Lake-Ocean View in Hakone

Gondora "Ashinoko" of the Komagatake Ropeway

You may remember when I introduced you to my visit to Hakone last November. I’m going to show you one more precious view from the summit of Mt. Komagatake today.

Please look at the photo below. You can see two kinds of water surfaces. What are these? They are the lake and the ocean. The one in the front is Lake Ashinoko. On the other hand, the one in the back is the Pacific Ocean. It’s a rare view, isn’t it? As far as I can remember, there are several places, where we can see both a lake and the sea in Japan. For example, we can simultaneously see Lake Saroma and the Okhotsk Sea in Hokkaido Island, but they are connected each other. In other words, the difference in elevation of these water surfaces are zero meters. In contrast, the difference in elevation of water surfaces between Lake Ashinoko and the Pacific Ocean is 723 meters. Don’t you think the water could easily leak from the lake? According to specialists, Lake Ashinoko is a caldera lake in the Hakone mountains. It means that the lake is surrounded by the hard and dense volcanic rocks. I enjoyed this unique view from Mt. Komagatake.

Well, I can't be written off here as this is a transportation blog. Taking this opportunity, I'm showing another gondola, “Ashinoko (Number 1)”. Along with “Komagatake (Number 2)”, “Ashinoko” was built by CWA in 1986. It can accommodate up to 101 passengers. Komagatake Ropeway has been operated by automatic control system since 1990.

Lake Ashinoko (in the front) and the Pacific Ocean (in the back)

Official website, Hakone-Komagarake Ropeway (in Japanese):

https://www.princehotels.co.jp/amuse/hakone-en/ropeway/

The 55th Anniversary of the Seibu-Chichibu Line

Trainset Seibu 4017, "the 55th anniversary train" of the Seibu-Chichibu line

On October 14th, 2024, Seibu Railway celebrated the 55th anniversary of their Chichibu line. In commemoration, several events are held by the company.

Let me review the Seibu-Chichibu line to start. It’s a mountain railway penetrating Chichibu Mountains, which is situated in the northwestern part of the metropolitan area. Connecting Agano and Seibu-Chichibu, the route length is 19 kilometers. The track is mostly single and electrified at 1,500 V DC. The gauge size is 1,067 millimeters. The route was opened on the 14th of October 1969 to transport tourists and cement. For your information, Mt. Buko in the Chichibu area is famous for producing limestone, which is a material of cement. The limited express train “Laview (EMU 001 series)” and the standard train “EMU 4000 series” are mainly commissioned on the line.

Let’s head to the main topic. Seibu started to operate the 55th anniversary train of the Seibu-Chichibu line on November 11th, 2024. It’s a red and beige-colored train using trainset 4017 of the EMU 4000 series. According to Seibu, the color design of the anniversary train was taken from the Class E851, which was retired from the Seibu-Chichibu line in 1996. The E851 was a Bo+Bo+Bo-type direct current electric locomotive with six 425kW DC motors. It could tow 1,000-ton cement cargo trains by double heading. You can imagine what the E851 looked like from the imitation exhibited in Seibu-Chichibu station (see the photo below). The E851 is on our left.

Congratulations on the 55th anniversary of the Seibu-Chichibu line!

Immitation of the Seibu electric locomotive Class E851 (left)

Official information about the 55th anniversary train of the Seibu-Chichibu line by Seibu Railway (in Japanese):

https://www.seiburailway.jp/file.jsp?newsroom/news/file/20241108_4000e851.pdf

New Year Scene on the Inokashira Line

Set 1751 of the EMU Keio 1000 seeries arrives at Shimokitazawa station

Usually in Japan people tend to meet with their families during New Year holidays. I’m no exception. I visited my mother’s house in Suginami Ward on New Year Day, and had a great time with my mother and family.

Next day, I went to a shrine named Omiya-hachiman, near my mother’s house to pray for a healthy and prosperous year. Omiya-hahciman was opened in 1063 for warding off evil. After praying, I saw a New Year’s ceremony named “Hikime-no-gi” was being held at the archery range in the precinct. When the special arrow was shot, it cut the wind and emitted a "whoosh" sound, which is said to dispel the devil. I fully enjoyed this traditional ceremony.

