I recently visited Atami City in Shizuoka Prefecture as a family travel. I was basically refraining from trainspotting, but I couldn’t hold it any longer when we arrived at Atami station. The reason why is because I came across Izukyu’s “Aloha Train”.
Let me review Izukyu to start. Izukyu is a private railway based on the Izu Peninsula, Shizuoka Prefecture. Connecting Ito and Izukyu-Shimoda, the operating length is 45.7 kilometers. It was opened in 1961 as a sightseeing line to promote tourism to the Izu Peninsula. The track is single and electrified. The electric system is 1,500 V DC. Many trains on the Izukyu line are directly operated onto the JR lines, and operated to Atami, Tokyo and others.
Now, let's head to the main topic. Aloha Train, namely EMU Izukyu 3000 series, is the newest model on the line. It was moved from JR East lines in 2022. The former name was the EMU JR East 209-2100 series. It was operated in the Chiba area such as the Uchibo and Sotobo lines. One set was originally composed of 6-cars (4M2T), but decreased to 4 cars (2M2T) before moving to Izukyu. It has stainless-steel bodies. The ocean-side is designed in blue color; while the mountain-side is in red color. There are many sea-turtles printed on the bodies of the train. The electric control system is an IGBT-VVVF (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor-variable frequency drive) with 95kW induction motors. I hope that the 3000 series will be cherished by the hometown folks. Aloha!
