Tomix - 98405 - Passenger Train, Diesel, Japan - Japan Railways Shikoku - Kiha 185

Specific Item Information: This set includes a motorized car and two cab / end cars. It comes in a book type case with extra slots for add on set.

Prototype History: In 1987, the national railroad system of Japan was broken up. Japan National Railways became six independent regional private companies. The provide passenger rail transportation in most parts of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu.

There are 27,268 km of rail crisscrossing the country. The most prominent trains are the Shinkansen, also known as "bullet trains". However, there are many different commuter services that use less impressive electric motive power as well as a number of routes that cross less densely populated areas that use diesel electric locomotives. The major usage is of urban and intercity lines, and around the time of the privatisation of JNR, many unprofitable local and rural lines were closed, especially in Hokkaido and Kyushu.

Road Name History: Shikoku Railway Company (四国旅客鉄道株式会社? Shikoku Ryokaku Tetsudō Kabushiki-gaisha), commonly known as JR Shikoku (JR四国? Jei-āru Shikoku), is one of the constituent companies of Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates intercity rail services in the four prefectures on the island of Shikoku in Japan. The company is headquartered in Takamatsu, Kagawa.

Brand/Importer Information: Tomix is a brand of Takara Tomy, a large Japanese conglomerate of companies that makes toys and games for the international marketplace. The Tomix brand (along with the Tomytec brand) are both managed by the Tomytec subsidiary/division of Takara Tomy. Prior to 1976 Tomy produced model trains using the "Tomy" brand name of the products. In 1976, they launched the new brand "Tomix" to segregate their model trains from their childrens toy lines.

Generally it can be difficult to understand why Tomytec releases some items using the Tomix brand and others using the Tomytec brand. There are some generalizations we have observed. Thomas the Tank Engine falls under Tomix, as do the JNR steam engines as well as bullet trains (Shinkansen) and track cleaning cars. Maybe another curator can step in and elaborate on this section.

Manufacturer Information: Largely a Japanese manufacturer of children's toys and baby products, Takara Tomy has established a number of different subsidiary companies, with sales offices and factories located in various locations around the world. The firm is the product of a 2006 merger-of-equals between Tomy and Takara.

Takara Tomy produces N Scale model trains under their Tomytec division (we use the term loosely because it is actually a more complex relationship) using two different brand names "Tomytec" and "Tomix". Technically speaking these are not brands in the Western sense but rather they more closely resemble subsidiaries -of-subsidiaries, and where they fit in the corporate org chart may be the matter for a Master's thesis, but for our purposes we can think of them as simply two different brands with one manufacturer. In the past (prior to 1976) some model train products were branded simply "Tomy". To further confuse things, since 2000, outside of Japan, the company goes by the simple name, "Tomy" for their international subsidiaries.

If you consider both brand names as a single company, then the Tomytec/Tomix product line is the largest of its kind in Japan; with Kato following in second place (as of 2017). While Takara Tomy products are popular around the world, the firm's focus on children's toys has limited the international acceptance and distribution of its Tomytec model railroad products. Furthermore, unlike Kato, their focus tends to be heavily skewed towards Japanes prototypes.