Japan

[Railshuttle]

Almost there!!. Just got to complete making one more big city qnd then it's on to the mountians where West Sanito awaits!!
JDriver: Oh well thought I'd try. Sounds like you're really into the Cos play gig. Who's your favorite character to dress up as?

[rowletmaster]

to celebrate the 500th page of the japanese forum
I know i have shown this picture before but because i was busy, i hope you guys wouldnt mind the repost.
here is a 500 shinkansen

[Jdriver]

@Railshuttle Kagamine Len is my favorite character to be. In fact, I went out this week to some malls, and some people recognized who I was

[pagroove]

Some of me. Still Work in progress. :
Screenshot dump for page 500! Great work guys/

[IMG]TRS19_2023_05_14_12_22_59_380 by pagroove, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]TRS19_2023_05_14_12_21_53_407 by pagroove, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]TRS19_2023_05_14_12_20_51_307 by pagroove, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]TRS19_2023_05_14_12_20_05_706 by pagroove, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]TRS19_2023_05_14_12_17_57_830 by pagroove, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]TRS19_2023_05_14_12_09_46_241 by pagroove, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]TRS19_2023_05_14_12_06_36_664 by pagroove, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]TRS19_2023_05_14_12_03_54_758 by pagroove, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]TRS19_2023_05_14_12_02_46_779 by pagroove, on Flickr[/IMG]

[AlexMaria]

Happy 500th page evryone! Of course, to properly celebrate i've made a special anniversary pack as well. My plans would originally have been for the 500 Series Shinkansen, but since it has been already made (several times), i decided to opt for another "500 Series": the iconic Marunouchi Line trains from the 1950s!



Now available on my website!

Besides the titular 500 Series, this pack also includes the earlier 300 and 400 Series as well as the 900 Series trailer cars.

The 500 Series "family" was introduced in the first half of the 1950s as the trains of choice for Tokyo's second subway line, and the first new line built after the second world war, the Marunouchi Line.

The planning inception for the current Marunouchi Line came in the late 1920s as the first comprehensive plans for a subway network in Tokyo were being drawn up after the opening of the Ginza subway line, Tokyo's first.
A first tentative plan dating from 1932 called for a north-south alignment, dubbed "Line No.4" running from Shinjuku to Otsuka, but this was soon rejected by the Ministry of Finances due to Tokyo's skyrocketing pubblic debt. At the same time, the Tokyo Rapid Railway (one of the two operators of the Ginza Line, wich owned the section between Shibuya and Shimbashi) was planning to add a branch to it's line, running northward from Asakasa-Mitsuke to Yotsuya Station - to this end, Asakasa-Mitsuke station had already been predisposed with four platforms split on two floors when it opened in 1938. The outbreak of the second world war and the resulting financial hardship put a solid stop to all extension plans.
In 1941, the two operators of the Ginza Line were merged into the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (or TRTA) by the government, further shelving any extension plans for the forseeable future.

After the end of the war, and with Japan's economy growing step-by-step, among the necessity to rebuild damaged infrastructure, a new subway masterplan was drawn, based on various pre-war itterations. In particular, several "stretches" were merged togheter: the Asakasa-Mitsuke to Yotsuya section, a modified "Line No.4" alignment between Ikebukuro and Tokyo and an additional section that was planned to connect Shinjuku to Tokyo, the result being a "U-shaped" line connecting almost all major railway terminals.

Approval was granted in 1946 and the route, maintaining the classification of "Line No.4" was allocated additional funding, as it was a key infrastructure project in the context of post-war reconstruction - in particular it was to replace several damaged and overcrowded tramway lines. Construction works finally began in earnest in 1951, at Ikebukuro station, excavating 7,7Km towards Kanda as the line's first section.
As a matter of simplicity, for the new line TRTA opted to use the same standards as the Ginza Line - primarily the 1435mm standard gague, a 600v DC top-contact third rail and a similar loading gauge with six-car trains with three doors per car, albeit this time a couple of meters longer (18m compared to the 16m per car of the Ginza Line).

