Saturday 27 December 2014

Tankoro Festival on the Enoden Line

Front view of car number 108, the electric car Enoden 100 series, "Tankoro"
 
Following the rail yard tour on the Shin-Keisei Railway, I am going to show you the other public event, which was recently held by Enoshima Electric Railway.

Enoshima Electric Railway (Enoden) is a convenient mode of transportation to get around the historical Kamakura City, which is located about 40 km southwest of Tokyo. Connecting Kamakura and Fujisawa on the Tokaido and Odakyu lines, its operating length is 10 km. The track is 1,067 mm-size single, and its electric system is 600 V DC overhead.

The public event, "Tankoro Festival", was held in Enoden's Gokurakuji Rail Yard. The main exhibition was... of course, Tankoro. What is Tankoro? It is an old electric car, which is being kept in an operational state in the rail yard. Tankoro, whose formal name is "electric car, number 108 of the Enoden 100 series", was manufactured in 1931 by Niigata Tekko. He (or she) is the 8th boy (girl) of the 100 series brothers (sisters).

The specification of Tankoro is very old. Direct electric control and straight air brake systems are still used, but it is very handsome and nostalgic. The frontal mask is slightly convex, and it has three large windows. A large single round light is attached at the top of the front. The green and cream colored riveted body with window sills and window headers tell us the long history of this train.

I am truly grateful to Enoshima Electric Railway Company to have held this special event.

 
Car number 108 of the electric car Enoden 100 series (Tankoro) is exhibited in Gokurakuji Rail Yard
 
More infomation about car number 108 of the electric car Enoden 100 series (in Japanese):