Set 7702+7807 of the EMU Keio 7000 series displays a special plateOn May 9th this year, Keio Electric Railway celebrated the 40th anniversary of the EMU 7000 series operation. I recently found special anniversary plates displayed on the front of Set 7701+7805 and Set 7702+7807 trains. Congratulations on the 40th anniversary!
To start, let me review the Keio line. It's one of the main transportation arteries in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Connecting Shinjuku and several western suburban cities, the total operating length is 72 kilometers. One of the characteristics of this line is its unique track gauge size... 1,372 millimeters. It's because the Keio line was initially constructed as a tramline same as the Toei-Arakawa and Tokyu-Setagaya lines.
Let's head to the main topic. The 7000 series was commissioned in 1984 as the first train with stainless-steel bodies. 190 cars in total were built by Nippon Sharyo and Tokyu Sharyo. The early 110 cars have corrugations on the side bodies (see the photos). On the other hand, the later 80 units have bead-press stainless-steel bodies. 17 years after its debut, the renovation was started in 2001 due to the deterioration. For instance, the electric control system was changed from the field chopper to the state-of-the-art IGBT-VVVF (insulated gate bipolar transistor-variable frequency drive) inverter with induction motors. After 16 years more, scrapping was started in 2017. The 7000 series will be totally replaced by a new model, 2000 series, in the future. According to Keio, the 2000 series is planned to be commissioned in 2026. Time passes by so quickly.