However, it was decided to introduce a completely new type of train, instead of adapting or ordering trains based on the Ginza Line's rolling stock, wich was rather archaic in design (nose-suspended traction motors, riveted carbodies, single-leaf mechanical doors, direct air-brakes, wood-panelled interiors...) and already obsolete. To this end, TRTA sent various engineers to visit several subway systems around the world, as a way to find out new technologies and systems that could be used for the new line's trains.
The most fruitful collaboration came with the New York City Subway (with wich TRTA had already a long and historical connection - the majority of the technical equipment TRTA was already using was entirely based on US standards and practices, and in some cases even built in the US proper). TRTA's was particularily interested in the IRT's (the narrow loading-gauge, numbered lines, current A division) new R14 cars, delivered starting from 1948 and built by American Car Foundry with General Electric or Westinghouse traction equipment, in no small part because they had almost the same loading gague, carbody arrangment, performance specifications and overall design as the trains TRTA intended to purchase for the new line. In particular, TRTA's engineers were intrigued by the R14s WN-type cardan drive and SMEE electro-pneumatic braking system.

Satistified with their findings, in 1953 TRTA imported two sets of SMEE and WN equipments and fitted them to two purpose-built 1400 Series cars, "testbed" prototypes that were to be put in service on the Ginza Line to test the new equipment.
After some early teething problems, due to the relative inexperience of the technicians and maintainance teams, wich were used to the barebones-like structure of the older Ginza Line trains, instead of the relatively advanced US-made equipment, the tests were deemed a success, with TRTA finally proceeding to place an order for mass-produced trains fitted with SMEE and WN equipment.

Classified as the "300 Series", 30 individual cars were built by Kisha Seizo, Kawasaki, Nippon Sharyo and Kinki Sharyo with Mitsubishi Electric equipment between 1953 and early 1954.
Note "individual cars": as derived from the then-current TRTA practice (wich was coincidentally identical to the NYC Subway one), at the time, trains were ordered as single, fully-independent railcars all equipped with cabs at both ends and all the necessary traction equipment - each 300 Series car was technically able to operate fully by itself, with no issues.

Besides the brand-new technical equipment, the 300 Series was also the center of a remarkable design effort: the bodyshell was built without rivets, entirely welded, and the passenger windows were widened so as to lighten the interiors as much as possible. Finally, the most striking fetaure of these trains was their bright scarlet red livery, with a ivory white band under the windows with a decorative stainless steel double-sine wave addition that ran the whole lenght of the cars.

With construction works completed, the new line opened on the 20th of January 1954 as the "Marunouchi Line", running between Ikebukuro and Ochanomizu (the one-station section to Kanda was cut temporarily from the original plans due to budget constraints), with the 300 Series entering regular service, formed as two-car trains during the day or 4-car trains during the morning and evening rush hours.

Construction works on the remaining portion of the line resumed shortly after, with the Marunouchi Line being extended southwards to Awajicho (instead of the nearby Kanda, as originally planned) in March 1956 and then to Tokyo station in July. To provide rolling stock for the newly-opened sections, new cars were delivered, under the designation of "400 Series".
These were identical to the earlier 300 Series in all regards, equipment, interiors and specifications, except for the roof design: instead of the older clerestroy-style of the 300 Series, the new 400 Series cars were fitted with a modern full-arch roof. Neverhteless, the 300 and 400 Series remained entirely compatible, interchangeable and able to work in multiple-unit control with each other. Six 400 Series cars were delivered for the extension to Awajicho and 20 more cars were delivered for the extension to Tokyo, followed in April 1957 by another batch of 12 cars to increase the line's capacity, for a total of thirty-eight 400 Series cars built by Kisha Seizo, Tokyu Car, Kawasaki, Nippon Sharyo and Kinki Sharyo.

Later that year, TRTA opted to extend the planned line beyond Shinjuku to Ogikubo and to add a branch toward Nakano-Sakaue. Finally, as construction works on the rest of the line gradually came to completion, a new batch of cars was ordered yet again, this time classified as the "500 Series". These cars were entirely based, to the point of being nearly identical, to the 500 Series, however they had one key difference: unlike the previous 300 and 400 Serieses, the 500 Series was ordered as cars fitted with only one cab as opposed to two - this was because TRTA deemed having cars with two driving cabs no longer useful, especially considering that the Marunouchi Line had been operated from the start with two-car sets, and the "single-car" capabilities of the previous series were never used in regular service, nor they were planned to be in the future, in particular on account of the growing ridership.

An initial batch of ten 500 Series cars was delivered in December 1957 for the extension from Tokyo station to Nishi-Ginza (the current Ginza), and were followed by 18 more cars for the extension to Kasumigaseki in October 1958.
40 cars were delivered for the extension to Shinjuku Station in March 1959 and were followed by 12 more in April and 4 more in July, the latter two batches intended to increase the line's capacity.

Further "line capacity increase" deliveries were made in April (9 cars) and November (16 cars), and around the same time, all trains began to run as 4-car sets.

