspect I probably ended up gluing the key into the slot as well, which is probably not too bad a thing and will help keep the two locked together anyways. After solving this problem, I had to rearrange the water track sections and adjust the joints until Thomas would power it all the way around anyways. I wonder if part of the reason Cranky's up and down movement was removed was because trains could not deliver enough power through the transmission system of the ferry and down the arm and against the spring and through the gearing and up Cranky, because it seems like it is already close, at least with a used and 15-year-old motor.

The catch on the unloading exit ramp was also not springing back properly on my example. This would leave the catch in the open position the next time the ferry came around whereupon it would fail to catch it, leaving Thomas stranded in the gap as the boat starts to swing away as soon as Thomas's wheel leave the rollers inside. I ended up moving the catch on the sliding mechanism to grab further up the spring so there is more tension returning it back to the ready-to-catch position.

Set name	Plarail Thomas the Tank Engine Exciting Cruise Set プラレールきかんしゃトーマス うきうきクルーズセット	Release period	2010, Japan
Vehicle rating		Track rating
Accessory rating		Overall
Notes:	I like that this set references 1970s Plarail

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