Hello, Kapinozuka here.
Back with the Great Railway Expo 2010 report again.
This time, to answer the voices of you readers that wants to see more of the Plastic Rail
displays, I will continue with the report a little bit more.
The Japanese archipelago by Plastic
Rail
The huge layouts of the Plastic Rails had the trains gathered for each different regions,
recreating the simplified Japanese archipelago.
♦ Layout: Kansai Area
The Kansai Area with the Osaka Castle and Tsutenkaku.
It seems that it has the Okayama~Osaka area as a model, with trains such as
Tokaido/Sanyo
Shinkansen,
Keihan Electric
Railway EF210 Momotaro etc. running.
♦ Layout: Tokai Area
The Tokai Area with Mt.Fuji.
Trains based mainly around Shizuoka have been gathered here.
Other than the
Tokaido/Sanyo
Shinkansen, if you look closely, the
Odakyu Rommance Car Type 50000VSE is also there.
♦ Layout: Kanto Area
A different angle shot of the Kanto area that was introduced in the blog of 19th/Aug.
The Fuji Television building, Tokyo Station Marunouchi Entrance, Tokyo Tower, skyscrapers etc.
there are many characteristic structures that catch your attention here.
Its only in Tokyo, where the bullet trains for Tokaido and Tohoku meet.
Yamanote Line,
Narita Express, and
Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line etc.
many trains that symbolizes the trains of Tokyo are running here.
♦ Layout: Tohoku Area
With the statue of Date Masamune placed, this is the Tohoku area centered around Sendai.
In the middle, there were a few Tohoku Shinkansens, such as
E1 Max,
Series E2 Hayate,
E4 Max, and
East i displayed, and this was
recreating the
JR East Sendai Shinkansen General Vehicle Center.
The Featured Plastic Rail Set
♦
Let's Play with Tomika! Auto
Railroad Crossing Station
Within the Plastic Rail series, there are sets you can play with in conjunction with Tomica.
And one of these is the Auto crossing station.
The Tomica will cross the crossing in turn, and gets to the other side with grade separation to
re-cross the crossing again, continuing this action automatically. Also, blinking gimmick for the
red lights on the traffic has been included too.
A safety system has been equipped too, where the trains will pause at the
station before the crossing, and the Tomica will cross in the mean time, to prevent any traffic
accidents.
It is fun just watching this, but you can also lean about the safety mechanism that works behind
the scenes.
♦
Large Plastic Rail Town D51
Rail Station
A huge D51 has joined the Deca Plastic rail series.
And this D51...
When the Tender part opens, the "Maga-rail" will appear.
*It said it will open automatically, but you need to manually open it.
The "Maga-rail" can been freely change its angle, so it can increase variation to the layout
plans of the Plastic rail system.
Plus, this large D51 can be opened up to transform into a station too.
What a compact design!
♦
Automatic Transfer Station
and Dr. Yellow Set
The station in the center of the image has a gimmick that allows trains to alternately take
off.
In the image, the E231 Yamanote Line has just arrived and came to a hult, where as the Series
E231 Sobu line had just taken off in its place.
With the auto transfer stations and the Y point intersection at the back for front/back, the
Plastic Rail trains prevent frontal crashes.
This allows you to learn about
the Single Lined Railway Operation System too.
This station is included in the
Automatic Transfer Station and Dr. Yellow Set if you are interested.
And btw, a certain staff had bought this her at Hobby Search too.
♦
Thomas the Tank Engine
Cruise Set
This is layout set where Thomas the Tank Engine goes on a boat trip on his own.
Thomas will drive onto the ferry by running on the pier rail and depart.
It will then take a round trip and gets off on the pier rail on the other side.
With this set, you can learn about the
car transporting system associated with the
railway ferry.
♦
Percy &
Wobbly Suspension Bridge Set &
Heart Pounding Mountain Set
This is an example a layout with multiple sets combined.
In the photo,
Percy is climbing
the steep slope of the
Heart
Pounding Mountain while pulling freight.
And there were many kids gathered and cheering Percy on, shouting, "You can do it!" and such.
Once Percy fully climbs the mountain, he will move onto crossing the
Wobbly Suspension Bridge.
As the surface of the bridge is bumpy, it seems to be rather difficult to cross, and the freights
kept shaking too. This freight car is included in the
Wobbly Suspension Bridge Set.
So this was a fun layout where everyone was cheering on Percy's hard work.
New Products Released this Summer
This was a display that had just gathered the latest products just released this summer.
♦
Skyliner Airport Access
Set
Only just made its debut in July, the Keisei Electric Railway's new type Skyliner.
With a top speed of 160km/h, it is the fastest train amongst the conventional lines, and the fact
that Kansai Yamamoto had worked on the design, this train had become a very hot topic.
It was released to match the start of Narita Sky Access line.
Comes with a scenery parts too.
♦ Tokyo Metro Assorted types.
Tokyo Metro Hanzomon Line & Hibiya
Line Double Set and
Tokyo Metro Namboku Line & Chiyoda
Line Double Set are both released at the same time.
The Chiyoda Line series 6000 was once sold under the name of the "Subway Train" quite some time
ago, but it has returned with a lighting gimmick!
The Hibiya Line Series 03 and Hanzomon Line Series 08 both electric trains that rides onto the
Tobu Isesaki Line.
Its amazing to see that the electric trains that gather at Kita-Senju Station such as the Chiyoda
Line Series 6000 and the later mentioned Tsukuba Express has been turned into Plastic Rail
Series.
♦ Tsukuba Express & Tokyo Metro Series 02
The
S-56 Tsukuba Express Series TX-
2000 and
Tokyo Metro Series 02
Marunouchi Line w/Light.
The Series TX-2000 has the add-on cars of recent years, with the red stripes has been
reproduced.
The Marunouchi Series 02 was once a red train with white stripe, and that white stripe had been
decorated with sine waves, which was very characteristic.
At the Shopping Corner
♦ Seibu Series 30000 "Smile Train"
The Seibu Railways Limited Edition Plastic Rail, the Series 30000.
Now, this was actually pre-released at the shopping corner of the venue.
The Business associates Limited Edition Plastic Rails are rare items that are very difficult to
get your hands on.
*We do not deal with this product at Hobby Search.
♦ Shanghai Shinkansen Type CRH2 Wakai
Here is a Plastic Railway that had reproduced the Chinese Highspeed Railway type CRH2 Electric
Train.
There were two types, the basic set and starter set on sale.
This is sold within China as limited edition,
but this time, the instruction manual had been reproduced in Japanese for use by the Japanese
customers.
This is normally the limited edition Plastic Railway that you could only get when you go to the
Expo 2010 Shanghai China or something, so if you are interested, I really recommend you not to
miss out on it.
*We do not deal with this product at Hobby Search.
Those of you that thought you've seen the type CRH2 somewhere before, you really are quick
witted.
The train had been built based on the Shinkansen Series E2, used on the currently active
"Hayate", so it looks just like the Series E2.
So yeah, he is the brother in a foreign country.
Anyway, that's it for the concentrated report on the Plastic Rail series.
By Kapinozuka, who had played with Plastic Rail often when he was a child.
★Related Posts★
Dai Testsudo Haku 2010 Report
(19/08/2010)