[AlexMaria]

The first Maronouchi Line westward extension outside the Yamanote Line loop opened in February 1961, with the start of subway services between Shinjuku and Shin-Nakano or Nakano-Fujimicho. Depsite effectively being part of the Marunouchi Line (and using the same rolling stock), this section was officially called the "Ogikubo Line" and was operated separately, altough with some through-services onto the "Marunouchi Main Line". For this section, a total of 32 new 500 Series cars were delivered, followed by 10 more a few months later. The distinction between the "Ogikubo Line" and the "Marunouchi Line" would become increasingly feeble over time, as the two increasingly became operationally seamless. The name itself would be dropped in 1972 as the two lines were officially merged into one.

Later in 1961, the Ogikubo Line was extended from Shin-Nakano to Minami-Asagaya and then to Ogikubo in January 1962, and in March 1962 the final section of the Marunouchi Line, from Nakano-Fujimicho to Honancho opened, bringing the line to it's current status. For the opening of all these sections, a total of 35 cars was delivered, and most trains were reformed into 6-car sets.

The end of extension works for the Marunouchi Line wasn't however the end of rolling stock deliveries - yet more cars entered service to increase the line's capacity, as it's ridership gradually grew: 45 additional 500 Series cars, built and delivered between November 1962 and December 1964.

As the 500 Series was built over a long timespan (7 years from 1957 to 1964), a few minor design changes are inevitable - the most prominent being the redesigned destination indicator, wich had it's side marker lights removed from the 45th car (part of the March 1959 batch) onwards.

The final new cars for the Marunouchi Line were delivered in 1965 - these were the 900 Series trailers - essentially identical to 500 Series trains but without cabs and design to lenghten all remaining trains to six cars. Six 900 Series trailers were delivered in October 1965 and in January 1969 twelve more cars were delivered to increase the number of available trains, in order to increase the frequency of Marunouchi Line services to a train evry 110 seconds, these bearing distinction of being the very last Marunouchi Line "500 Series" cars built.

Therefore, by the early 1970s, TRTA had at it's disposal a total of 320 cars - fifty-three 6-car trains in service on the Marunouchi "Main Line" (the Honancho Branch Line was operated with the older 100 Series surplus from the Ginza Line) plus a two-car 500 Series set as spare.
After 20 years of service, general repairation works began in 1973 - these included a refurbishment of the interiors, new windows, new electrically-powered wipers, new electrically-powered roller-blind destination indicators, and most importantly, new doors fitted with small square-like windows: these were designed to avoid kids getting their fingers trapped into the door pocket by simply forcing them to look out the windows somewhere else, a simple and effective solution that remained a staple of japanese rolling stock design for many decades, up until the early 1980s.

Since then, the service life of the 500 Series remained relatively uneventful, shuttling up and down the Marunouchi Line between Ikebukuro and Ogikubo, with only two major modifications: in 1982 twelve 300 Series cars had their (long-unused) cabs removed and converted into trailers, and in 1985 their nice, but old-fahsioned and difficult to maintain salmon-pink interior upholstery was changed to the then-standard greyish-white colour standard on TRTA's trains.

However, by the early-1980s, the 500 Series was starting to show it's age - after 30 years of intense services, the cars were relatively fatigued. Furthemore, depsite having been revolutionary at the time of it's introduction, in the early 1950s, the 500 Series was now rather obsolete and inefficient - transportation technology had made huge steps forward in the meantime.
At the time, new trains were being introduced on the Ginza Line to replace the older rolling stock in service until then. These new trains were the "01 Series", a true far cry from the older stock: lightweight, comfortable and energy-efficient thanks to it's GTO Chopper control.

With rolling stock replacement ongoing on the Ginza Line, TRTA started considering introducing a derivative of the 01 Series on the Marunouchi Line as well, even if not immediately. After all, a replacement had to come sooner or later, as most cars were by now nearing 30 years of age. Finally, replacement programs were started for good in the second-half of the 1980s, with the introduction and entry into service of the 500 Series' replacement, the 02 Series, in 1988.
The 02 Series of course was an entirely different concept from the 500 Series, basically a polar opposite: full 6-car sets instead of single-cars coupled togheter, lightweight stainless steel instead of heavy carbon-steel, energy efficient GTO Choppers instead of the old resistor camshaft control, sophisticated microprocessor-controlled equipment instead of simple electro-mechanics and so on.
Manufactured by Nippon Sharyo, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kinki Sharyo and Tokyu Car with Mitsubishi Electric equipment (ironically almost the same exact manufacturing arrangment of the 500 Series thirty years earlier), the first sets entered revenue services in October 1988, gradually replacing the various 500 Series cars in service. The first ones to be retired were the 400 Series cars in 1991, followed by the 900 Series in 1994.

