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.