Japan

[AlexMaria]

[continues from previous post]

As part of this plans, 2000 Series sets started to undergo a rather "invasive" modification and conversion process, wich involved the "cutting out" a hole for a third door in the center of the bodyshell, and then welding the actual doorway to it (and consequently rearranging the passenger windows) along with changing the interiors from the limited express-style cross-seating to more conventional longitudinal-style seating more suited for a commuter train. The first train to be converted was the first 2000 Series set ever produced, 2011F, at the hands of Tokyu Car Corporation, one of it's two original manufacturers. All the other conversions would be handled by Keikyu's own Keikyu Car Corporation (currently Keikyu Finetech), a subsidiary company that handles rolling stock modifications and conversions, normally on second-hand stock bought by small third-sector railways.
Among other modifications, the 2000 Series sets were also adapted for multiple-unit working with all of Keikyu's subsequent serieses - the 1500, (New) 600, 2100 and New 1000 Serieses.

Converted trains promptly re-entered services fitted in Keikyu's all-over red with a thin-white line livery, running local services on the Keikyu Main Line, alongside with rapid and express services on the Airport Line. The 2000 Series however remained confined to the Keikyu network only, as due to it's lack of a front emergency escape door, required by law, could not enter Sengakuji station, nor run trough-services further along the Toei Asakusa Line.
The last remaining set, 2051F, was retired from skip-stop services on the 27th of August 2000 and sent for conversion.

"Demoted" to commuter services, the 2000 Series' life remained relatively uneventful for several years, shuttling up and down the Keikyu mainline and it's branches on all kinds of services, including rapid and express runs, where the high-speed capabilities of the 2000 Series could be fully used.
However, the vast majority of services allocated were all-stop local runs, wich quickly began to take a toll on the 2000 Series' equipment, primarily the transmission gearing, wich had been designed for high-speeds, rather than high accellerations: the result was a slugghish accelleration as well as premature wear on vital components. Furthemore, with Keikyu's increasingly trough-running-focused service planning, the subway regulations non-compliance of the 2000 Series began to be a problem.
As such, a replacement finally began in 2012 at the hands of the various batches of the New 1000 Series that were being introduced at the same time. Priority was given to the four-car sets, with sets 2411F, 2421F and 2431F being retired on the 4th of May.

One year later, for it's 30th Anniversary (as well as for the whole series), set 2011F was repainted in it's original "express" livery (all-over red with a wide white band around the windows), entering service in it's new guise on the 17th of January 2013.

Withdrawals however continued, with 8-car set 2021F being withdrawn on the 3rd of July 2014, 4-car sets 2441F and 2461F being retired on the 4th of March 2016, being followed by the last remaining 4-car set, 2451F, withdrawn on the 12th of October after a brief stint on the Daishi Line immediately before it's retirement.
Sets 2031F and 2041F were retired in 2017, on the 7th of February and 8th of March respectively and in 2018 all three remaining sets were retired: 2051F on the 1st of February, 2061F on the 15th of March and finally 2011F, wich was retired on the 28th of March after it's final run, having the distinction of being both the first and last 2000 Series set in service.

Unfortunately, all cars were scrapped immediately after retirement, with none being sold on the second-hand market, nor preserved.

Trivia #1
The idea of foldable "strapountins" was allegedly inspired by their usage in France, with the SNCF Z6400 Series (introduced in 1976 on commuter services out of Paris Saint-Lazare station) being the main basis for Keikyu's adoption.

Trivia #2
The 2000 Series was the recipient of the 1983 "Blue Ribbon", a prize awared by the Japan Railfan Club to trains with the most outstanding fetaures or technical improvements.

Trivia #3
Surplus seats from the 2000 Series' conversion were re-used in the earliest five batches of the New 1000 Series, wich were being introduced at around the same as the ongoing conversion process.
A sizeable number of seats were also put on sale on the second-hand marked, where they found a number of buyers, among wich the Railway Technical Research Institute (the Research and Development arm of the JR Group), wich fitted them to it's 1st generation "Gauge Change Train" prototype (GCT-01), the Tokyo Tourism College, where they were used as teaching materials in a number of railway-related courses and most interestingly, the US Navy, wich installed them in it's fleet of shuttle busses running from the Yokosuka Navy Base to a number of off-base housing complexes, such as Ikego Housing Office, wich is ironically located right across from Jimmuji Station on the Keikyu Zushi Line (the station even has a dedicated exit reserved for US Navy servicemen and other Navy credential holders).

 

[Forester1]

Hi AlexMaria. Thank you again for all your creative genius and generosity! Just curious, your post and the download page say 2000 series, but the download file is 1500series?
Keikyu 1500 Series.rar. And the folder inside is named the same, as are all the files.

 

[AlexMaria]

Hi AlexMaria. Thank you again for all your creative genius and generosity! Just curious, your post and the download page say 2000 series, but the download file is 1500series?
Keikyu 1500 Series.rar. And the folder inside is named the same, as are all the files.

Oops, true, i've forgot to change the download link before posting.
I've fixed it now, you can go ahead and download the proper 2000 Series pack.

 

[Malikulfauzi1]

https://imgur.com/a/qNEKNP2

JR East GV-E197

 

[AlexMaria]

And finally, here's my last Keikyu-related pack for hopefully a wile! Highly requested on the Trainz Japan Discord server, here's the funky Daruma - the 800 Series!

Original (and revival) livery on the left, standard livery on the right.

Of course always promptly available on my website!

The story of the 800 Series begins in the mid-1970s, as Keikyu was looking to replace the last remaining 400 Series sets (an amalgamae of various types of electric multiple units ranging from late-1930s stuff, substandard wartime rolling stock as well as 1950s-era new production stuff, but still based on 1930s designs) and atleast a few of the newer, but equally obsolete, 500 Series sets from the mid-1950s, especially on all-stops local services south of Keikyu-Kawasaki station - north of it this replacement had already been taken care of in the late 1960s by the 700 Series and by the trough-running 1000 Series (as Keikyu-Kawasaki at the time was the southern terminus for most Asakusa Line local trough-services).

Keikyu essentially needed a direct equivalent of the 700 Series - short sets due to low passenger demand of local services, four doors per side to reduce dwell time to a bare minimium, high accelleration performances, but at the same time, something more up-to-date than the late-1950s-based 700 Series design.

As with all, the design of the new trains was chaired by Tamotsu Hinohara, Keikyu's long-time chief rolling stock engineer, and company vice-president at the time. A bona-fide railway enthusiast, mr. Hinohara had been with Keikyu since the end of the war, and had quite a peculiar character. Among other things, being the head of all rolling stock designs since the 1950s, he stubbornly insisted on keeping two main fetaures that by then had been abandoned in other major private railways by some decades: a single-top-mounted headlight, and single-leaf doors. The rationale according to him being that a single top-mounted headlight was cheaper than two, and was better at lighting the track far up ahead, and the single-leaf doors were simpler and cheaper to maintain, and made for a much more "visually clean" appearance for the whole train.

This last point was especially dear to him, going to the lenghts of having it proven with an 8mm camera pointed at JNR's double-leaf door trains at Yokohama station, demonstrating the difference in dwelling time between them and single-leaf door Keikyu trains was negligible, and the true key was in having more doors, rather than double-leaf ones. Within the company, this stubborn attitude was sometimes derided as "Hinohara-ism", but as he was the one who had the final say in rolling stock design, the company had to give in to his antics.

