Other items I picked up from Japan online auctions

I've been looking into getting some non-Thomas trains in the distant future (that is, when I'll start becoming responsible after turning 18). I'll even find appropriate places to construct public layouts, such as a patriotic one with custom Israel Railways trains, and a few recreations of real stations, but I digress.

I see a strange tanker and brown goods van with odd couplings. What are they, and where are they from?

Dala,

These ones I've been winning are not compatible with Tomy, they are PlaRail trains made by Takara independently before they merged with Tomy to become Tomy Takara around 2002. The main differences are they are physically smalller, size-wise somewhere between the standard Tomy PlaRail and PlaRail Advance.

The trains are also quite interesting in terms of construction, in a typical 3 car set you get the motor and a micro-switch (activated by pressing the rear top of the car) in the leading car, and the batteries (2 x AAA) in the middle car with a hard on/off switch on the underside. These two are connected permanently, a bit like some of the Tomy loco's with the battery in the tender. The trailing car is just that.

The couplings are quite curious, but work very well, basically they are like a D shape with a small gap in the straight edge. These interlock with each other with a small force and then they rotate in their sockets, quite a nice way of connecting the cars together.

I picked up a job lot of brand new unused trains/track/accessories last year and is what somehow led me here when I was trying to google exactly what they were as I originally thought they were standard Tomy PlaRail. Now I've been exploring the world of Japanese auctions to supplement my initial colection and found the range to be way bigger than I anticipated or hoped for

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Wow, who would have thought there were so many Nigels. Glad to see they also have freight cars and isn't that a white DD51 Diesel I see facing the other way? Keep them all coming so I can enjoy you all opening your great packages. I am missing the big cardboard boxes showing up on my doorstep.

I know who would have thought eh?

Yes, I believe you are right about the DD51, I'll be curious to see it myself once i get my grubby little hands on it. I've also just won another 'job lot' consisting of a bunch of track and only about 10 trains in that, but again some different to the ones in this batch.

I will also end up with several EF type disesels with different types of goods wagons so things are looking good