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Plarail Kintetsu Urban Liner

First written June 4, 2024

The 2100 series Urban Liner (アーバンライナー) trains entered service in 1988 and run a Limited Express train operated by Kintetsu Railway between Nagoya and Osaka. The train features a sloping egg-shaped nose that comes to a rim at the bottom front and rear of the train. In the early 2000s the trains were renovated with more modern seats, designated smoking areas, and easier entryways as the Urban Liner Plus. The first Plarail 2100 series were released as the 近鉄アーバンライナー Kintetsu Urban Liner beginning in 1989.

Kintetsu Urban Liner (1989)

The Plarail Kintetsu Urban Liner was first released in sixth generation packaging in 1989. These trains all use single-speed new-power gearboxes. Early examples were produced in Japan with production moving to Thailand in the 1990s.

I do have just the power car cover to a made in Japan Urban Liner - it is marked as being produced in December 1991.

Kintetsu Urban Liner (seventh generation box) (1994)

In 1994 the 近鉄アーバンライナー Kintetsu Urban Liner was rereleased in the new seventh generation box. My example is a 1995 box printing and was probably a fairly early print run of this style of box. The back of the box says of the Urban Liner: The Urban Liner was introduced in 1988 in Osaka. This is Kintetsu's Limited Express train, which connects Nagoyakan and Nagoya non-stop. It is popular for its cheerful design that emphasizes a sense of speed, and it can run at a speed of 120km/h. The rear of the box shows how to install the battery using the diagram of the 2-Speed Shinkansen.

Like other Plarail trains, it is packaged with styrofoam dividers and a replacement parts form.

Unlike a lot of other Plarail trains with open windows, these trains use the same smooth bodies with printed details that the New Romance Car and some other train use. The differently-shaped nose pieces for the different trains that use these bodies clip into the shared portion and have some additional details like open or plastic-insert windows and a front pantograph.

This example was produced in November 1995. You can see the clip on the inside of the power car that holds the cab to the rest of the body.

Hi-Speed Express (Tomica World) (1998)

Later 1990s Kintetsu Urban Liners were released in Europe in the 1998 Tomica World 7421 Large Set as the Hi-Speed Express. This was the only international release of the Kintetsu Urban Liner. This set seems to have been made until around 2000.

Like some other Tomica World trains, the power car cover has two stickers, in this case one from October 1998 over one from September 1998. It seems that this happens in cases where the power car cover is produced in one month but the matching power car chassis it is paired with is produced in another.

S-38 Kintetsu Urban Liner Plus (2003)

In 2003 as part of the refreshed, more detailed Plarail range a new version of the Kintetsu Urban Liner based on the "Plus" renovated trains was released as S-38 近鉄アーバンライナープラス Kintetsu Urban Liner Plus.

The Urban Liner Plus was dropped from the range in 2008 and replaced by the S-38 C56 No. 160 SL Kita Biwako.