The new local trains weren't spared of Mr. Hinohara's "personal touch" either - the bodyshell and general arrangment where directly based on the 700 Series, but with a much more modern looking "two-stage" front, wich with Keikyu's white and red colours, immediately got the new local trains nicknamed "Daruma", after the traditional Daruma doll.
Being dedicated to local services only, the interior arrangment of the new trains were of course all-longitudinal seating. The cars were also air-conditioned, courtesy of four small air-conditioners on the cab cars, and a large centralized one on the intermediate cars, both types manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric.
In terms of other technical equipment, the new local trains were Keikyu's first to be equipped with a shunt-chopper system (an hybrid system that retains the series and parallel motor combinations, but whose intermediate steps are carried out by a chopper, rather than packs of resistors, as in "purely" resistor-control trains), as well as a one-handle master controller on the driving desk and pneumatic-suspension bogeys.
The new local trains were to be formed as three-car sets: one intermediate motor car equipped with pantographs sandwitched between two cab cars also fitted with traction motors, with all twelve axles in one set powered.
The short three-car set was judged to be enough to handle local service ridership south of Kawasaki, but the 800 Series was also fitted with multiple-unit control, enabling the coupling of two sets (forming a 6-car consist) for rush-hour local service or even rapid and express services, if the need arose.

Originally intended to be classified as the "2000 Series", the new trains were christened as the "800 Series" as their introduction in 1978 coincided with Keikyu's 80th anniversary.
Indeed, the first three sets of the 800 Series (801F, 802F and 804F) were delivered on the 26th of December 1978, built by Tokyu Car Corporation (801F), who had also supervised the design, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries (803F and 804F), with a fourth set, 802F built by Tokyu Car Co. following one month later on the 22nd of January 1979.
The 800 Series began runs on the Keikyu network right after delivery, on the 27th of December 1978, but only for the obligatory driver training and familiarization. Actual revenue-earning runs would begin only in March 1979.
A few months later a new batch of two 800 Series sets was delivered - 805F and 806F, both built by Tokyu Car and delivered on the 23rd of June. These were followed by six more sets (807F to 812F, with 807F and 808F built by Tokyu and 809F to 812F built by Kawasaki), all delivered in one day, the 6th of November. Four months and a day later, on the 7th of March 1980, another six sets were delivered - 813F to 818F, the first three of wich built by Tokyu and the latter three built by Kawasaki. Seven more sets were added to the fleet on the 1st of April 1981, with sets 819F to 822F built by Tokyu and 823F to 825F built by Kawasaki. Of these, the first six were intended to run normal revenue services, while set 825F was intended as a spare, to temporarily replace sets that had to undergo inspections.

Originally, the 800 Series had been intended as a 3-car set for the sake of maximium flexibility, and also because a few stations on the network still weren't long enough to handle six-car sets (such as Umeyashiki). However, in 1982, with the increasing ridership, and after all platforms were lenghtened to accomodate atleast six-car trains, Keikyu opted to reform a few of it's brand-new 800 Series sets into fixed six-car sets; these were to be reassigned to local services north of Keikyu Kawasaki as a replacement for the 4-car 700 Series, wich would be moved south of Kawasaki in exchange, or moved to less heavily-used lines (such as the Daishi Line).

To this end, Keikyu ordered eight sets of two trailer cars and one intermediate car fitted with pantographs (identical to the ones already in service) to be added to formations 813F to 819F and 823F. All of these cars were as always manufactured partly by Tokyu and partly by Kawasaki, and were delivered, and "inserted" into their formations between the 1st and the 26th of March 1982.
Also in 1982 was the introduction of Keikyu's new limited express train, the 2000 Series, intended to replace the old 600 Series dating from the 1950s.
The new 2000 Series sets were painted in the same color scheme as the 800 Series, with Keikyu's signature red as background and a wide white band around the windows. However, depsite having been introduced by the 800 Series, Keikyu opted to "reserve" the wide white band color scheme for limited express trains, with the 800 Series to be repainted in Keikyu's "classic" thin white line scheme as carried by all trains before it.

The first two sets to be repainted were 820F and 821F, in December 1982, and the last one was set 819F, in October 1984.
In March 1983 another four sets of intermediate cars were delivered, this time for formations 820F to 824F (except 823F, wich had already recieved it's own one year earlier). Depsite the changeover to the new livery, these were delivered still in the "express" scheme, as evry train had to be changed at the same time.
August 1986 saw the delivery of three more intermediate car sets, this time for formations 811F, 812F and 825F, as well as two fully built-new 6-car sets: 826F and 827F, the former built by Tokyu and the latter by Kawasaki.
These would be the very last 800 Series sets manufactured, as by that time, Keikyu's new train dedicated to local services (altough primarily trough-services with the Asakusa Line), the 1500 Series, had already been introduced.
Therefore, by the end of production, the fleet consisted of twenty-seven 800 Series sets: seventeen six-car sets (811F to 827F) and ten 3-car sets (801F to 810F), the latters now almost exclusively formed as two coupled-sets (bringing the total to effectively six-car 22 sets of wich five in a "3+3" formation).
By the early-1990s, three car sets were now essentially useless, as ridership had grew way beyond that. It was thus decided, in order to gain some "extra" room for passengers, to remove the long-unused intermediate cab cars from the five "3+3" sets and adapt them with conventional seating. This modification was carried out at the rough pace of one set per year, ending in 2001 with five "permanent" six-car sets. Among other things, on these five sets the interior lighting was also replaced with a LED-type one as used on Keikyu's brand-new 600 Series (also introduced in 1994) and a number of other minor refurbishment modifications was also made, wich was later extended to the rest of the fleet.

[continues in following post]

 

[AlexMaria]

[continues from previous post]

In 2016, set 823F was repainted in the "express" wide white band color scheme it had been fitted with upon it's introduction in the early 1980s. Set 823F would end up carrying this color scheme for about a year.

By that time however, the increase in ridership, even on local service, had gone far beyond what the trains could handle with it's 6-car sets, and furthemore, with Keikyu's increasing focus on (rightly so) turning all services into trough-runs with the Asakusa Line, the 800 Series was becoming an increasingly impedment - also because, having been designed for local services south of Keikyu Kawasaki, it hadn't been fitted with the front emergency escape door required by law for subway rolling stock, and as such was not allowed onto the Asakusa Line. The 800 Series, due to their low gear ratio, designed for quick accellerations on frequent stops, also had a low top speed of 100Km/h, compared to the 120Km/h of the rest of the fleet, and their usage on express services, albeit occasional, was taking a serious toll on the series' bogeys and traction motors.

However, the final nail in the coffin of the 800 Series was the planned retrofitting of platform screen doors to most stations on Keikyu's network (a much needed modification, perhaps more here than elsewhere, as trains zip trough cramped stations at 120Km/h). Due to it's four door arrangment, incompatible with the well-affirmed three door arrangment of the rest of Keikyu's fleet (past and present, barring the two exceptions of the 700 and 800 Series), the 800 Series wouldn't have been able to operate once platform screen doors were fitted. Add to that the fact that by the late 2010s the fleet was 40 years old, and you can see why Keikyu opted for a swift replacement, at the hands of the new stainless steel batches of the New 1000 Series.

The first 800 Series sets to be retired was 801F, wich was withdrawn and scrapped in April 2011 alongside with the other four former "3+3" sets, wich were all retired and withdrawn within a year.
Retirements of the "fixed 6-car" 800 Series sets began in 2014, with set 811F scrapped in August.
Set 823F had the distinction of being the last 800 Series set in revenue run, making it's final run on the 16th of June 2019. Promptly after retirement, it was scrapped as well.
Unfortunately no local railway expressed any interest in purchasing withdrawn 800 Series sets (not even the main customer for ex-Keikyu rolling stock - the Takamatsu-Kotohira Electric Railway in Shikoku), nor any "full" car was preserved, let alone a set.

However, the front end of cab car DeHa 812-6 (from set 812F) has been saved, and is now preserved inside the lobby of the Fujikyu East Building, a skyscraper in downtown Tokyo, alongside the front portion of KuHa 2098 of Seibu Railway's 2000 Series, as well as the front portion of DeHa 7702 of Tokyu Railway.

