fall inside a hole
Motor Tomica and Plarail crossover accessories
First written May 2024Reformatted May 2026
In the mid 1990s Tomy developed battery-powered die-cast and plastic Tomica-style motorized cars that ran on a plastic road system. This series was first called B/O Tomica (B/Oトミカ) from its introduction around 1993 until the end of 1996 when the name was changed to Motor Tomica (モータートミカ). When the Plarail range was refreshed in the early 2000s the Motor Tomica range was sold as Plaroad primarily as a companion to Plarail. This page covers Motor Tomica accessories that cross over directly with Plarail, particularly the track standard.
D-11 Automatic Railroad Crossing (~1994)
The very neat and highly detailed D-11 Automatic Railroad Crossing (D-11 自動ふみきり) was on sale by 1994. This crossing is pretty cool - the large base section has an automated Plarail crossing and several small accessories including crossing signs, trees, a sign, guard rails, and a trash can and vending machine are included. I do not currently own a complete Japanese example of this crossing - the small pieces are pretty much always lost, and although I have several of the bases and a few of the signs I do not have a complete set with stickers. The road section is one and a half road straights long while the rail section is one straight rail long.
When a Motor Tomica car approaches the crossing, it is stopped by the first blue stopper in the road and runs against the rollers further back in the road. The next time a train passes it releases the first stopper and then stops the car against a second stopper which remains up until the train has finished passing, letting it continue on after. A button next to the stopper can alternately release the car at any point. (Note that one of the crossing gates does not drop properly when the train passes in this video - I will have to take a new video at some point, perhaps if I ever get one with a complete set of stickered accessories.)
Unlike the previous Plaroad J-20 Rail Road Crossing, this crossing works in either direction.
7541 Automatic Crossing (Tomica World) (1999)
In 1999 the Automatic Crossing was released for the export Tomica World range.
The Automatic Crossing was also included in some sets such as the 7427 Super Mega Set.
This version features its own sticker sheet which replaces the vending machine with a restroom. The curvy Tomy logo on the Tomica World sticker was never updated for the 2000s rerelease.
In 2003 the automatic crossing was rereleased in European Thomas Motor Road & Rail packaging.
I have one of these crossings in the box with unused accessories.
J-13 Cross Drawbridge (1995)
In 1995 the old cross drawbridge was reformatted to work with the Motor Tomica road standard with road stoppers with release buttons on either side that can also have the standard Tomica trees or signs inserted. More information can be seen on the J-13 Cross Drawbridge page.
DR-01 Straight Rail & Road (1997)
Very cool combined parallel road and rail section with accessories sold as DR-01 Straight Rail & Road (DR-01 ストレートレール&どうろ). These were produced in China from their introduction and appeared in the very nice 1997 Motor Tomica Basic Set.
Each accessory comes with a base section that is ~215mm long with double-concave rail section, road section, and median with also has road-style connections as well as a flat-style Tomica tree and yellow stoplight and barriers. This length makes the baseplate a replacement for a regular straight rail and straight road.
The prototype shown in the Tomica Plarail World '97~'98 Catalogue shows that at some point in the design process there were two planters in the medians.
These pieces, as well as the curved DR-02 version below, were also produced in green for a Doraemon set. In the 2000s these pieces with the new Tomy logo in the rail were included in a few sets like the Enoshima Electric Railway Sea View Travel Set and Thomas the Tank Engine and Bertie's Competition Set with different accessories.
DR-02 Curve Rail & Road (1997)
Very cool combined parallel road and rail curve section with accessories sold as DR-02 Curve Rail & Road (DR-02 カープレール&どうろ). They were manufactured in China, as many new Motor Tomica things were in the later 1990s.
Each accessory comes with a base section with double-concave rail section that is the same as a regular curve rail, curved road section that offers pretty much the only official way to get a 45 degree Motor Tomica curve, and median with also has road-style connections as well as a flat-style Tomica tree and yellow stoplight and barriers.
These road sections work with other accessories of the day like the J-16 City Station which has specific cutouts to accept the central median's connectors.
DR-03 Overpass Bridge (1997)
Yellow city-type elevated railway bridge sold as DR-03 Overpass Bridge (DR-03 立体交差橋) with road tunnel and accessories. Two street lights, two trees, four road barriers, and two red road barriers are included.
These bridges were first produced in China from 1997 to 2001 or so and later in Thailand.
In 1997 a set-exclusive red and white version was produced for the Tomica Plarail World Viaduct Set.
7521 Tunnel Intersection (Tomica World) (1998)
In 1998 a version of the overpass bridge was released for the Tomica World series as 7521 Tunnel Intersection. This version has different stickers - I quite like the curvy Tomy logo on the bridge.
A nice brown variant of this bridge was also produced for the Thomas the Tank Engine export series (it was not used in Japan) which has four trees instead of two trees and two stoplights as well as grey bridge railings. A variant of the grey and red bridge was also released in the Tomica World U.S. Patrol Set.
DR-04 Overpass Tunnel (1997)
The DR-04 Overpass Tunnel (DR-04 立体交差トンネル) is a green tunnel with grey road bridge on top of the "mountain." The road has holes for Tomica accessories as well as molding features for stacking road piers on top. A falling rocks sign of the Tomica accessory standard type is also included (and often lost).
Some Thomas sets like the Thomas and Bulgy Set and its exports as well as the 2006 Giant Set came with a brown variant.
The older tunnels were made in Thailand but later on production moved to China. The screw layout and the position of the production text changed. The regular grey version went out of production for the Japanese market around 2000 but both the brown Thomas variation in the export Thomas Big Set and the grey individual release continued to be made for the international market into the 2000s, with both remaining in the later European Motor Road & Rail range into the later 2000s.
7522 Road and Rail Tunnel (Tomica World) (1998)
In 1998 the individual grey road tunnel was released for the Tomica World series as 7522 Road and Rail Tunnel.
Around 2003 it was rereleased in Thomas Motor Road & Rail packaging. I have come across two of these in the boxes from the U.K., which were also the source of both of my falling rocks signs. As of the time of writing in 2026, these can still be found unused for relatively cheap in the U.K.