Tuesday 3 December 2019

Toei Festa 2019: Linear Motor Train

EMU Toei 12-000 series is exhibited at Magome rail yard

Subway trains are annoying for rail photo lovers. One of the problems is its dark environment on the railway track. Many rail fans shoot subway trains only on the surface sections during the daytime instead of on the underground sections, but such surface sections are limited in Tokyo. In the first place, several subway lines do not have surface sections.

The Toei-Ooedo line is no exception. All its routes are underground. To make matters worse, all stations on the Ooedo line currently have automatic platform gates (APG) to prevent passengers from falling off the platform edge. APG is essential for safety, but it is hampering photography. What should I do? The answer is "joining railyard tours"! I could recently shoot the whole feature of the EMU Toei 12-000 series for the Ooedo line under the sunlight when the railyard tour was held at Magome rail yard last month (Toei Festa 2019). The photo captured not only train bodies but also bogies and underfloor devices. Perfect!

Incidentally, linear motor technology is adopted for the train driving system on the Ooedo line. The linear motor is an electric motor that doesn't have a shaft. It moves in a straight line, while a conventional motor has a rotary movement. I could observe the linear motor, which was exhibited in the rail yard factory.

I gained a lot from the railyard tour of Toei Festa 2019. I am truly grateful to Toei to have held this special event.

A linear motor for the EMU 12-000 series is exhibited in Magome rail yard

Official inforation about the Toei Subway:
Official information about the trains on the Toei-Ooedo line (in Japanese):