How this came to be is quite peculiar. It was by hand of Mr. Fumio Goto, the president of "Bunei Land and Building Co." - the architect of the building itself.
Another notable railway enthusiast (wich had also once been an editor of "Railway Fan", Japan's foremost railway-related magazine), reached out to various railway companies looking for withdrawn stock that could be preserved in the lobby of the building. Seibu, Keikyu and Tokyu answered the call, and negotiations for the hand over of the rolling stock began three years in advance.
In the end, due to space constraints, only the front sections were preserved - moved to the site and installed while the building was under construction.
The lobby floor is now a Maruzen Bookshop, and thus can be accessed pubblically.



Trivia #1
Originally, for the 800 Series, Mr. Tamotsu Hinohara envisioned an asymmetric front design, as was very much "en-vogue" in 1970s Japan.
However, Tokyu Car Corporation, the "practical" designers of the new trains (and partly manufacturers as well), had already reached an unofficial agreeement with JNR for it's 201 Series - where the two agreed that the national railways would be the only ones to have the very modern-looking asymmetric front-end designs for some time.
Not wanting to upset such an important, influential and well-distinguished customer, Tokyu Car Corporation managed to have Keikyu (and Mr.Hinohara) back down and opt for one of the three other designs proposals presented, resulting in the final shape we know.

After some years, during the preliminary discussions for a new limited express train (wich would eventually become the 2000 Series), it is said that during a meeting in his office with Tokyu Car Corporation designers, Mr. Hinohara opened a drawer, pulled out the old designed proposals, laid them on the table, pointed at the asymmetric front and went "This time, we're doing this!"
And so it was.

Trivia #2
One of the early proposals for the 800 Series called for the driving position to be centrally located, rather than shifted to the left side as was standard.

Trivia #3
The 800 Series would also be the last Keikyu trains designed according to Tamotsu Hinohara's "Hinoharaism", as he retired in 1979, shortly after the entry into revenue service of his last design.

Trivia #4
An 800 Series set, navigating the infamous crossing between Kita-Shinagawa and Shinagawa, is fetaured in the 2016 movie "Shin Godzilla", being immediately thrown in the air and destroyed by the titular character, leaving only one of the bogeys uncerimoniously rolling down Yatsuyama-dori avenue.
Keikyu offered full collaboration for the few-seconds-long scene, offering all necessary technical drawings to CGI artist, as well as insight into an actual 800 Series set.

Trivia #5
800 Series sets are also prominently fetaured in "Girls Beyond the Wasteland", a visual novel romance game relased concurrently with it's anime adaptation in early 2016. 800 Series also fetaure heavily in the anime itself, even in it's opening!

 

[AlexMaria]

New stuff now available, this time around we're ditching Keikyu for good and we're moving to the opposite end of the Asakusa Line - here's my first Keisei pack, the 3000 and 3050 Serieses!

From left to right, 3000 Series in Keisei's standard livery, 3050 Series in the 2010 to 2019 "sky blue" livery, 3050 Series in the post-2019 orange livery and 3050 Series in the "standard" Keisei livery for surplus trains cascaded to non airport-dedicated services.

Now available on my website!

Keisei 3000 & 3050 Serieses - Socimi

From left to right, 3000 Series in Keisei’s standard livery, 3050 Series in the 2010 to 2019 “sky blue” livery, 3050 Series in the post-2019 orange livery and 3050 Series in the “standard” Keisei livery for surplus trains cascaded to non airport-dedicated services. DOWNLOAD All the necessary...

www.socimi.it

The introduction of a new series of rolling stock on Keisei network in the early '2000s was dictated by a series of factors, primarily the necessity of replacing the bulk of the obsolete resistor-control fleet, much of wich dated back to the 1960s and wasn't compliant with barrier-free access regulations, namely the 3200 and 3300 Series, as well as a portion of the 1970s-era 3500 Series fleet not slated for refurbishment.

At the time, Keisei's newest train type was the 3700 Series, wich had been introduced in 1991 and had been manufactured until 2001 with some relatively minor design changes. The 3700 Series were (and still are) pretty good trains, but their design, closer to 1980s practices, was already slightly obsolete, with Keisei rightly opting for an entirely new design based on the lastest technologies available. This was also dictated by the fact that many other companies within the broader Keisei group, especially Shin-Keisei Railway and Hokuso Railway were also looking to replace their own oldest rolling stock types, and as such, the new trains would effectively become a "standard" type among the Keisei-tied companies.

Designed by Nippon Sharyo using it's own stainless steel "Block Construction System" (later "N-QUALIS"), their manufacture was undertaken jointly by Nippon Sharyo itself along with Tokyu Car Corporation; they are essentially unremarkable in terms of design as far as fetaures go, with the classic stainless steel bodyshell, three doors per side, centralized air conditioning system (Keisei's first) and IGBT-VVVF inverter (manufactured by Toyo Denki). As with all of Keisei's rolling stock since the late 1960s, the new trains were also designed to be compatible with trough-services, both on the Toei Asakusa Asakusa Line as well as onwards to the Keikyu network.
The only slightly notable fetaures are their "black front" color scheme with relatively thin blue and red lines (Keisei's colours) and the two top-mounted headlights (derived from the lastest batches of 3700 Series trains delivered a few years earlier in 2001). In terms of passenger comfort, interior fittings, from seats to next-stop displays, are also pretty standard and unremarkable, and as with many other serieses, tracing their origins back to JR East's groundbreaking 209 Series.

Classified as the "3000 Series" and in all, a completely mundane and unremarkable train, the first set was delivered in December 2002 and entered service on the 1st of February 2003, this being 8-car set 3001F (built by Nippon Sharyo) and followed four days later by the entry into service of the first 6-car set, 3002F (also built by Nippon Sharyo).
These would be followed later that year by four more 6-car sets, 3006F to 3009F. Even-numbered sets (3006F and 3008F) built by Nippon Sharyo were the first to be delivered, between October and November 2003, with the other two odd-numbered (3007F and 3009F) sets built by Tokyu Car Co. being delivered in January of 2004.
With the entry into service of this "second" batch (the first batch being the two sets, 3001F and 3002F, delivered in February 2003), Keisei was able to fully retire it's 3200 Series, one set of wich was loaned to Hokuso Railway and reclassified as "7250 Series" to replace it's older 7050 Series set (another hand-me-down from Keisei, a former 3150 Series set).

Four more 6-car sets followed between late 2004 and early 2005 following the same opposite pattern from the second batch: odd-numbered Tokyu Car-built sets (3011F and 3013F) were delivered in November 2004 and even-numbered Nippon Sharyo-built sets (3010F and 3012F) were delivered in February 2005.
Four more 6-car sets again followed suit, with odd-numbered Tokyu Car-built sets (3015F and 3017F) delivered in January 2006 and even-numbered Nippon Sharyo-built sets (3014F and 3016F) delivered in March.
With the delivery of this 4th batch, the 3000 Series' fleet surpassed the "100 cars" mark, becoming Keisei's second-largest fleet behind the 3700 Series. Also, contextual to the delivery of this batch, Keisei was able to reitre the 3300 Series from mainline services, cascading it to the Kanamachi and Chihara Lines as well as leasing two 4-car sets (forming a single 8-car set) to Hokuso Railway as the "7260 Series", replacing the afromentioned 7250 Series set introduced three years prior.

