fall inside a hole
Thomas and Lots of Freight Cars Set (2011)
First written April 15, 2025The Thomas and Lots of Freight Cars Set (トーマスといっぱい貨車セット) is a Plarail Thomas set first released in September 2011 as a follow-up to the legendary Thomas and Busy Freight Cars Set featuring Thomas with several different kinds of freight cars to pull as well as a loop of track and sidings.
In 2018 the set was rereleased in the updated dark blue style of packaging. Shown here is an initial 2017 print run of this updated box release. Other than the production era of the contents, the two boxes contain essentially the same contents.
Set contents
| Quantity |
Item |
Photo |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thomas the Tank Engine |
 |
| 1 | S.C. Ruffy ("rusty" type) |
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| 1 | Red troublesome truck with "happy" face |
 |
| 1 | Green troublesome truck with "angry" face |
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| 1 | Truck with tipping milk churns |
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| 1 | "Rattling" truck with moving crates |
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| 1 | Cattle van |
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| 1 | Tanker |
 |
| 1 | Express Coach (red) |
 |
| 2 | Fruit load |
 |
| 2 | Fish load |
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| 2 | Barrel load |
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| 8 | R-01 Straight Rail |
 |
| 3 | R-02 Half Straight Rail |
 |
| 8 | R-03 Curve Rail |
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| 1 pair | R-11 Turnout Rail |
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| 2 | Buffers |
 |
The Thomas in these sets are late examples of the 2000s model face "standard" Thomas, in particular from these later dark blue CGI-style boxes that were produced starting in 2017 before the CGI-face Thomas was introduced in 2018. I am not sure if there have been additional production runs of this set, but it seems to still be available so it would not surprise me if this set has continued to keep this style of Thomas in production alongside the CGI face Thomas.
Like the original, there is a variety of trucks in this set. S.C.Ruffy in his original rusty appearance is included as well as two colored Troublesome Trucks with different faces. Two each fish, apple, and barrel truck loads are included to fill them with.
Supplementing these standard trucks are two "action" trucks, one of the crate-moving-up-and-down-type and the other of the tilting-milk-churn-type. The milk churn truck fits in with the wobbly track included in the set.
The Red Express Coach is similar to other releases (other than the yellow-stripe individual release, obviously) although I think the window surrounds are a darker tan on this 2017 production period example than earlier ones.
A personal favorite highlight is the return of the 1970s Plarail livestock car in a fetching orangey-brown with white roof. Like other Thomas series variations, it doesn't have the livestock figures inside. This is much preferred to some of the somewhat odd Thomas multipack releases from this era of Thomas Plarail.
Also returning is the 1970s tooling tanker, previously used with fuel stickers for the original release of Plarail Percy. Actually, this really is a return to the 70s tooling - the molding changed to have a raised platform for the sticker in the early 1990s before Percy's initial release, but the tanker in these sets lacks this platform. I guess they weren't going to put a sticker there anyway... I wonder if the raised platform type finally reached the end of its life, and that's part of why they didn't bother to sticker this version.
Obviously, it is not nearly as good as its predecessor, but there is still a pretty nice selection of rolling stock - I think the tilting milk churn and lifting crate trucks are perhaps a little overused in this era of Thomas Plarail but I still prefer them over some of the other gimmick cars released as Thomas Plarail has declined...
The track layout is not as luxurious as the originals, which featured a three-track yard with R-17 New Point Machine to switch between them plus an extra turnout rail to expand the set and four buffer pieces to cap them all off... There is not a ton of room in the odd little siding, and it would be cramped to actually shunt any kind of train around, but you can still fit almost everything into it, I guess. You could also move the bumpy track into the siding, or just add more rails like you're really intended to do with Plarail anyways.
| Set name | Thomas and Lots of Freight Cars Set トーマスといっぱい貨車セット |
Release period | 2011-, 2018- |
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| Notes: | Price | 6900 yen |