fall inside a hole
Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen with Light (1981)
First written August 15, 2023
Green-trimmed 200-series Shinkansens based on the original 0-series design began servicing the Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen line in 1982. 200 series trains actually predate the mid 80s 100-series trains, and were named because the convention was for trains on the Tohoku Joetsu lines to have an even hundreds number and trains on the Tokaido Sanyo lines had odd hundreds digits. Tomy released the ライト付 東北上越新幹線 (Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen with Light) in 1981 based heavily on the existing Hikari with Light 0-series molds. Although the body shells and intermediate car's chassis are identical to the 0-series, the power and tail car's chassis have added molded snowplows to mimic the real ones fitted to 200 series trains to clear the snow on the mountainous route.
The Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen with Light was first released as EC12 in a fifth generation box.
Being from the early 80s and based on the 0 series with light train, the power car used a plastic rim-drive gearbox. An incandescent bulb fitted into the nose of the engine is wired into the negative terminal of the battery also in the nose off the engine while a second metal contact strip coming back up the length of the chassis provides the positive connection. The negative connection branches off from the contact strip downstream from the power switch so that the light turns on with the motor.
The gearbox has an extension of the positive battery terminal that sticks out underneath and is held against the additional contact strip.
The engine and cars are all of period construction and the rim-drive gearbox is the plastic type used at the time. I do not have a rim-drive 0 series of this same era to compare but most of the molds are either the same or modified from the 0-series.
My old power 200-series Shinkansen comes from the Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen Deluxe Set and was most likely produced in 1982 as that was the only year the set was on sale. The rim-drive tires are currently original but have hard-rotted and need to be replaced for the engine to work properly on inclines. The molding mark on the chassis includes the children logo and made in Japan.
(August 23, 2023)
As discussed on the rim-drive gearbox
repair page, I have been trying out using heat-shrink tubing
over original traction tires to be able to preserve hard-rotted
rim-drive tires. I tried this method on the plastic rim-drive
gearbox and found that it could still not make it up the sloping
rails in the set my example came from. I tested some of the other
engines I used this method on and they were able to make it up the
grade. I replaced one of the original tires with the rubber pulley
method and left the other wrapped in heat shrink, and the train
can now navigate the slopes. I suspect it may be the motor or
gearbox internals themselves that have degraded and made the
gearbox harder-running. The headlight in parallel with the motor
may also be drawing some of the power that could be running the
motor. I will eventually try pulling the rim-drive hubs off the
axles with a pinion puller and get inside the gearbox proper.
Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen with Light (1987)
In 1987 the 200 series Shinkansen was rereleased with a new axle drive gearbox in 6th generation packaging. This version of the illuminated 200-series is based on the same moldings and thus looks very similar to the earlier 80s version.
The chassis is updated with the new power style axle drive gearbox. The light in the nose is still an incandescent bulb connected to the negative battery terminal and a contact strip running back up the chassis from the positive side, but the power switch is now on the positive side of the circuit in the gearbox instead of the negative side at the front of the chassis.
My new power example was produced in Thailand in April 1992 towards the end of production of the Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen with Light. Shell and chassis molds all say Thailand and the power car has the curvy Tomy logo and Tomy Thailand text. The 0 and 200 series were some of the earliest molds to move to Thailand, with individual release middle cars and the 0 series appearing in the First Set in 1989, the first year of Thailand production.
The slots for plastic clips in the middle and hook end of the intermediate car and odd plastic inward protrusions in the bottom of the tail car molding seems to be from when molds diverted to make the remote control version of the 200 series train. The train's antenna extended outwards into the rear car for better reception. The Thailand 0-series molding has similar features. I am not sure if Japanese-made 0 and 200 series tail cars from after the 1984 remote control trains also have these molding features but it is possible that the molds from the remote control series were sent to the new Thailand factory in 1989 and became the molds for Thailand-made 0 and 200 series trains.
The intermediate car has a revised chassis with a plastic clip that holds the rear coupler in place. The wheels and front coupling assemblies are unchanged.
As before, although the lead and tail cars have different chassis molds, intermediate cars for the 0 and 200 series from the same eras are seemingly identical other than the color. At some point in the divergence of the molds the 200-series chassis mold lost the rings around its screw holes.
Throughout this period, green 200-series intermediate cars were available for sale as individual bagged items. These cars were some of the earliest products produced in Tomy's new Thailand factory in 1989. I have an extra intermediate car from the same Thailand era as my new power 200 series and the train looks even better with it. The three-car set is a classic element of Plarail but many trains look so much nicer with even one extra car.
The new power versions of some of the older Plarail vehicles work very well without compromising the design of the original moldings, and the 200 series is one of them. Although I love the rim drive eras engines and the Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen Deluxe Set that my rim-drive 200 series is from, new power gearboxes just run better and more reliably overall. I like pretty much every old Plarail with a light feature and the 200 series is possibly my favorite. In 1990 Tomy began selling a two-speed version of the Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen called 東北上越新幹線 (simply Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen) based on the styling of the 100 series as later 200 series trains were. This release did not have a light, although the older 100 series release before the 1987 introduction of the two-speed new power gearbox did have a light. The 0-series based Tohoku Joetsu went off sale in 1992.