Even so, Keisei kept oredering new rolling stock with two more batches of four six-car sets each being delivered between 2006 and 2007, consisting of sets 3018F and 3020F (Nippon Sharyo) delivered in November 2006 togheter with sets 3019F and 3021F (Tokyu) delivered in March 2007 and sets 3022F and 3024F (Nippon Sharyo) delivered in November 2007 and sets 3023F and 3025F (Tokyu) delivered in March 2008.
With the delivery of these last two batches, all 3200 Series sets were retired, along with all 3300 Series sets not cascaded to "lesser" lines and one non-refurbished 3500 Series set (3580F) was reitred as well.
At this point, by late 2007, Keisei's 3000 Series fleet consisted of twenty-five sets, of wich one 8-car set (3001F) and all the remaining twenty-four (3002F to 3025F) formed as 6-car sets.

After the lastest batch, deliveries of 3000 Series sets destined for Keisei Railway were "paused" for a few years (other Keisei-group companies kept recieving their own versions however).

Deliveries would resume for Keisei in late 2009 with a new seventh batch of six eight-car sets, the first ones since the introduction of the type in 2003. These however were not intended for "general" services like the rest of the 3000 Series fleet, but were envisioned from the start to operate rapid services to and from Narita Airport via the newly-opened Narita Airport Line, an extension of the Hokuso Line that had been variously envisioned since the 1970s but was only opened for revenue services in 2010.

The Narita Airport Line (wich is more commonly known as the "Narita Sky Access route", a moniker that refers to the amalgamae of the Narita Airport Line, Hokuso Line and Keisei Main Line to Keisei-Ueno station), is of course primarily known for it's limited express "Skyliner" services handled by the dedicated AE Series, running at a maximium speed of 160Km/h, with intermediate stops only at Shin-Kamagaya, Aoto and Nippori.
However, the line is also served by "Access Express" rapid services with no fare surcharge, with additional intermediate stops at Narita Yukawa, Imba-Nihon-Idai, Chiba New Town Chuo, Higashi-Matsudo and Keisei-Takasago. The 7th batch of the 3000 Series was specifically designed and ordered to run these very "Access Express" services, and as such fetaured a few slight differences compared to the "standard" 3000 Series, namely an increased top speed (120Km/h over 110Km/h of the standard 6-car 3000 Series sets - the only 8-car set, 3001F was also capable of a 120Km/h top speed from the start) and some modified equipment. Interestingly, for a train dedicated to airport services, the interior arrangment remained the same of the "standard" 3000 Series.
However, the most notable difference is in the color scheme, as the "Access Express"-dedicated sets recieved their own unique color scheme: a wide light blue band (fading lightly from bottom to top) representing the sky, interjected by blue and red (Keisei's colours) plane decorations.

Classified as the "3050 Series", due to their specialized nature, the six 8-car sets (3051F to 3056F), all built entirely by Nippon Sharyo, were delivered between January and June 2010, ready for the start of revenue services on the Narita Sky Access route on the 17th of July 2010.

Two more "gap" years elapsed until 2012, when as part Keisei's fiscal year 2012 capital investment plan, two "standard" 3000 Series 8-car sets were procured.
Based on the improvements already implemented on the 3050 Series, the two sets (3026F and 3027F) were built by the newly rebranded J-TREC (Tokyu Car Corporation after it's acquisition by JR East in 2011) at it's Yokohama plant, and were delivered in Febrary and March 2013 respectively. An additional 8-car set, 3028F, was delivered as the "9th batch" in February 2014, having been built by Nippon Sharyo.

Two more 8-car sets were delivered in 2010 as the 10th batch, part of Keisei's fiscal 2014 capital investment plan. 3029F and 3030F were built by J-TREC and delivered in March and February 2015 respectively.
With the delivery of this 10th batch, Keisei now had enough "new" rolling stock to cascade the older refurbished 3500 Series and 3600 Series trains to the "lesser" lines, finally replacing the 1960s-vintage 3300 Series.
Likewise, an 8-car 3700 Series set was removed from Keisei's inventory and loaned to Hokuso Railway, where it replaced the latter's only 7260 Series set (wich consited of two former Keisei 3300 Series 4-car sets coupled togheter).

[continues in following post]

 

[AlexMaria]

[continues from previous post]

Even with the full replacement of all of the pre-stainless steel rolling stock, Keisei kept ordering new 3000 Series sets, this time to increase capacity and to further slim the ageing 3500 Series' fleet, wich depsite being stainless steel trains and refurbished relatively recently, dated back to the early 1970s and as such were reaching 40 years of age.
Procurement of an 11th batch of 3000 Series sets was made again via capital expenditure, this time for the 2015 fiscal year. Two more sets again, 3031F and 3032F, built by J-TREC (and both delivered in February 2016), but this time formed as six-car sets, being the first such trains ordered by Keisei in nearly eight years.

A 12th batch of three sets followed one year later, as part of fiscal 2016 capital expenditure; this batch consiting of two eight-car sets (3033F and 3035F, both built by J-TREC and delivered in February and March 2017) as well as one six-car set (3034F built by Nippon Sharyo and delivered in February 2017).
Of these three, specifically one 8-car set was used as the replacement for a 3700 Series set loaned to Chiba New Town Railway (to replace the last remaining 9000 Series set dating back to 1984), the other 8-car set was intended to replace a withdrawn 3600 Series 6-car set, and the lone 6-car set was intended to replace a withdrawn 3500 Series 6-car set.

Three more eight-car sets followed suit in 2018 (as part of the fiscal 2017 capital expenditure plan) as the 13th batch, consisting of sets 3036F, 3037F and 3038F, all three built by J-TREC, with the first two being delivered in February and the latter third in March 2018.

Finally, the final 14th batch of the 3000 Series was ordered in 2018, consisting of two six-car sets (3039F and 3040F), both built by Nippon Sharyo in September 2018 and two eight-car sets (3041F and 3042F), both built by Nippon Sharyo and delivered in February 2019.

At this point, the 3000 Series fleet had become by far Keisei's largest, consisting of 42 sets, of wich twenty 8-car sets (including the six 3050 Series sets) as well as twelve 6-car sets.
However the 3000 Series design was now over 15 years old, and with the Tokyo Olympics looming, Keisei opted for a new design for further replacements, rather than continuing production of the 3000 Series.
Classified as the 3100 Series, the new trains are essentially direct successors to the 3000 Series, using the same basic bodyshell design, but with much-needed updated interiors and equipment.

The first two sets were delivered in October 2019 and placed in service on the Narita Sky Access route in anticipation of the arrival of hordes of overseas tourists for the olympics. Notably, the new 3100 Series trains sported a livery based on the ones of the 3050 Series trains that had been running until then on the same line, but with a different scheme (a horizontal band under the window rather than a large one around them), additional decorations (depicting a view of Mount Fuji from Tokyo, Narita Shrine, Asakusa's Kaminarimon and the Tokyo Skytree) and most notably, a vibrant orange as the main colour instead of sky blue.
With the introduction of the new trains in revenue service, the color scheme of all 3050 Series was also uniformed to the new design.
However, as more and more 3100 Series trains entered service on the Narita Sky Access route, Keisei opted to cascade surplus 3050 Series sets to "normal" Keisei network workings, alongside with the 3000 Series.
Repainted in the same "standard" color scheme as the other 3000 Series sets, the first 3050 Series sets re-entered services as "normal" trains on the whole of the Keisei network also in 2019, as two more 3100 Series sets were delivered.

As of today, the 3000 Series is the mainstay Keisei's whole network, being used on all lines with the sole exceptions of the Katamachi Line (wich uses 4-car sets due to limited platform lenght).
8-car trains are normally used for rapid and express Keisei Main Line services, from Keisei-Narita up to Aoto, then onto the Oshiage Line to Keisei-Oshiage, where all services continue onto the Toei Subway Asakusa Line and to Keikyu's network, usually running either to Haneda Airport via Keikyu-Kamata and Keikyu's Airport Line or to Keikyu-Kurihama on the Keikyu Main Line (some services used even to go all the way to Misakiguchi, but these where shortened to Keikyu-Kurihama in 2019).
8-car 3000 Series sets can also be found on the Hokuso Line running normal local-trough services with the Keisei, Toei and Keikyu networks, altough rather infrequently as Hokuso Railway has a sizeable fleet at it's disposal.
Six-car sets are instead used thruought the whole network as local and rapid trains, mainly on the Main Line out of Keisei-Ueno and on the Keisei Chiba Line (including trough-services onto the Chihara Line for Chiba Line trains and onto the Shibayama Railway for Main Line trains).

