Keio Rail Land is a railway museum owned by Keio Electric Railway Company. It was opened in 2012 in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Keio Line. This museum exhibits five units of historical trains in an outside covered facility. They are the EMU 6000, 5000, 2400, 2010 and 3000 series, which were retired from the Keio and Inokashira lines. I am going to introduce you to the EMU 3000 series today.
The 3000 series was launched in 1962 as the first stainless steel body commuter train on the Inokashira Line, and was operated until its retirement in 2011. A total of 29 sets, 145 units, had been manufactured over 30 years by Tokyu Sharyo. One of the features of this EMU is that each train set shows a different color on the front mask and the side lines. Those are lilac (photo at the top), blue-green, ivory white, salmon-pink, light-green, beige and light-blue... the seven colors of the rainbow.
I was born in a western suburb of Tokyo, along the Inokashira Line, so I had been using the 3000 series for long time to go to school and the office. I have always had a special fondness for these trains. Even after retirement from the Inokashira Line, I sometimes visited local railways to meet with the re-homed 3000 series, such as Alpico, Iyo, Gakunan and Jomo Electric Railway.
EMU Keio 3000 series... it holds a lot of memories for me.
