A nicely-detailed water tower and coal loader accessory with controls to make the tower pipe and coal chute move was developed first as an accessory for the 2004 Plarail More Talkative Thomas Set and then later reformatted slightly to fit regular trains and exported as an individual accessory to the U.K. and included in a set in the United States. In Japan it was also used in the regular Plarail series Sound Steam D-51 Set.
The water tower and coal loader was first released in Japan in September 2004 as part of the More Talkative Thomas Set.
The accessory base includes places to install two light poles, the water tower, a ladder on the side of the water tower, as well as several places where PlaKids can be inserted and stood up. The ladder is often missing - all three smaller accessories are, really, but the lamps can be found elsewhere.
The stopper in the track is located under the coal hopper so that it can properly stop the powered Annie that pushes the unpowered second-generation talking Thomas included in the set. This works well with the Talking Thomas, lining up the spout with his filler cap and the chute with his coal bunker pretty closely. This means the stopper is in the wrong place for most Plarail Thomas trains, stopping most of the tender-drive engines too far back still, although some like the Sound Steam Thomas the Tank Engine, More Talkative Percy, and the D51 with sound based on the Talking Thomas itself that came in a set with a recolor of the water tower and coal loader work perfectly.
The Water Tower & Coal Loader was reformatted slightly and rereleased individually in Europe as part of the Motor Road & Rail range in 2005.
Clarabel is pictured backwards in the photos used on the box. This is also true of the Thomas Water & Coal Station Set's box, which uses photos from the same shoot.
In addition to localized stickers, the track stopper has been moved from under the coal hopper to out front of the water tower so that it will properly stop more traditional and export-style Plarail Thomas trains.
The tooling around where the ladder connects to the water tower was changed slightly from the Plarail version, probably to try to increase the grip force, but I don't think it helped a ton... The base still includes the protrusions to connect Plakids.
The lever on the left raises and lowers the spout of the water tower. Spinning the knob either raises or lowers the coal chute while shaking the hopper, continuing to shake after the chute has finished moving. The switch for the track stopper is in the same location.
Also in 2005 and also using the catalogue number 4743, the 4743 Thomas Water & Coal Station Set released in the United States, the only release of this accessory in the U.S.
The coal hopper and water tower in the Plarail Sound Steam D-51 Set is more similar to this export version of the accessory, with the stopper between the water tower and coal hopper so the train's tender lines up with the chute and spout. I am not sure exactly which came out first, but the tooling seems to be shared.