Neat Plarail Advance Layout

[Super]

@Mr-No
LOL..I was just thinking how they would look marvelous in your Layout...lol

@Chrisjo
Thats quite a compliment coming from the Master Researcher...you! But honestly, if it weren't for Mr Nigels mentioning the Tomix brand I probably would have been lost in research land.

Tomy was open and transparent about why they made Plarail Advance.

It was designed to help people transition from Plarail to near-N-scale toys.

Once you were invested in the Plarail Advance range, they recommended Tomytec/Tomix N-scale scenery to sit next to your Plarail Advance for 'increased realism'.

The collection of Tomytec/Tomix N-scale scenery would eventually make your Plarail Advance appear out of place and you would eventually step up to N-scale trains.


The age recommendations for the toys also made this clear:
Plarail --> 3+
Plarail Advance --> 6+
Tomix N-scale --> 15+

Clearly, the plan didn't work and Plarail Advance was terminated.

***

With the collection of Plarail Advance I have, I think the series is more for looking than for running. Running the little trains take about 10 times the effort than standard Plarail.

The key issues being the wheel design and limited track variations. 

Adhesion issues
The wheels prevented the trains from having enough traction on the often worn or uneven Plarail tracks. They designed it by using rubber that had greater adhesion than the standard Plarail. However, it also resulted in greater adhesion to dust. Unless you vacuumed your floor every hour or you filtered your air like a clean room, the dust eventually settled on the tracks and was picked up by the Plarail Advance train.
Tomy knew about this and recommended cleaning using tape but I realised this needed to be done almost every day for it to run smoothly.

Derailment issues
Additional to the dust issues on the track, the requirement that the tracks needed to be aligned evenly meant Plarail track from multiple generations or badly formed track (these exist!) would not work. This was especially pronounced on curved track. My recommendation is to sort your tracks!

Limited track variations
There were only a few special tracks released for Plarail Advance: Basic rail set, points, stopping track, cross-point rail, automatic link system (stopping station + sensor/timer).
Despite what Tomy tried to demonstrate with their videos, the variations are more restrictive than standard Plarail. 

-plarnold

[Super]

That is a very interesting take on the whole line and what Plarail's intentions were. If it had worked it would have been genius. I found this to be very enlightening..
 

Tomy was open and transparent about why they made Plarail Advance.

Once you were invested in the Plarail Advance range, they recommended Tomytec/Tomix N-scale scenery to sit next to your Plarail Advance for 'increased realism'.

The collection of Tomytec/Tomix N-scale scenery would eventually make your Plarail Advance appear out of place and you would eventually step up to N-scale trains.

Thanks Plarnold