When it comes to Plarail, it has such a long history in Japan.
Released in 1959, the first Plarail (plastic rail) trains released by Japanese toy company TOMY, were small choo choo trains with yellow wheels that could roll via hand powered on blue plastic tracks.
By October 1961, TOMY introduced a battery-operated electric toy train system with the “Electric Pla-Train Set” which featured three cars (the main locomotive and the two cars) and a decade later, in 1971, Plarail trains would be based on actual real life train, with the D51 Kisha being the first.
So, six generation of families pretty much have grown up with Plarail and so in 2021, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Plarail, a book was released titled “Plarail Cho Zukan Deluxe (Plarail Super Pictorial Book Deluxe)”.
When it comes to finding books on Plarail, while there are a good number of them, the question is if you are getting enough content.
For me, you would be lucky to find a Plarail book over 100 pages, getting one over 200 pages is rare and this book is 224 pages!
But this is more of a picture book with not much text.
The book is broken down into chapters such as:
- Shinkansen and Steam Locomotives
- Limited Express, Sleeper Express, Suburban Trains, Trams/Street Car
- Protect Rails, Private Railways’
- Others (such as tracks and Plakids)
- Plarail Catalog by Age (from 1959 to 2019)
You do get the names of the trains to go along with the photos.and the year of release.
But you can really see how things have changed with Plarail from 1959 through the early 2000s, but you start to notice much more detail from 2002 to present. Granted, possibly the biggest advancement is to make the trains run by a single AA battery. In addition, to add a third speed, connection specification, lighting, Plakids and more.
I absolutely love this book as a reference but also seeing the various incarnations of the trains I like being released and how they were upgraded throughout the years, but also seeing Plarail trains that are no longer around.
It probably is the best Plarail book on the market right now and it’s not expensive at Y2200 (about $15 USD).
The Plarail Cho Zukan Deluxe (Plarail Super Pictorial Book Deluxe) is highly recommended!