In July 1993, many 500 Series surplus cars were reformed into 3-car sets and redeployed to the Honancho Branch Line, replacing the 2000 Series trains that had been in use since 1968. The 500 Series on the "Main Line" instead soldered on for a couple years more, being officially retired in February 1995. The remaining six trains on the Honancho Branch survived a few months more, but were ultimately replaced as well in July 1996 by the 02-80 Series, a small batch of six 02 Series three-car sets designed especially for the Honancho Branch, thus ending a 42-year long career.

[AlexMaria]

As the trains of Japan's first post-war subway line, the 500 Series were extremely popular and well-known, helped in no small part by it's distinctive appearance. Such was their iconic status, that already even before the first major withdrawal, demand for used 500 Series cars was extremely high - in the late 1980s TRTA had put on sale a small batch of Marunouchi Line cars for about 400 000 yen each, and they were all sold-out within a few months! Many buyers were major commercial and retail companies, such as the Mitsukoshi Department Store, wich wanted "a piece" of the Marunouchi Line to put on exhibition. This purchase frenzy was in no small part helped by the fact that that was the height of Japan's financial bubble, when money and expenses were only a very relative issue. In total, eight cars were sold in this way, out of 24 originally planned - not expecting the used cars to be this popular, TRTA cut the list of to-sell cars before the sale even began, a move that many higher-ups within TRTA later regretted!

And the thing doesn't end here, because TRTA found yet another buyer for second-hand 500 Series cars - the Buenos Aires subway!
Indeed, in the mid-1990s TRTA was approached by officials of Metrovìas, the operator of the newly-privatized Buenos Aires "subte", wich were looking for suitable rolling stock to replace the dilapdated rolling stock in service at the time on many lines. Due to the financial situation at the time (after the Falklands War, Argentina had entered a deep economic recession, wich worsened year after year and would culminate in a default on debt in 2002), purchasing new rolling stock was out of question, therefore Metrovias looked at what it could purchase second-hand for a relatively low price.
The choice fell on the TRTA 500 Series as Metrovias urgently needed "new" trains for Line B, the only third-rail powered line of the newtork, wich was then operated by the nearly-70-years old Osgood-Bradley and Metropolitan-Cammel-manufactured cars dating from the early 1930s and the extremely unreliable and fire-prone Siemens-Fabbricaciones Militares trains of the 1970s.

Metrovìas purchased a total of 131 500 Series cars, including a vast majority of "proper" 500 Series cars, almost all 900 Series intermediate trailers and seven of the 300 Series cars that had been converted into trailers in 1982.
Out of these, 128 entered service in Argentina in 1995, with little modifications, such as the fitting of running-boards along the cars (to bridge the gap with the platforms designed for wider trains), some modification to the tripcocks and the stripping of equipment from some 500 Series cars used as intermediate cars. Otherwise, the 500 Series trains now in Argentina retained a huge number of fetaures from their Marunouchi Line years, including the original scarlet red livery and stainless-steel sine wave!

Amazingly, many 500 Series trains are still in service in Buenos Aires to this day, 65 years after their manufacture: various attempts at a replacmement were made trought the purchase of second-hand rolling stock from the Madrid metro, in particular ex-5000 Series (built in the mid-1970s by CAF and withdrawn in Buenos Aires in 2018 as they were found to be containing asbestos) and ex-6000 Series trains, wich have suffered from poor reliability and for wich numerous expensive modifications had to be carried out to Line B's infrastructure. Instead, the 500 Series despite it's age has gained a reputation for being a well reliable train, and it's likely to remain in service for the near future, atleast until a worthy replacement can be sourced.

Depsite many sets still soldering on in Buenos Aires, many have been retired, replaced by the ex-Madrid stock, and scrapped in Argentina as well. With the retirement of the 500 Series planned many times, Tokyo Metro, the successor to TRTA, took interest in "bringing back home" what were essentially perfectly functioning 500 Series trains. Tokyo Metro went trough, and in 2016 it "bought back" four 500 Series cars from Metrovias, had them shipped to Japan and restored to their original condition at it's own workshops at Nakano and Shin-Kiba depots.

