fall inside a hole

EF15 Electric Locomotive (2001)

First written September 20, 2023
Expanded September 2025

The EF15 was manufactured between 1947 and 1958. Over 200 were built and they remained in use until the mid 1980s on freight lines. The Plarail EF-15 was introduced in 1970 and was a regular release for the rest of the 1970s and also appeared in a long-lasting set in the 1980s. It disappeared from the range with the move to new power before reappearing with a modern gearbox in 2001.

Electric Locomotive (1970)

The EF-15 debuted in 1970 in the second generation of lift-top box as well as the Electric Locomotive Set. Being the only electric locomotive in the range at the time, it was simply called the Electric Locomotive (でんききかんしゃ).

The original type from 1970 to 1972 or so had a grey chassis and pantographs and the earlier red-chassis tank car and container car.

Around 1972 or so the EF-15 was updated to use black plastic, perhaps to consolidate the different colors that Tomy was producing for different products. The freight cars changed to the more familiar and longer-lasting style, although early types still used the older chassis tooling without additional axlebox details that better cover the wheel's axles.

In 1973 the DD51 Diesel Locomotive was introduced, using the same chassis as the EF-15.

EF-15 Electric Locomotive (1974)

The EF-15 was rereleased in the third generation of lift-top box as the EF-15 Electric Locomotive to differentiate it from new trains like the EF-58 Electric Locomotive and ED-70 Electric Locomotive. In addition to red, yellow and green EF-15s also appeared through to the end of the 1970s when it was dropped from the regular individual releases. The red EF-15 also appeared in the EF-15 Electric Locomotive Overpass Panorama Set beginning in 1974.

I suspect these colors were available because they also crossed over with Round-Trip ED-70 production, which began using the same body shell as the EF-15 but with a new reversing chassis in 1975. By the era of these releases the rear window had been modified to be taller to stay out of the way of the motor shaft, in particular because the ED-70's seems to be lower and stick out further.

Lit EF-15 (Container Loading and Unloading Set) (1980)

In 1980 an EF-15 with headlight appeared in the Container Loading and Unloading Set. It had a grey chassis somewhat similar to the originals but with added contact strips and a bulb in the body shell like the Hikari with Light and D-51 with Light around the same time.

In 1981 the EF-15 Electric Locomotive Overpass Panorama Set was updated and rereleased as the Electric Locomotive Overpass Set with EF-15s based on the lit type with changed to the tooling but without the light feature.

Early examples used up the leftover grey chassis components but most of these EF-15s were black. The body shell has the holes in the headlight and for the rivets that held the contact strips in, and the chassis also carries forward the modifications for the additional electrical strips. I don't believe this chassis changed appeared on the DD-51s, so the toolings must have diverged at some point. The DD-51 was eventually updated to use the plastic old-power gearbox.

This set was discontinued with the move to new power in 1987, and the EF-15 disappeared from the range for many years...

EF15 Electric Locomotive (2001)

On November first, 2001 a new EF15 was released as the EF15 Electric Locomotive in the short-lived eighth generation packaging along with two of the container flatbeds with containers. The locomotive is based on the old old-power toolings - the chassis even still has the contact strip modifications, in addition to the body shell retaining the rivet holes.

This EF15 is powered by the regular single-speed new power gearbox. I have two examples, the boxed 8th generation example primarily documented here was built in October 2001 while a second engine found separately was produced in December 2003 and would have come in 9th generation packaging as S-27 EF15 Electric Locomotive. It seems both earlier and later releases used the version of the new power gearbox with a clip covering the motor terminals which has been removed from my later example.

The EF15 chassis has been updated with the new squared-off Tomy logo. By 2003 the new power gearbox molding had been updated to include additional production codes. I thought that this locomotive would have used the longer coupler that the D51 and DD51 used, and installed a 3D printed replacement on my second unit which did not have any rear coupler when I bought it, but it actually uses the standard one. You can see where a little bit of the coupling ring does intersect with the body molding when to one side, but I don't think this would really effect running. I also had to replace one of the body clips on my later EF15 shell - the file for the 3D-printed clip I made can be found on the Plarail resources page (as well as the 3D printable long coupling).

I actually did end up fitting the loose newer EF15 I have with a functioning light. The details for how I decided to do it are chronicled here.

The original packaging includes styrofoam dividers between each of the cars and at either end. I am not sure if the EF15 originally came in a plastic bag but mine did not.

The two flatbeds are an identical brownish red and come with two pairs of basic but nice looking containers. These flatbeds originate in the late 1989s Play Wagons Set. These containers do not have the magnets installed underneath. The flatbed molding is the Thailand update of the original curvy Tomy logo original molding.

Being a rerelease of a 1970s mold the EF15 stands out somewhat next to other models released around the same time like the EH500 or EF210 which were all-new moldings, although the older molding does fit the older train (the EF15 had already been out of service for 15 years by 2001). This train also uses the less realistic yellow wheels instead of the grey wheels that many new engines were using around this time and does not have a realistic running number, just a new printing of the existing EF15 sticker.

The EF15 Electric Locomotive was rereleased in 2002 in 9th generation packaging as S-27 EF15 Electric Locomotive. S-27 was retired around 2006 and was the last time a Plarail EF15 was produced (as of early 2025).