After a slight delay, due both to personal committments as well as due to it's sheer size (60 individual cars, about the same number of consists as well, each needing some form of troubleshooting), the New Year's Pack is finally here!
This year the "object" of the pack is particularily apt, being that this is the 5th release of this kind, and this year is also the 60th anniversary of the opening of it's line - here's the Tozai Line 05 Series!
A selection of consists from the pack - from left to right: TRTA's 1st batch trains with a GTO Chopper, 4th batch set 14 with wide doors and a GTO-VVVF inverter, the 05N Series in it's brief stint with TRTA logos, 6th batch (Toshiba-made IGBT-VVVF inverters) with Tokyo Metro decals, both standard-size doors (6th & 7th batch) and wide-door sets (4th & 5th batches sets 14 to 18) in their post-refurbishment guise, two 05N Series sets (pre- and post- refurbishment), and the 3-car sets for the Chiyoda Branch Line.
https://www.socimi.it/trta-tokyo-metro-05-series/
Already available on my website!
The 05 Series was introduced by TRTA in the late 1980s to supplement, and ultimately replace the ageing 5000 Series, with the double aim of both increasing capacity as well as providing the line with a fully air-conditioned fleet.
Indeed, up until the late 1980s, TRTA had been operating the Tozai Line with the same 5000 Series trains dating back to the line's opening in December 1964, around 25 years earlier. Depsite being sturdily built, the 5000 Series fleet was rapidly aging and deteriorating, due to their intensive usage, on what was then (and still is now) Tokyo's busiest subway line.
5000 Series trains were originally intended to be operated in 7-car sets during the day, and in 10-car sets during rush hour, by adding an "independent" 3-car set to each train. While this had been an acceptable solution for the past decades, by the late 1980s this was no longer: due to the increasing population living along the line, especially in it's eastern section, between Nihonbashi and Nishi-Funabashi, demand on the line warranted a uniform 10-car fleet at all times, and even then, that was even slightly insufficient during rush hours.
Thus, work started on a replacement for the 5000 Series - as with other "replacements" at the time, the Tozai Line's new trains were to be part of TRTA's broad "0X Family" of trains, spearheaded by the 01 Series entered in service on the Ginza Line in 1983, and also included the upcoming replacements for older rolling stock for both the Maronouchi Line (wich would eventually become the 02 Series) and the Hibiya Line (the 03 Series).
This latter one, the 03 Series, provided the base and most of the design elements to the new trains, accordingly classified as the "05 Series", as it was the closest match to the Tozai Line's requirements (both lines' sharing a similar loading gauge, 1500v DC overhead electrification and 1067mm gauge tracks).
There was only one key difference - the 05 Series was to use standard 20m-long bodyshells with four doors per side, rather than the 03 Series' 18m-long bodyshell with three doors.
Given that at the time the Tozai Line was the only one to offer rapid services (skipping all stops between Nishi-Funabashi and Minami-Sunamachi, except for Urayasu Station) on the whole of Tokyo's subway network (Express services would be introduced on the parallel Toei Shinjuku Line in 1997, and on the Fukutoshin Line upon it's opening in 2008), the 05 Series was given a slightly aereodynamic front, while retaining the same pleasantly rounded edges and front windshield of other 0X Series trains.
Equipment-wise, among other things, the new 05 Series were to be fitted with TRTA's distinctive high-frequency four-quadrant GTO Choppers, along with a modern computerized self-diagnostic system, a powerful air-conditioning unit for the comfort of the passengers (wich the 5000 Series was lacking). The only "main" equipment shared with the 5000 Series was the on-board equipment for the WS-ATC signalling system used on the Tozai Line since it's opening.
Originally, the 05 Series was supposed to be introduced first, but due to the even more deteriorated and aged state of the 3000 Series trains in service on the Hibiya Line, priority was given to the 03 Series instead, wich entered service on the 1st of July 1988.
The 05 Series would enter service after just a few months of delay, with the first three sets built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries (sets 1 and 2) and Nippon Sharyo (set 3 only), beginning their career on the Tozai Line on the 16th of November 1988.
The reason behind this initial very small order, depsite the seemingly gargantuan task, is actually pretty straightforward: these first sets were used to replace the three 8000 Series surplus from Hanzomon Line requirements, wich had been transferred on a temporary basis to the Tozai Line in 1987 in order to supplement the 5000 Series after the whole fleet was reformed into seamless 10-car sets, and were now urgently needed back on their "home line", as the opening of it's extension to Mitsukoshimae loomed.
After the stop-gap 8000 Series sets were returned to the Hanzomon Line in early 1989, the replacement of the 5000 Series finally began with the delivery of the three 2nd-batch sets, formations 04 to 06, identical to the 1st-batch, except for having been built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries only.
Three more sets (07 to 09) were introduced in 1990 as the 3rd batch, also manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, but this time fitted with the ATS-P and ATS-B systems for trough-services on JR East's (newly-inherited) network.
The following year, in 1991, four more sets (10 to 14) were added to the fleet as the 4th-batch. The first three sets were identical to the previous batches - set No.14 was instead "special", as it was used as a sort of prototype to test two new implements that would be equipping all following batches of the 05 Series, firstly a Mitsubishi Electric GTO-VVVF inverter (identical to the ones fitted on several of the new 9000 Series sets for the Namboku Line), and most notably a new bodyshell design with four (three on cab cars) "wide" 1800mm doors per side, instead of the standard 1500mm-wide ones, intended to relieve congestion on the line by speeding up boarding and alighting at stations.
Depsite the relatively minimal timesavings (especially compared to JR Easts' infamous 6-door cars), TRTA proceeded for an order of three more "wide door" sets, these the 5th-batch sets 15 to 18, essentially identical to set 14 save for a few fetaures, namely a return to the GTO Chopper control system (rather than set 14's GTO-VVVF inverter control), the fitting of wheelchair spaces in the second and second-to-last cars, and the fitting of JR East's ATS-P system only (besides the Tozai Line's WS-ATC), as the older ATS-B system was in the process of being replaced by it.
A new batch of 05 Series sets, the 6th one, was delivered in 1993, comprising sets 19 to 21. This batch, manufactured entirely by Nippon Sharyo, saw the return to the "standard" 1500mm door width, but also saw the ditching of the distinctive GTO Chopper control in favour of an extremely modern IGBT-VVVF inverter control manufactured by Toshiba, something that would become commonplace in Japan (and elsewhere) only a decade later, making this batch of the 05 Series the first trains in Japan (and easily in the world) to adopt IGBT-VVVF inverters.
Three more identical sets, formations 22 to 24, were delivered in 1994 as the 7th batch, manufactured by Kinki Sharyo. Of this batch, set 24 is notable for having interior fittings (handrails, baggage racks, seat supports and many others) made out of recycled alluminum coming from 5000 Series car No. 5453, scrapped in August 1993, and was accordingly fitted with distinctive stickers on the front and sides.
With the introduction of set No.24 in 1994, the last non-air conditioned 5000 Series sets were replaced, and for the first time, the 5000 Series was outnumbered by the 05 Series by a one-set margin (23 sets, 230 cars for the 5000 Series and 24 sets, 240 cars for the 05 Series). However, it soon became clear that a complete replacement of the 5000 Series was to be necessarily a long-term affair, due to the sheer size of the fleet and the finite financial resources on TRTA's side. It was thus decided to temporarily halt procurement of the 05 Series in favour of life-extension works and small-scale refurbishments for the remaining 5000 Series sets, especially those in the best overall condition, in order to have them in service for ten or fifteen years more, until their replacement could be finally concluded.
[continues in following post]