I realized I haven’t posted any topics about Sagami Railway (Sotetsu) recently. I can't think of anything right now, so, I searched my hard disk for unreleased photos, and came across some. I’m going to show you a Sotetsu train from two years ago today.
Let's review Sotetsu a little bit before that. It’s a Yokohama-based major private railway company, and has a 44.4-kilometer-long railway network in Kanagawa Prefecture. The track is double. The electric system is 1,500V DC. The gauge size is 1,067 millimeters. Sotetsu trains have directly operated onto the JR East lines since 2019 and the Tokyu lines since 2023.
Let's get down to the main topic. Sotetsu operated a revival-colored special poster train, named “Okaimono Densha (shopping train)”, in 2023. Okaimono Densha was originally operated in the 1960s for the shoppers to Yokohama. It was the express train displaying special plates on the front of the EMU 5000 series. 63 years later, Okaimono Densha was back to the Sotetsu line using trainset 11002 of the EMU 11000 series. What for? The main purpose is to attract shoppers to “Joinus-Yokohama”, a large shopping mall owned by Sotetsu. You can see a nostalgic-designed train front from 60 years ago. A pigeon and a shopping basket are depicted as well. They are revival of the Okaimono Densha in the 1960s. Incidentally, the 11000 series is Sotetsu’s standard commuter train debuted in 2008. To reduce the manufacturing costs, it has common specifications with JR East's EMU E233 series.
