EMU Seibu 6000 series with aluminum alloy bodies and door pocket windowsFollowing the EMU JR East E233-8500 series, I’m going to post the other surefire topic for old-school trainspotters today.
The EMU Seibu 6000 series is a commuter train on the Seibu and its direct operation lines. A total of 25 sets, 250 units, were built by Tokyu-sharyo and Hitachi. As I showed you before, the 6000 series is famous for having great variety. Firstly, the early 2 sets have silver-colored front faces; meanwhile, the late 23 sets have white-colored front faces. Secondly, the early 17 sets have stainless-steel bodies (see my previous post); meanwhile, the late 8 sets have aluminum alloy bodies (see the top photo). Thirdly, the early 22 sets have windows on the door pockets; meanwhile, the late 3 sets don’t have such windows. Are you with me so far?
Next, let’s see the early 22 set, which have windows on the door pockets, in more detail. Among the 22 sets, the late 5 sets are extra rare. Their windows on the door pockets are useless! In other words, passengers can’t see out the windows (see the photo below). What happened to this train? The gimmick is as follows. These 5 sets originally had windows on the door pockets; however, the inner windows were then replaced by the walls to display advertisements. Advertising revenue in the train should be larger than the renovation cost of the trains. Seibu must have calculated the specific details of cost performance.
Hats off to Seibu’s business effort!