Finally, 3050 Series sets in their two "airport" liveries were exclusively dedicated to "Narita Sky Access route" services from Narita Airport to Keisei-Ueno and even on airport-to-airport express services between Narita and Haneda, running via the Toei Asakusa Line. "Cascaded" and repainted 3050 Series sets are instead used interchangeably with the "normal" 3000 Series sets, and as such generally run the same rapid and express subway trough-services.

 

[AlexMaria]

New rolling stock! Starting with the Keisei 3000 Series derivatives, here's the first one: Hokuso Railway's 7500 Series!

Already available on my website!

The 7500 Series was introduced in 2005 to replace the 7000 Series, Hokuso Railway's first trains, dating back to the opening of the "1st Phase" of the Hokuso Line in 1979, wich by then were ageing, and most importantly, were starting to seriously suffer from corrosion damage due to their semi-stainless steel construction.
As such, an urgent replacement was needed, and as Hokuso Railway is part of the Keisei Group, the most natural choice was Keisei's new standard commuter train, the 3000 Series.

Hokuso Railway's new 7500 Series trains were thus directly derived, and built togheter with Keisei's 4th-batch 3000 Series trains, being identical in terms of bodyshell, interior fittings and equipment, with the only difference being of course the livery, Hokuso's standard two-tone blue one derived from the earlier 7300 Series, but following the same exact scheme of Keisei trains, plus the addition (on cab cars only) of an airplane-shaped design (also later retrofitted to the 7300 Series), as Hokuso Railway's rolling stock was planned to operate local services to Narita Airport via the then-soon-to-be-opened Narita Sky Access Line, effectively an extension of the Hokuso Line from Imba-Nihon-Idai to Narita Airport.

The first two 7500 Series sets, 7501F and 7502F, manufactured by Tokyu Car Corporation and Nippon Sharyo in February and March 2006 respectively, were delivered to Hokuso Railway in late march, with set 7501F entering service on the 20th, along with 7800 Series set 7808F (a Keisei 3700 Series set loaned to Hokuso, repainted and renumbered) and replacing 7000 Series set No.1 (7002F). Set No.3 (7006F) was also retired soon after with the entry into service of set 7502F. Finally, with the entry into service of an additional 7500 Series set (7503F, built by Nippon Sharyo in March 2007), the third 7000 Series set, No.2 (7004F) was retired, making it's final run on the 25th of March.

Ever since, the life of the three 7500 Series sets has been absolutely unremarkable, save for a a minor upgrade of the passenger information screens to 17-inch LCD displays in 2019.
In service, the 7500 Series can be commonly found along the Hokuso Line, running in general local and rapid services between Narita Airport and Haneda Airport or Misakiguchi Station via Chiba New Town, Tokyo city itself and Yokohama as part of reciprocal-trough services with Keikyu, running onto the Nairta Sky Access Line, Hokuso Line, Keisei Main Line, Keisei Oshiage Line, Toei Subway Asakusa Line, Keikyu Main Line and Keikyu Airport Line or Keikyu Kurihama Line.

 

[AlexMaria]

Another quick release, this time a "unique" train - Chiba New Town Railway's 9200 Series!

Already available on my website!

This single set was bought by Chiba New Town Railway in 2013 to replace one of it's two 9000 Series sets, dating from 1984, when the Housing and Urban Development Pubblic Corporation (Chiba New Town Railway's predecessor) opened the Komuro to Chiba New Town-Chuo section of today's Hokuso Line.
After nearly 30 years of intensive, heavy-duty services, both sets were obviously ageing and in need of a replacement, but the company's minute budget only allowed to purchase one replacement train, so it was decided to initially retire just the oldest of the two, 9008F.
Given that Chiba New Town Railway essentially exists to loan rolling stock (and trackage) to Hokuso Railway, the replacement train was of course to be the most recent series Hokuso was using at the time, and since Hokuso's newest stuff was based on Keisei rolling stock, Chiba New Town Railway's new train ended up being based on Keisei's 3000 Series as well, primarily also as a matter of cost reduction, especially trough maintainance standardization.

Manufactured by Nippon Sharyo in February 2013, it entered revenue services on the 1st of March of the same year (the day after formation 9008F was withdrawn from service) classified as the "9200 Series" and allocated to Hokuso Railway's "availability" roster. All in all, the 9200 Series set is entirely identical to Hokuso's own 7500 Series and Keisei's 3000 Series, including in terms of equipment, with the only notable distinction being the light blue and yellow livery (but followig Keisei's scheme), both colors derived from Chiba New Town Railway's funky 9100 Series "C-Flyer" from 1994.

Due to Chiba New Town Railway's tight budget however, no further purchases of similar sets were made, with the company opting to loan 3700 Series set 3738F from Keisei Railway, renumbering it as the "9800 Series" set 9801F and repainting it in the same light blue and yellow colors as the 9200 Series (always following Keisei's scheme). The lone 9800 Series set entered service on the 21st of March 2017, the day after the retirement of the other 9000 Series set, 9018F.

As of today, the single 9200 Series set is within Hokuso Railway's "availability" fleet, meaning that it is used interchangeably with the rest of the latter's fleet on all services operated by the company, namely local services between Narita Airport, Chiba New Town, Tokyo city and Haneda Airport or Misakiguchi, the southernmost tip of Keikyu's network, via the Keisei Narita Sky Access Line, Hokuso Line "proper", Keisei Main Line, Keisei Oshiage Line, Toei Asakusa Line, Keikyu Main Line, Keikyu Airport Line or Keikyu Kurihama Line.

 

[Railshuttle]

Cool, AlexMaria! It's been eons since we got some new trains to play with. There have been a lot of new real-life Japanese commuter trains this year, and I think they upgraded and made some new routes as well. I'm hoping someone gets around to making the new trains, especially at the airport. Take care.

 

[AlexMaria]

Cool, AlexMaria! It's been eons since we got some new trains to play with.

Ah, rest assured, i'm not nearly done yet.
As a matter of fact - here's the last of the Keisei 3000 Series "derivatives": Shin-Keisei Railway's N800 Series!

Current pink livery (2014 to today) on the left, and the original brown livery (2005 to 2015) on the right.

As always, already available on my website, you all know the drill...

The N800 Series was introduced by Shin-Keisei Railway in the mid-2000s to replace the old 800 and 8000 Serieses, and also in preparation for the start of trough-services with the Keisei Chiba Line to Keisei Chiba-Chuo station.
The 800 Series had been introduced in 1971 as Shin-Keisei Railway's first in-house rolling stock design (evrything that came before was purchased second-hand from Keisei), but depsite the early '70s production timeframe, it was a "born old" train, whose design tenets (such as the single-leaf doors) dated back to the late 1950s, as it was based on Keisei's original 3100 Series introduced in 1960.
The 8000 Series on the other hand, while relatively more modern in design and concept, as well as in manufactured (having been produced between 1978 and 1985), was also relatively ageing. At the time, a refurbishment program had been started, and was ongoing for the newest sets in the series, but such expensive modifications made little economic sense on the oldest, nearly life-expired sets.

