Picking up where I left off my last post, I'm introducing individual exhibits in Romancecar Museum from now. The first story is "SE Car".
SE Car, also known as the EMU Odakyu 3000 series, was commissioned in 1957 as the first generation Romancecar. SE stands for Special Express. The purpose of SE Car was to speed up Odakyu trains and promote tourism to the sightseeing spots in the Hakone Mountain. It was composed of 8 motorcars with articulated bogies. 4sets, 32 units in total, were built by Nippon Sharyo and Kawasaki Sharyo from 1957 to 1959. SE Car established a maximum speed of 145 km per hour on the trial run in 1957. It was the world's speed record of narrow gauge (1,067 millimeter-gauge) trains at that time. In 1958, Japan Railfan Club elected SE Car as the first Blue Ribbon Prize train. As you know, the Blue Ribbon Prize is an annual award to the best train that was launched in the previous year.
SE Car was a yearning in my childhood. Whenever SE Car approached me ringing the chime (auxiliary alarm device), I was excited. Its streamlined bodies with vermillion, gray and white-colored stripes were definitely cool. Arch-shaped passenger doors were quite unique and my favorite. I was absorbed in SE Car. Only 2 units, namely DeHa 3021 and DeHa 3022, are preserved in their original form, and currently exhibited in Romancecar Museum. "We" enjoyed a reunion for the first time in ages.
To be continued...
