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Tomica World Amtrak Super Spiral Set (2001)
First written June 9, 2024
The 7413 Amtrak Super Spiral Set was a 2001 Tomica World set released in the United States based on the European 7429 Super Spiral Set. This American version does not include any Motor Tomica road elements but does include a nice American Amtrak F unit diesel and passenger cars as well as a two-level panel station.
Set contents| Quantity |
Item |
Photo |
|---|---|---|
| 3 pieces | Amtrak diesel and passenger cars |
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| 5 | Straight Rail |
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| 11 | Curve Rail |
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| 3 | Points Rail (two "L", one "R") |
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| 1 | Y Shaped Points Rail ("L") |
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| 1 | Sloping Rail | |
| 18 pieces | Sloping Curve Rail (7 "A", 11 "B") |
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| 24 | Bridge Girder |
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| 18 | Rail Bridge Supports |
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| 2 pieces | Iron Bridge (side pieces only) |
 |
| 13 pieces | Panel Station |
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| Tomica World VHS (NTSC, 2001) |
The train in this set is a rather neat F unit diesel with Amtrak livery. This tooling was new this year and never used outside of the United States, and this train and its later red and blue variants remained unknown to many Japanese Plarail collectors for many years.
The engine uses the old squared-off-front chassis and two-speed gearbox and the passenger cars are actually from the plastic rim screw era, being from 2001. The tooling for the engine and cars are both very nice. I believe the caution stickers seen on many American Tomy trains began here, and the notch seen on some versions seems to be because of this body shell tooling.
The chassis is even still the old curvy logo version! I am not sure if this set was produced long enough to have come with the new version.
Most of the set is focused around two large connected spiral towers. These towers are made up of a mix of "new" block bridge girders, mini bridge piers, regular curve rail, and slope curve rail.
Each full-height girder allows for a train to pass under - when stacking them, the base of the girder clips in and around the top of the rail joint under it. Thus, it is important to complete the rail on one level of a tower or spiral before adding the girders for another, as the girders have to come completely apart in order to fit rail in between two layers after the fact.
The easiest way to handle building spirals, I find, is to add a few track pieces on the current layer at a time, and then use girders over some of the completed joints to help hold the track in place and be ready to place the next layer. The shorter mini piers are a quarter of the height of the full piers, and can be stacked up to match. Each slope curve lifts the rail by one mini pier, which is built into the higher end of the rail. Four of these slope curves thus raises the rail one complete "level" of pier, letting the train run under it in a spiral. As more layers are added, more slope curves need to be added to match the height that was added by the slope curves in the previous layer.
The standard straights and curves are from the late 1990s Thailand toolings.
The set also features a nice blue and red Tomica World panel station, one of the few times any panel station system toys were exported outside of Japan and its only use in a Tomica World set. The panel station system uses base sections with integrated rails or stoppers, window pieces, roofs, and signs that can be combined in different ways and configurations to make multi-level stations or other buildings.
The stacking pier system is one of the coolest things about Plarail and this set shows that off well to an American audience with a localized train. It is honestly a pity that Tomica World did not sell very well in the United States - it would have been awesome to see even more cool big American sets like this and the 2008 Tomy Trains Super Deluxe City Set.
The layout is big enough you can pretty easily run more than one train around. This set has gained somewhat of a "legendary" status, and it is certainly very neat. It is somewhat hard to find complete and is usually fairly expensive when it does appear.
| Set name | 7413 Amtrak Super Spiral Set | Release period | 2001, United States |
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| Notes: | Depending on how much weight you give the girders as accessories, the accessory score is a little higher |