As such, a new train was needed, and given that their main services would've involved trough-running onto the Keisei Chiba Line, adopting Keisei's standard commuter train design, the 3000 Series, was the most ovbious, simplest and cost-effective solution. Thus, after about 40 years of "in-house" rolling stock design, Shin-Keisei Railway returned using Keisei's, it's "mother company", designs.
Classified as the "N800 Series" (meaning "New 800 Series"), the new trains were essentially identical to Keisei's 3000 Series, barred a few minor details.
The most notable difference is of course the livery, Shin-Keisei's brown one, but in a very stilish scheme based on four side bands of different widths, representing the four towns along the Shin-Keisei Line: Matsudo, Kamagaya, Funabashi and Narashino.
Manufactured by Nippon-Sharyo, the first N800 Series set, N818F, was delivered in April 2005, entering revenue services after some necessary testing, on the 29th of May, replacing 800 Series formation 802F. One-and-a-half years later, with the timetable revision of winter 2006, on the 10th of December trough-services with the Keisei Chiba Line to Keisei-Chiba-Chuo were officially started.
However, no further N800 Series sets were procured, as the existing 8800 Series fleet (dating from the 1980s and retrofitted to be compatible with the Keisei network) was judged to be sufficient to handle the bulk of trough-services.

Only in 2010 another N800 Series set was ordered, with formation N828F, also built by Nippon Sharyo, being delivered in December 2010, replacing the last two 800 Series sets (806F and 810F), wich had been retired earlier in July. Two more years elapsed before another N800 Series set, N838F, was ordered and delivered, in September 2012, with the two sets togheter replacing the two remaining non-refurbished 8000 Series sets (8504F and 8516F).
A fourth N800 Series set, N848F, came after three years, in December 2015, and in August 2018, the fifth and final N800 Series set, N858F, was delivered, bringing the fleet to a total of five six-car sets, produced over a 13-year timeframe - a ludicriously slow average of one train evry two-and-a-half years!
Subsequent new rolling stock introduction would take the form of the 80000 Series, derived from Keisei's brand new 3100 Series introduced in 2019.

As a little step back in time, in 2014, with the unveiling of a new corporate image for Shin-Keisei Railway, based on a new "Gentle Pink" colour, the whole rolling stock fleet started to be repained in a new livery based on said "Gentle Pink" colour; this of course also applied to the N800 Series, with all sets being repainted between 2014 and 2015 (new trains delivered after 2014 - N848F and N858F - were fitted from the start with the new pink livery). However, this hasn't been the end of the fancy maroon livery, as in July 2024, set N838F was repainted in it's original maroon as a "revival livery" - quite an unusual occurence for a relatively modern train.

As of today, all five N800 Series sets (N838F in the original maroon livery and the rest in the current pink livery) are in regular service on the Shin-Keisei Line, running from Matsudo to Keisei-Tsudanuma and then onto Keisei Chiba Line tracks to Keisei-Chiba-Chuo.

 

[Domifarmer]

Hello all! I have decided to launch free my new JNR DD13-611.
It's detailed completely new model with enginespec, lights and custom cab with working lever and needles.
I hope you like it.
You can find at my site here: https://trainzkr.weebly.com/locjp.html

 

[bolivar]

Well done David. This is a very neat little loco. Nicely detailed.

 

[AlexMaria]

New rolling stock available! Continuing onto the "Keisei & Company" theme, here's the first part of another variegated pack - Keisei's 3700 Series!

Already available on my website!

The 3700 Series was introduced by Keisei Railway in the early 1990s for two main reasons - firstly, and most importantly, due to the opening of the 2nd "western" phase of the Hokuso Line, between Kita-Hatsuomi Station (the western terminus of the 1st phase, where Hokuso Line trains switched over to the Shin-Keisei Line to run provisional trough-services to Matsudo) and Keisei-Takasago Station, the connection to Keisei's network, finally enabling trough-services between the Hokuso Line and Keisei Railway, with Hokuso Railway trains able to run further beyond on the Toei Subway Asakusa Line and onto Keikyu Railway's network at the other end.

Thuus, both Keisei Railway and Hokuso Railway needed new rolling stock to run services over the newly completed trackage between Kita-Hatsuomi and Keisei-Takasago stations, as well to enlarge the fleet in order to handle the increased number of daily services.

Secondly, Keisei also needed new rolling stock overall, in order to replace a non-insignificant part of it's fleet on all kinds of services, from local to expresses, trough- or non-trough with the Asakusa Line, specifically the 3000 Series, wich had been introduced in 1958 in preparation for the start of trough-services with the Asakusa Line, as well as most of it's derivatives, such as the 3050 Series (introduced in 1959 to supplement the 3000 Series), the 3100 Series and the 3200 Series - all very similar trains (collectively nicknamed "Akaden" or "Red Trains" due to their red and cream livery, based on Toei's 5000 Series) wich had been in service for about 30 years, and fetaured a number of obsolete and archaic fetaures (such as the single-leaf doors) and some individual sets and cars also notably lacked many modern ones (air conditioning primarily).

As such, the new trains were built to a common design shared by Keisei and Hokuso Railway. The design itself is relatively unremarkable, being a classic stainless-steel bodyshell with three double-leaf doors per side and an unassuming vertical front (altough slightly angled horizontally outwards). A bit fancier the equipment, fetauring a Toyo Denki-manufactured GTO-VVVF inverter controlling three-phase asynchronous traction motors (making it both Keisei and Hokuso's first inverter-controlled rolling stock) and "scissor-bottom" square pantographs.

Classified as 3700 Series for Keisei (Hokuso's owns being classified as the 7300 Series), the first three 8-car sets (3708F, 3718F and 3728F, the first two manufactured by Nippon Sharyo and the third one by Tokyu Car Co.), were completed by March 1991, in time to enter revenue services (together with Hokuso's 7300 Series) with the start of trough-services between Hokuso and Keisei Railway on the 31st.

With the introduction of these three sets, Keisei was already able to retire the last few remaining non-air conditioned 3000 and 3050 Series car, as well the one 8-car 1000 Series set that Keisei had rented out from Keikyu Railway, also to replace non-air conditioned cars (as Keikyu's 1000 Series were all retrofitted with air-conditioning already in the mid-1980s).

After a brief two-year hiatus (as priority was switched to the AE100 Series for airport express services, as well as the 3400 Series - new commuter trains built to the image of the 3700 Series but using equipment from newly withdrawn AE-series trains), 3700 Series deliveries resumed in 1994, with the delivery of formation 3738F (built by Tokyu Car Co.), follwed in 1995 by another set, 3748F, also built by Tokyu Car Co.

This "second" batch of two trains fetaured a few slight differences from the 1st one, with the two most notable being the removal of the rim around the service type indicator, making it flush with the rest of the bodyshell and the addition of a front skirt, a modification that was also retrofitted to the three 1st-batch trains by 1995.

A 3rd batch consisting of four trains was delivered between December 1995 and March 1996, consisting of sets 3758F, 3768F, 3778F and 3788F, with sets 3578F and 3778F built by Tokyu Car Co. and sets 3768F and 3788F being built by Nippon Sharyo. These were ordered to replace the last remaining 3100 Series sets, as well as to provide additional rolling stock for the opening of the Toyo Rapid Railway, a de-facto extension of the TRTA Tozai Line from Funabashi station to Katsutadai station on the Keisei Main Line, owned and operated by the Toyo Rapid Railway (a company with strong ties to Keisei Railway, but not part of the Keisei Group).

Two additional sets, 3798F and 3808F, were delivered as the 4th batch in May and December 1997 respectively, with the former having been built by Tokyu Car Co. and the latter by Nippon Sharyo, and in November 1998, set 3818F, built by Nippon Sharyo, was delivered as the "one-set-only" 5th batch.

By then, Keisei's 3700 Series fleet consisted of a total of 96 cars, or twelve 8-car sets, with their main assignment being running services onto the Hokuso Line or the Keisei Mainline to Keisei-Narita and Narita Airport.