As of today, these four cars have been cosmetically restored, with a further restoration to perfect working order planned. Besides these four, a large number of 500 Series cars have been preserved: car 301 (the very first 300 Series unit) is preserved and on display inside Tokyo Metro's own museum at Kasai Station, car 319 was sold to a Golf Club in Chiba prefecture, 400 Series car 454 is preserved and on display at the Poppo-No-Oka Museum in Chiba Prefecture, car 440 is on the premises of a Kindergarten near Hotoke Station on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line and cars 444, 451, 456, 459, 437, 461 and 464 were sold to private individuals, with the first four having been later scrapped, and the whereabouts of the latter three being currently unknown. 500 Series car 664 was sold to a resident of Miyazaki Prefecture and it's now on display near Hyugashi Station on the Nippo Main Line and cars 652 and 685 were donated free-of-charge by TRTA to the Hachioji Children's Science Museum and to the Tokyo College of Transportation respectively.

(first and only triple post - my apologies for the lenght! I also needed to cut out the trivia points as well - head onto my website for them!)

[Rizky_Adiputra]

Link if you want to buy :
Former Keio 2000 Series - Choshi & Iyo Railway Pack
Gameplay Video :
youtu.be/lYG6nvQ4LCw

[Forester1]

@AlexMaria, thank you for these units from the 50's and happy Page 500! You have certainly been most generous with your creations and I am amazed at the work that goes into these!

[AlexMaria]

@AlexMaria, thank you for these units from the 50's and happy Page 500! You have certainly been most generous with your creations and I am amazed at the work that goes into these!

Thank you very much! After a relatively busy period i'm back on track with my releases, and you could say, i'm full-steaming ahead!

Speaking of, new stuff is here - the start of a new chain of releases inspired by last year's Toei Mita and Shinjuku Lines'-related releases - this time it'll be centered around the Toei Asakusa Line, and of course, i had to start it off with the recently-retired 5300 Series!


Skirtless sets 01 to 15 (1991-202X) on the left, front-skirt-fitted sets 16 to 27 (1994-2023) on the right.

Now available on my website!

By the late 1980s, Toei's fleet for the Asakusa Line was almost entirely formed of the original 5000 Series trains that were introduced in service when the line opened in 1960, supplemented by two 5200 Series sets built in the mid-1976s and based on the Mita Line 6000 Series and the 10-010 prototype set for the future Shinjuku Line. After 30 years of intense services, the formers were now considerably worn out and in need of a replacement. Furthemore, having been designed in the late 1950s, the 5000 Series was considerably devoid of any modern fetaures or amenities, especially air-conditioning, leaving much to be desired in terms of comfort, especially if compared to the rather more modern trains Keisei (and it's related companies) and Keikyu were already running on Asakusa Line through-services. The 5200 Series were instead too few to make any meaningful difference.

Furthemore, with the planned introduction through-services with the Hokuso Line, Toei also had a need for additional trains to put on these services. Therefore, by the late 1980s the decision was take to introduce a new type of train for the Asakusa Line.
Classified as the 5300 Series, the new trains were maufactured by Hitachi, Nippon Sharyo, Kinki Sharyo and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, with the first set entering in service on the 31st of March 1991.
The new trains were a considerable step-up from the older 5000 Series, both from a passenger viewpoint, as they were fitted with air-conditioning, more comfortable seats and automated in-car announcments, a crew viewpoint, as they were fitted with spacious and ergonomic cabs as well as a technical one - the 5300 Series bears the distinction of being Toei's first inverter-controlled subway train, using a GTO-VVVF Inverter manufactured by Mitsubishi electric.

Great consideration was also put in their design, courtesy of Hitachi's own "Design Laboratories", both in regards to the shape of the train itself (inspired by the ground-breaking 1st-batch 12-000 Series trains that were being delivered at the same time for the Oedo Line) as well as the livery, wich was based on the overall white livery with a red stripe as fitted to the 5000 Series since 1985. The slightly rounded aereodynamic front was also choosen as the new 5300 Series were expected to be used on a sizeable number of express services, somewheat contradicting their nature as subway trains.

