On March 31st, Sagami Railway (Sotetsu) launched the 12th generation Sounyan Train. I’m going to show you this new poster train today.
Let me quickly review “Sounyan” to start. He(?) is Sotetsu's mascot character. According to Sotetsu's website, Sounyan is a new species of cat, born on March 10th on the Sotetsu line. He joined Sotetsu in 2014, and has been in charge of public relations. He is good at looking for something new. His hobby is taking photos and eating around. He seems to be a fine young cat, but he has a mental problem as well. People often think that he is a raccoon dog in spite of being a cat. It has been making him feel troubled for long time. What an elaborate profile it is! All living things can't live on sweet words alone.
Joking aside, the purposes of Sounyan Train are to spread charm of the Sotetsu line and to give relaxing to passengers. Trainset 11002 of the EMU 11000 series is used as the 12th generation Sounyan Train. The 11000 series is Sotetsu's commuter train which debuted in 2009. To reduce the manufacturing costs, it has basically common technical specifications with JR East's EMU E233 series.
Please look at the top photo. A stuffed Sounyan is boarding on the driver's cab. That’s so cute, but I’ve seen this somewhere before. Let me see… Odakyu’s “Mocoron”! Incidentally, you can review the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 10th and 11th generation Sounyan (or Sonyan) Trains in my past posts.