However, the Keisei Chiba Line (on wich a number of station platforms aren't long enough to handle 8-car trains) was also in need to replace a part of it's local service fleet, and as such, a new batch of two 3700 Series sets was delivered in 2000, formed as six-car sets.

Sets 3828F and 3838F, built by Tokyu Car and Nippon Sharyo respectively, and delivered in January and February 2000 as the "6th Batch", did not only differ from "standard" 3700s for their shorter formation: a number of changes was made to update the nearly 10-year old 3700 Series design, the most notable of wich being the change in headlighs, wich were moved above the cab windows, with the "express" marker lights being moved down in their place. Other modifications also included the adoption of LED-type destination signs and service indicators, a reinforced cab structure as a countermesaure against crashes on Keisei's numerous level crossings, the fitting of a new wheelslip protection system and a few other minor modifications to seating and interior equipment. With the introduction of these two sets on the Chiba Line, Keisei was able to reitre the last remaining 3150 Series sets in service.

Finally, to provide enough rolling stock for an increase of services to and from Haneda Airport (via the Toei Asakusa Line and Keikyu Railway), three more sets, based on the 6th batch, but formed as "standard" 8-car sets.

In total, three batches were delivered, each consisting of one train each: Set 3848F built by Tokyu Car and delivered in January 2001 as the 7th Batch, set 3858F built by Nippon Sharyo in August 2001 as the 8th Batch and set 3868F, built by Tokyu Car and delivered in March 2002 as the 9th and final batch.

Further orders, as a planned replacement for the 3200 Series, as well as to provide rolling stock for the upcoming opening of the Shibayama Railway (a one-station extension of the Keisei Main Line from Higashi-Narita to Shibayama-Chiyoda, on the other side of the airport's runway) were curtailed - the former in favour of an entirely new design, the 3000 Series, as the 3700 Series' own design was now more than 10 years old, while for the latter, the more cost-effective option of renting out an older 3600 Series set to Shibayama Railway was chosen.

[continues in following post]

 

[AlexMaria]

[continues from previous post]

Thus, in the end, the total tally of 3700 Series cars stands at 132, subdivided into seventeen sets - fifteen 8-car sets assigned to the Hokuso-Keisei-Toei-Keikyu quadripartite trough-services, running between Imba-Nihon-Idai and Haneda Airport or Keisei Main Line-only services, running between Keisei-Ueno and Keisei-Narita (or Shibayama-Chiyoda via Higashi-Narita) and two outlier 6-car sets primarily assigned to Keisei Chiba Line services between Keisei-Ueno and Keisei Chiba-Chuo, with infrequent trough-services onto the Chihara Line.

Within their long (and current) career, the 3700 Series trains have undergone just a few minor modifications, most notably with the opening of the Narita Sky Acces Line in 2010 (as the 3700 Series sets are rostered as spares if need arises), wich included further adaptations to improve running performance at 120Km/h and other tweaks to match Keikyu Railway's specific and peculiar requirements. A slight renewal of interior fittings and equipment was also carried out between 2012 and 2014.

As of today, the 3700 Series is now nearing 35 years of age, and the fleet is gradually becoming thinner, but not due to withdrawals - in fact, thanks to the copious amounts of 3000 Series sets introduced since 2001, followed by even more trains introduced with the 3100 Series of 2019, a number of 3700 Series sets have been transferred or leased to Keisei's subsidiaries Hokuso Railway and Chiba New Town Railway in order to replace their older rolling stock.
Hokuso Railway first recieved 3700 Series set 3708F (the very first set ever built) in January 2003 wich was renamed into the 7300 Series (as the "7800 subseries") as set 7808F, being followed by set 7818F (Keisei's 3748F) in 2015 to replace Hokuso Railway's sole 7260 Series set (two 4-car 3300 Series sets on loan from Keisei Railway since 2006 coupled togheter to form an 8-car train), set 7828F (Keisei's 3778F) in 2018 and set 7838F (Keisei's 3768F) to replace set 7818F, wich was returned to Keisei Railway after it derailed at Aoto station on the 12th of January 2020.

Chiba New Town Railway instead recieved Keisei's set 3738F in 2017, wich was consequently renumbered as 9808F - the sole set in the "9800 Series", intended to replace the last remaining 9000 Series set in operation.

Besides the afromentioned on-loan set, a "proper" Keisei-owned and operated 3700 Series set was also involved in a different derailment, with car 3788 of the namesake formation 3788F jumping a switch while reversing into Keisei-Takasago depot, damaging the two trailing cars (cab car 3788 and two-pantograph car 3787), wich were replaced with two cars from another 3700 Series sets - the resulting surplus cars being scrapped soon after.

An eventual replacement is surely in the plans for the 3700 Series, but for the time being, replacing other rolling stock seem to be the priority for Keisei (namely the ageing 3400, 3500 and 3600 Serieses), meaning that 3700 Series sets will be safe for quite some years more.

 

[Galt77]

[continues from previous post]

Thus, in the end, the total tally of 3700 Series cars stands at 132, subdivided into seventeen sets - fifteen 8-car sets assigned to the Hokuso-Keisei-Toei-Keikyu quadripartite trough-services, running between Imba-Nihon-Idai and Haneda Airport or Keisei Main Line-only services, running between Keisei-Ueno and Keisei-Narita (or Shibayama-Chiyoda via Higashi-Narita) and two outlier 6-car sets primarily assigned to Keisei Chiba Line services between Keisei-Ueno and Keisei Chiba-Chuo, with infrequent trough-services onto the Chihara Line.

Within their long (and current) career, the 3700 Series trains have undergone just a few minor modifications, most notably with the opening of the Narita Sky Acces Line in 2010 (as the 3700 Series sets are rostered as spares if need arises), wich included further adaptations to improve running performance at 120Km/h and other tweaks to match Keikyu Railway's specific and peculiar requirements. A slight renewal of interior fittings and equipment was also carried out between 2012 and 2014.

As of today, the 3700 Series is now nearing 35 years of age, and the fleet is gradually becoming thinner, but not due to withdrawals - in fact, thanks to the copious amounts of 3000 Series sets introduced since 2001, followed by even more trains introduced with the 3100 Series of 2019, a number of 3700 Series sets have been transferred or leased to Keisei's subsidiaries Hokuso Railway and Chiba New Town Railway in order to replace their older rolling stock.
Hokuso Railway first recieved 3700 Series set 3708F (the very first set ever built) in January 2003 wich was renamed into the 7300 Series (as the "7800 subseries") as set 7808F, being followed by set 7818F (Keisei's 3748F) in 2015 to replace Hokuso Railway's sole 7260 Series set (two 4-car 3300 Series sets on loan from Keisei Railway since 2006 coupled togheter to form an 8-car train), set 7828F (Keisei's 3778F) in 2018 and set 7838F (Keisei's 3768F) to replace set 7818F, wich was returned to Keisei Railway after it derailed at Aoto station on the 12th of January 2020.

Chiba New Town Railway instead recieved Keisei's set 3738F in 2017, wich was consequently renumbered as 9808F - the sole set in the "9800 Series", intended to replace the last remaining 9000 Series set in operation.

Besides the afromentioned on-loan set, a "proper" Keisei-owned and operated 3700 Series set was also involved in a different derailment, with car 3788 of the namesake formation 3788F jumping a switch while reversing into Keisei-Takasago depot, damaging the two trailing cars (cab car 3788 and two-pantograph car 3787), wich were replaced with two cars from another 3700 Series sets - the resulting surplus cars being scrapped soon after.

An eventual replacement is surely in the plans for the 3700 Series, but for the time being, replacing other rolling stock seem to be the priority for Keisei (namely the ageing 3400, 3500 and 3600 Serieses), meaning that 3700 Series sets will be safe for quite some years more.