To get to this historical shrine, the nearest railway station is Nishi-eifuku on the Keio Inokashira line. Following the “Merry Christmas” plate, a train on the Inokashira line was displaying “Geishun (New Year’s greeting)” plate on the front in this season. It was Set 1751 of the EMU Keio 1000 series. Set 1751 was commissioned in 1996 as the first set of the 1000 series. It has blueish green-colored face. Incidentally, I’m going to show you a surefire topic for old-school trainspotters. The 1000 series trains have great variety not only their “face colors”. For example, the early 15 sets including Set 1751 have boxy destination signs on the front. On the other hand, the later 14 sets have smooth destination signs. Finding such subtle differences between trains is the greatest pleasure for trainspotters like me.

Hikime Ceremony is held at Omiya-hachiman shrine near Nishi-eifuku station

Green Cars for Free

JR East double decker Green Cars (first-class cars), Type SaRo E233 and E232

You may remember when I introduced you to the test run of Green Cars on the JR East Chuo Rapid line three years ago. What happened this project after that?

Let me quickly review the Chuo Rapid line and the Green Cars project. The Chuo Rapid line is one of the busiest railways in the metropolitan area. 10-car trains are operated every two minutes during the rush hour, but still very crowded. JR East can't keep their arms crossed. To reduce congestion, they made a plan to increase two cars per train-set. These two cars will not be standard cars, but Green Cars (first-class cars). Why? That's because many passengers request to get seats on the train on the way to and from work, even if they pay extra. It's favorable to the railway company as well to increase their sales. That’s a win-win solution, isn’t it?

Let’s head to the main topic. JR East started to operate trains connecting Green Cars on October 13th, 2024. Surprisingly, there is no Green Car charge! The gimmick is as follows. It’s a campaign to attract future Green Cars passengers. For that purpose, all Green Cars on the Chuo Rapid line will be free of charge until March 14th, 2025. Many passengers currently enjoy luxury Green Cars for free. I’m one of them. In the Green Car, I’m just relaxed and enjoy reading or listening music, while having a soft drink. Green Cars on the Chuo Rapid line… it’s a “Petit-zeitaku” (small luxury and gratification) for Tokyoites, isn’t it?

Interior of Green Cars on the JR East Chuo Rapid line

Official information about the Green Car project by JR East (in Japanese):

https://www.jreast.co.jp/press/2024/20240910_ho02.pdf

Extra Rare Train on the Tokyo Metro Namboku Line

Set 9109 (8-car train) of the EMU Tokyo Metro 9000 series 

It's fun for me to find rare trains on railway tracks as a trainspotter. No matter how painful things are, rare trains make me happy. Trainspotters are carefree people, aren't they? I’m going to show you a surefire topic for old-school trainspotters like me today.

The subway Tokyo Metro Namboku line penetrates Tokyo Metropolis from south to north. Connecting Meguro and Akabane-iwabuchi, the total operating length is 21.3 kilometers. Many trains are directly operated onto the Tokyu-Meguro, Saitama Railway and other lines. In addition to that, the section between Meguro and Shirokane-takanawa is shared with the Toei (Tokyo Metropolitan Government) Mita line.

To operate the Namboku line on timetable, 23 train-sets in total are provided by Tokyo Metro. They all look the 6-car trains, but there is one train-set of exception if you observe them carefully. That's Set 9109 of the EMU 9000 series, which is composed of 8 cars. You can confirm it, if you count the number of air-conditioners installed on the roofs of the train (see the photo below). Set 9109 was originally built in 1995 as a 6-car train. Two new cars were then added to this train-set, and it became an 8-car train in 2023. According to Tokyo Metro, 14 more train-sets will be changed from 6 to 8 cars to increase transport capacity; however, I haven't heard from Tokyo Metro recently. As a result, Set 9109 is now an extra rare train-set consisting of 8 cars. It’s really fun for me to perceive a fine difference between these trains.

Set 9109 (8-car train) travels on the Tokyu-Meguro line