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| Electric cars Hakone-Tozan MoHa 104-MoHa 106-MoHa 109 |
First, the railway track had been repaired. In October 2019, a strong typhoon, No.3, named Yagi, hit the Kanto region including Hakone Mountain. Because of landslides and mudflows, several parts of the track were severely damaged. The railway company made every effort to promote rehabilitation and reconstruction of the affected sections. As a result, the closed line was reopened on July 23rd, 2020. It was financially supported by the local government, and brought forwarded three months. That's really good news.
Second, coloring designs of two classic electric cars had been changed. Unit MoHa 106 of the MoHa 1 series was changed to the light blue and yellow two-toned. On the other hand, Unit MoHa 109 of the MoHa 2 series was changed to a deep green color. The previous body colors of these two cars were vermillion and light gray two-toned. These two kinds of new color designs were definitely my favorites. Specifically, the deep green color was nostalgic as it was the original body color of Hakone Tozan Railway in 1927.
Incidentally, Unit 109 of the MoHa2 series was originally built by Nippon Sharyo. The original name of the 109 was electric car number 9 of the ChiKi 2 series. The body of this old electric car was, then, replaced by a steel one by Toyo Kohki in 1955. The car number was also changed from 9 to 109.
EMU Hakone Tozan 1000 series (left) and electric car MoHa 109 of the MoHa 2 series (right)