The SoundScript by Risky_Adiputra for the FS-579 Bogey <kuid:501228:1108232> is missing from the website download.

Respectfully,
Shaun

 

[flomarie]

Good evening everyone, I just removed the missing kuid in the config. thank you for arranging all this rolling stock.
Bonsoir a tous, j'ai juste enlever le kuid manquant dans le config. merci pour la disposition de tout ce matériels roulants.

 

[AlexMaria]

The SoundScript by Risky_Adiputra for the FS-579 Bogey <kuid:501228:1108232> is missing from the website download.

Ah, apologies. Must've been a slight oversight of mine - here it is. I'll update the original package as well.

With that out of the way, i'm glad to announce a new rolling stock release - as a natural continuation of the Keisei 3700 Series, here's the Hokuso Railway equivalent - the 7300 Series!

On the left, 7300 Series "as introduced" in 1991 and on the right, 7800 Series (ex-3700 Series sets on-loan from Keisei) in the current state, with "Airplane" graphics on the sides, front skirt and single-arm pantographs.

Already available on my website!

Like it's twin, Keisei's 3700 Series, Hokuso Railway's 7300 Series was introduced in 1991 as an expansion to Hokuso Railway's existing fleet in anticipation of the opening of the 2nd phase of the "Western Section" of the Hokuso Line, extending it's western end from Shin-Kamagaya station to Keisei-Takasago Station, connecting with Keisei Railway's network (and concatenated trough-services over the Toei Subway Asakusa Line) and enabling quadri-partite trough-services (Keikyu, Toei, Keisei and Hokuso+HUDC).

As a cost-saving mesaure, Hokuso and Keisei (wich also needed a sizeable amount of new rolling stock, among other things to carry out some long-due replacements) opted for a shared, common design, wich in the end, meant that the 7300 Series came out almost exactly identical to it's Keisei equivalent - the 3700 Series. The two shared (and still share) the same unassuming bodyshell design, bogeys, pantographs, Toyo-Denki-manufactured GTO-VVVF inverters and nearly evrything else. The only distinguishing fetaure was the livery - Keisei's color arrangment scheme was kept, with Hokuso applying it's own two-tone blue company colours.

Two 8-car sets, 7308F and 7318F, were built in March 1991 by Tokyu Car Corporation and Nippon Sharyo respectively, and were delivered to Hokuso Railway in March 1991. After a few days of testing (and some very brief revenue runs on the existing Hokuso Line), the two sets entered full service with the opening of the 2nd phase of the Hokuso Line on the 31st of March 1991, joined on their trough-services onto the Asakusa Line and beyond by Keisei, Toei and Keikyu rolling stock.

Further orders were however curtailed due to financial constraints, with Hokuso Railway opting instead to acquire from Keikyu Railway two 1000 Series sets at the tail end of their service lives. Reclassified as the 7150 Series, lightly refurbished and repainted in Hokuso Railway colours, the two ex-Keikyu sets entered service alongside the 7300 Series in March 1991.
However, despite the light refurbishment, ageing and worn-out equipment cut short their service lives, with one set being retired in 1995 and the other in 1998 - these were replaced in turn by hand-me-down rolling stock rented from Keisei, specifically two former 3150 Series sets reclassified as the 7050 Series. These however were also at the end of their service life, and with the law-mandated general overhaul deemed uneconomical, both sets were again retired after only a few years.
These two sets would be in turn replaced by more rented hand-me-downs from Keisei - one 3200 Series set (reclassified as 7250 Series by Hokuso Railway), and one 3700 Series set.
While the former was intended only as a temporary mesaure (and accordingly it had a rather short-term rental contract), the latter, as it was essentially identical to Hokuso's two 7300 Series sets, was instead envisioned as a more "permanent" solution, with a long-term rental contract.
Set 3808F, built by Nippon Sharyo in December 1997, was picked by Keisei Railway for Hokuso, and after being transferred, it was repainted in the same colour scheme as Hokuso's 7300 Series sets and reclassified in the same group, but as the "7800 Series", in order to differentiate ownership (as, while in Hokuso colours, bearing Hokuso logos and in operation for Hokuso Railway, the set remained under Keisei Railway ownership).

On the other hand, the 7250 Series set also quickly reached the end of it's service life, being retired in 2006 and replaced by another old hand-me-down from Keisei - a former 3300 Series set reclassified as the 7260 Series by Hokuso. Yet again, the 40 year-old worn-out set also reached the end of it's service life, with Hokuso finally settling for another long-term rental of a 3700 Series set from Keisei.
This time, Keisei rented out set 3748F (built in 1995 by Tokyu Car Co.), wich became set 7818F for Hokuso Railway (after undergoing the same modifications as set 7808F neé 3808F), entering service in March 2015 and replacing the 7260 Series set.
In 2018 the 7300 Series fleet expanded by one more set, bringing the total to five, with Hokuso renting another 3700 Series set from Keisei Railway (this time set 3778F, reclassified as 7828F by Hokuso Railway, built by Tokyu Car Co. between December 1995 and March 1996) to handle an increase in passengers along the line.

In the meantime, with the opening of the Keisei Narita Sky Access Line from Imba-Nihon-Idai to Narita Airport (effectively working as an eastward extension of the Hokuso Line), Hokuso Railway started to lightly refurbish it's rolling stock, including the 7300 Series, with both the two "owned" sets as well as the loaned 7800 Series being involved.
Front skirts were added to the two "owned" sets, destination displays were changed from the classic roller-blind to LEDs and for commonality with Hokuso's brand new 7500 Series, "HOK'SO" logos were added to the front and sides of the trains along with the same stylized airplane decal as the 7500 Series. Between 2015 and 2016, the pantographs of all sets were also changed from the scrissor-square type to the now-standard single-arm ones.

Outside that, the 7300 Series' service life remained relatively uneventful. The first major occurrence came in on the 12th of June 2020, when set 7818F, running an Haneda Airport-bound service, derailed at Aoto station.
The cause was found to be a crack on the trailing bogie of the 7th (second-to-last) car, and while the incident didn't cause any casualties (the train was moving relatively slow), set 7818F had to be retired from service.
In it's place, under the same contract, Keisei handed over set 3768F (built by Nippon Sharyo between December 1995 and March 1996), wich became Hokuso Railway's set 7838F.

As of today, the 7300 Series is the bulk of Hokuso Railway's fleet, with two fully-owned sets (7308F and 7318F) and three sets rented out from Keisei (7808F, 7828F and 7838F), with all five train used interchangeably among them (and also with Hokuso's three 7500 Series sets) on trough-services between the Hokuso Line, Keisei Railway, Toei Asakusa Line and Keikyu Railway, with services (both local and express) typically running between Imba-Nihon-Idai and Haneda Airport (more infrequently Yokohama) or Nishi-Magome via Keisei Takasago, Keisei Aoto and Keisei Oshiage and the Toei Asakusa Line.

Finally, depsite being around 30 years old, Hokuso Railway currently has no plans to replace the 7300 Series - to the contrary, if an hypotetical need would arise, it's entirely possible Hokuso Railway will acquire (or rent) even more 3700 Series sets from Keisei, as they're replaced one by one by more modern rolling stock.


Trivia #1
7300 Series set 7301F starred in a 2001 TV advertisement (shot at Inzaki-Makinohara Station) for the soon to be released Densha De GO! 3 - Tsukin-hen.

(7:12)

Trivia #2
The report of the 2020 Aoto station derailment of set 7818F, courtesy of the Japan Transport Saftey Board.

概要

jtsb.mlit.go.jp

 

[PhilChorusch01]

Are there any Japanese and Korean routes available? I'd like to also get that 3ft6in modern track as shown in most of the screenshots!