Saturday 18 February 2023

Unit 123: Brother of the Nameless Tramcar

Tramcar unit 123 of the Sendai City Tram 100 series

After uploading my post about "the nameless tramcar" in Seibu-en Amusement Park, I remembered that his "brother" survives in Sendai City.

Unit 123 of the Sendai City Tram MoHa 100 series is one of the precious exhibits in Sendai Tram Museum. He is a little brother of the nameless tramcar in Seibu-en Amusement Park. It was built in 1952 by Niigata Tekko-sho. The MoHa 100 series is a middle-sized (11.9-meter-long) double-axle bogie car, and accommodates up to 88 passengers. It has two 38 kW direct current series motors, and its rated speed is 21 kilometers per hour. The traditional nose-suspension drive system is adopted. Unit 123 was specifically active in the post-WWII reconstruction period. I specifically like the front windows, which are asymmetrical. Unit 123 and the nameless tramcar in Seibu-en Amusement Park... they really look alike, don't they?

Incidentally, unit 123 had a total of 23 brothers. After the abolition of Sendai City Tram in 1976, 5 of them were transferred to Nagasaki Electric Tramway on Kyushu Island to spend their second life. Although they already had been retired from the track in Nagasaki as well, all of them are surviving as exhibits in a park, museums and a kindergarten to spend their third life. As you know, unit 117 is displayed in Seibu-en Amusement Park as the nameless tramcar. Unit 124 is preserved in a kindergarten of Nagasaki Prefecture. More surprisingly, unit 121 is exhibited in Sydney Tramway Museum, Australia under the name of "Nagasaki 1054". That's awesome!

Side view of unit 123

Official website, the Sydney Tramway Museum:
Official picture of "Nagasaki 1054":