Finally, the second part of the New 101 Series pack - "rural and local railways" is now complete!
All of them are already avaible on my website.
Top row, from left to right: Izuhakone Railway 1300 Series (both the standard blue-white livery and the Seibu revival livery), Joshin Railway 500 Series (both red and green liveries), Sangi Railway 751 Series, Ohmi Railway 100 Series, Ohmi Railway 900 Series (both the blue and "Akane" liveries) and the Chichibu 6000 Series in both standard and revival liveries.
Bottom row: all the seven colorful liveries of the Ryutetsu 5000 Series.
Izuhakone Railway 1300 Series
These were introduced in 2008 to replace the ageing 1100 Series (former Seibu 701 Series trains) on Izuhakone Railway's Sunzu Line. One 4-car set and one 2-car set were purchased at a preferential price from Seibu Railway (Izuhakone Railway is part of the Seibu group) and were subsequently converted to form two 3-car sets. Both sets entered service on the 14th of December 2008, fitted in Izuhakone Railway's blue and white livery. Besides the "re-formation" works, the two former New 101 Series sets (reclassified as 1300 Series sets 1 and 2) were also adapted for one-man operation. As of today, both sets are still in service, having replaced the last 1100 Series set in 2012. Set no.2 is still painted in it's "standard" Izuhakone Railway blue-white livery, while Set no.1 has been repainted in 2014 in a "revival" livery of the New 101 Series' original Seibu yellow livery with tan window bands and has been running painted as such ever since.
Joshin Railway 500 Series
In the early 2000s Joshin Railway was looking for a suitable replacement for it's ageing, non-air-conditioned 200 Series trains. To this end, Joshin Railway approached Seibu Railway (with wich it already had a long-standing relation) to purchase a few second-hand trains. The choice fell on the New 101 Series, of wich Seibu Railway had a copious surplus, having replaced the vast majority of them with 4-door trains. Furthemore the New 101 Series trains shared several technical components (bogeys in particular) with several other Joshin Railway trains, such as the 1000 and 6000 Serieses, making their purchase particularily attractive. In the end, Joshin Railway acquired two 2-car sets in 2005. Both trains re-entered service in the same year on the railway's only line, reclassified as 500 Series sets no.1 (painted in a cream and green livery) and no.2 (paint in a cream and red livery). Both sets are currently still in service, shuttling daily between Takasaki and Shimonita on the Joshin Railway line.
Sangi Railway 751 Series
This lone 3-car set was purchased by Sangi Railway in 2009 to replace the last of it's ageing 601 Series sets (themselves too ex-Seibu stock, being former 451 Series trains purchased in the 1980s). Currently, the sole 751 Series is in regular service, running on Sangi Railway's Sangi Line, togheter with the rest of the line's fleet (wich is entirely formed of ex-Seibu trains). Set 751 has changed little from it's "seibu times", the only notable modification made (besides the livery obviously) is the destination indicator, wich was changed to an LED-type display upon the purchase of the set by Sangi Railway.
Ohmi Railway 100 Series
Starting from 2013, Ohmi Railway began to purchase second-hand New 101 Series sets from Seibu Railway to replace it's 220 Series (themselves too ex-Seibu stock extensively rebuilt in the 1990s), whose single-car formation was no longer suited to the ridership of the railway's lines, wich was increasing after years of decline. Ohmi Railway procured five 2-car sets "en bloc", wich were converted and put back in service between 2013 and 2018, classified as "100 Series". Conversion works involved fitting the necessary one-man operation equipment, converting the destination indicators to LED-type ones and a new fresh coat of paint, with the new livery being a pleasant light blue with a white line.
All six 220 Series "electric railcars" were retired by 2015, with some of them being moved to maintainance and other service duties. Currently, all five 100 Series sets are in service, being used interchangeably on all three of Ohmi Railway's lines.
Ohmi Railway 900 Series
Besides the five 100 Series sets, Ohmi Railway also has one more ex-Seibu New 101 Series set in it's fleet. Classified as 900 Series, this lone set was purchased in 2013 to operate non-stop special services between Hikone and Maibara. Upon arrival at Ohmi Railway, the 900 Series set underwent the same modification as the 100 Series sets, including conversion to one-man operation and the replacement of the original roller-blind destination indicator with an LED-type one. To distinguish it from the 100 Series, the sole 900 Series set was painted in a particular dark blue livery with a pink line and decorative pink dolphin-shaped stickers on the doors. The 900 Series entered regular service on the 14th of June 2013. Later, the set was moved to all-stop local services. On the 16th of July 2018 the 900 Series set was repainted in a promotional livery for tourism in the Shiga region, and one year later, it was repainted again, being fitted in the cream, blue and red "Akane" livery of Ohmi Railway's 700 Series set. This set, wich was rebuilt in 1998 from an ex-Seibu 401 Series, was designed to be used for special services and as an "event" train, but had to be retired in 2019 due to ageing technical equipment. The sole 900 Series set was selected by Ohmi Railway as the 700 Series replacement and was thus repainted in the same "Akane" livery, re-entering service on the 7th of May 2019 as the "Akane II" train.
The 900 Series set is currently in regular service with Ohmi Railway being used both as a "standard" local train (like the 100 Series) and for "event trains".
[continues in following post]