Seibu Railway has launched the fourth-generation “L-train.” I’m going to introduce this newly wrapped train today.
Let’s start with a brief review of the “L-train.” The L-train (short for Lions Train) is Seibu Railway’s ad-wrapped train designed to support their professional baseball team, the Saitama Seibu Lions. Its design is based on Legend Blue, the team’s official color, and the train’s body is decorated with team emblems and characters.
Historically, the first-generation L-train appeared in 2010 using the EMU 3000 series. The second generation entered service in 2016 on the EMU 9000 series, and The third generation debuted in 2018 on the EMU 20000 series.
On March 15 this year, trainset 40152 of the EMU 40000 series was introduced as the fourth-generation L-train. The EMU 40000 series is Seibu’s high-end commuter train, launched in 2017. A total of 23 sets (224 cars) were built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries. The first batch of six sets features multi-purpose seats that can be switched from longitudinal to transverse seating via remote control. The remaining 17 sets, including trainset 40152 (the L-train), have only longitudinal seats.
I noticed that the traditional Lions character “Leo” appears on the front of the L-train—it’s the same design used on the EMU 8500 series operating on the Seibu-Yamaguchi Line. Leo, how have you been? It’s been a while!
Incidentally, I recalled that trainset 40152 had previously been used for other ad-wrapped trains such as "Kanahei" and “Moi! Moomin Hanno”. It seems this particular trainset is always busy promoting tourism along the Seibu lines.