Formed as 8-car sets, the first two were built by Hitachi in 1990, followed by sets 03 to 06 built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries in 1991, sets 07 to 10 by Nippon Sharyo in 1992 and sets 11 to 14 by Hitachi in 1993.
Sets 15 to 17 were built by Nippon Sharyo in 1994, and from sets 16 onwards, newly built cab cars were to be fitted with an enlonged front skirt. Sets 18 to 21 were also built in 1994, but by Kinki Sharyo, and sets 22 to 26 were built in 1995 by Hitachi.
With enough 5300 Series sets now in service, the older 5000 Series was increasingly relegated to lesser duties until it was finally completely replaced, being officially retired on the 1st of July 1995.
After the retirement of the 5000 Series, an additional set was delivered, this being set No.27, manufactured in 1997 by Kinki Sharyo was intended as a testbed, being fitted with more powerful traction motors, to increase it's maximium speed from 110 to 120Km/h while maintaining the crucial high-accelleration specs necessary for a subway train, as Toei was interested to match the speed of Keikyu's limited express services, operated at 120Km/h using the famous 2100 Series.
Similar modifications were to be eventually carried out for the whole fleet, but the plan fell trough pretty early and was later canceled, with Set No.27 being used interchangeably with other 5300 Series sets, without taking advantage of it's higher maximium speed.

As part of various overhaul programs in the early 2000s, door chimes (based on the ones used on Keikyu trains) were fitted on all 5300 Series sets by 2003. In 2006, with the retirement of the 5200 Series sets (the two 6-car sets had been merged into an 8-car one a few years earlier), the 5300 Series became Toei's only train for the Asakusa Line.

As part of the huge number of reciprocal through-services, Toei's 5300 Series trains could be found all over Keikyu and Keisei networks, even pretty far away from Tokyo - besides their "home" Asakusa Line, the 5300 Series also ran on Keikyu's Main Line, Zushi Line, Kurihama Line and Haneda Airport Line, running through-services from and to Horinouchi, Zushi-Hayama, Keikyu Kurihama and Haneda Airport, and likewise could also be found on the Keisei Main Line, Oshiage Line, Higashi-Narita Line as well as the Hokuso Line and even the Shibayama Railway, running through-sercies equally from and to Aoto, Narita Airport, Imba-Nihon-Idai and Shibayama-Chiyoda (more than 50Km from the Asakusa Line's northern terminus at the namesake Asakusa station!).

However, these very intense services began to take their toll on the 5300 Series over the years. As they were nearing their 30 year mark, plans for a replacement began to be drawn., altough initally not considered a priority.
This was soon reversed with the nearing of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics: as the Asakusa Line (via the through-services from and to Narita and Haneda airports) was considered an important "gateway" to Tokyo (as well as an important "tourist mover" - after all, it's the line of choice for many to get to the Kaminari-Mon gate and the Senso-ji temple) and with many other railway company embarking in an olympics-fueled rolling stock replacement frenzy in motion, the 5300 Series was shortlisted for replacement as well.
It's replacement, designated as the 5500 Series and built by J-TREC as part of it's Sustina S13 family, entered service on the 30th of June 2018, replacing the 5300 Series on a set-by-set basis, starting with the oldest one, Set No.01, wich became the first 5300 Series to be retired. This replacement carried on in the following years, past the Olympics, until late 2022, with only one 5300 Series set remaining in service.

Set No.20 (built by Kinki Sharyo in 1994) was the last to be retired, having being retained for a year-and-a-half (all 27 necessary 5500 Series sets being available since September 2021) as a spare train, being withdrawn from service in February 2023, unfortunately without any fanfare, closing a 32-year long career.

Unfortunately, depsite the availability of new and relatively up-to date inverter-controlled rolling stock, no 1435mm-gauge third-sector railway company expressed any interest for an eventual second-hand purchase (likely due to the fact that being rather modern and complex means higher maintainance costs, unaffordable for many) and thus, unfortunately the vast majority of 5300 Series cars was, or is in the process of being scrapped.
Reportedly, only set No.20 is still togheter "in one piece", altough it's unlikely it'll remain as such for a long time. Unfortunately, unlike Tokyo Metro, Toei isn't exactly known for being keen on preserving withdrawn rolling stock, and thus the scrapping of the only surviving set is unfortunately a very likely possibility. There could be hope however for the preservation of a cab car inside Toei's Nishi-Magome depot.


Trivia:
According to Hitachi, the design of the 5300 Series was inspired by the "à là mode" image of Asakusa and Ginza. Seat upholstery depicts sakura blossoms, and the curtains fetaure a design inspired by the ripples of the Sumida river.
The 5300 Series' design is supposed to "aim for the 21st century", be "an innovative design with an urban touch", have "bright and refreshing" interiors, make it a comfortable and easy to use vehicle, and finally, to reduce maintainance requirements trough the usage of new technologies.

[duskeyduskey]

a bit late but happy 500th page guys!

[Forester1]

Wow! How do you get that rain effect? Is that part of 22?