Friday 13 January 2017

Sayonara 110: An Old Climber on Hakone Mountain

Unit 110 of the electric car MoHa 2 series travels on the Hakone Tozan Line

On July 4th, 2016, Hakone Tozan Railway made a press release, announcing that their old electric car 110 will be retired soon.

Unit 110 of the electric car MoHa 2 series was originally built by Nippon Sharyo in 1927. It had Swiss made trucks and electrical components. Its original name was electric car 10 of the Chiki 2 series. The body of this old electric car was, then, replaced by a steel one by Toyo Kouki in 1957. The car number was also changed from 10 to 110 of the electric car MoHa 2 series at that time. In 1985, the trucks and the electric motors were changed to TS-330A (Tokyu Sharyo) and TDK-8180A (Toyo Denki Seizo), respectively. As a result, the original features of electric car 10 disappeared at this point. The color design of electric car 110 was recently returned to what it was in the late 1940's, namely light blue with a yellow stripe. It stands out among the red colored standard rolling stock of the Hakone Tozan Railway.

Hakone Tozan Railway was opened in 1888 as a horse tramway. It connects Odawara and Goura with a maximum angle of 80 per-mille, which is the world's second steepest railway. Taking the Odakyu Line, it takes about 90 minutes from downtown Tokyo to Odawara, the gateway station to Hakone Mountain.

The last run of Unit 110 is planned on 12th of February, 2017. Sayonara (good-bye) and Arigatou (thank you) electric car 110, a veteran climber on Hakone Mountain.

Unit 110 of the electric car MoHa 2 series stands at Hakone-Yumoto Station

Official information about the Hakone Tozan Railway MoHa 2 series (in Japanese):