early tomy pre-black track? arrival

ok guys, the set i won last week arrived today. its much bigger than expected. the track seems to be about the same footprint as the toddler ride on trains... huge.

it will take some figuring out how to keep it running. it seems to activate off the large blue piece, but sometimes only goes halfway round the track before stopping. the on/off switch is underneath, along with a reversing one. seems like the odd bits of track, like the points, switch the thing off.

the orange pieces clip between the tracks, and i think some are missing. of the two i got, one is missing both clips. some of the track connectors are broken too, but it seems to hold together.

runs fairly well, all things considered. will open it later this week and give it a clean out. it will need a lube i think, was smelling a tad warm after not much run time.

photobucket isnt loading for some reason, so you will have to go to my site to see any pics. normally i like to put a couple of different ones up but cant be done right now, sorry. forgive the poor page work... ran out of time.
http://sunsthomasandfriends.weebly.com/1...rains.html

if anyone has any info on this set, such as how to make it run continuously i would be very appreciative

Interesting set, so gauge-wise how does it compare to normal plarail? I'm just trying to visualise the relevant sizes of the rolling stock.

So I suppose the next big question is this compatible with the Tomy super rail black?

the rolling stock is a bit bigger/chunkier body-wise, but the distance between the wheels appears to be the same.
this set has flanged wheels to sit on the rails rather than in the rails. the rolling stock should work on blue track, but i dont think the engine will be able to gain traction, being flanged. the track wont work with blue track engines/stock as far as i can tell.

i dont have any black track, so cant help on that. i dont even know if this came before, after or during that era? interesting note: the green catenary poles are identical to the white ones seen with the grey elevated track, except with a base that clips to the sleepers.

photobucket is working now, so heres some preview photos.

the layout as a whole. i dont know if this is correct placement for everything, but it works.


the set engine and tender compared to TM RC hiro. over all length is about the same, but the engine is longer.


i will get some rolling stock and track comparison photos tomorrow. was in a bit of a rush today so did the most important stuff.

Ah, that's about the size I expected, it's just when you said "toddler ride on trains" I had visions of a train big enough for a toddler to ride on lol!

Out of interest what's the blue box at the bottom??

ah, sorry about that, nigels. the track size is about the same as the toddler set.

the box appears to be some sort of control panel? the levers lift up the different grey rectangles. the two orange pieces i have are identical to two of these, and i believe there should be orange ones for coupling and uncoupling since the box says this can be done.

Ah, ok so its like a multiple function 'stop track' that enables you to carry out different tasks like change direction by the looks of things. I suppose that could be like an early 'sound and action' function set like you get with the Thomas set...

thats what im guessing, nigels. i need to spend an afternoon tinkering with it.

i opened the engine today, to find she runs metal gearing, except for the drive gear which is the same as modern engines [plastic/nylon.] she was clean inside, a bit of gunk around the axles, but the gears were fluff-free.

she runs a can type motor [thanks for the name of it, wepn!] the motor also sits vertical inside the cab