Precious EL Preserved in Utsunomiya City

Electric locomotive Unit 7 of the Class EF57 is preserved in Utsunomiya City

Utsunomiya is the main city in Tochigi Prefecture, some 110 kilometers north of Tokyo. It is located in the northern part of Kanto Plain, and known as the machine and food industries city. With regard to railways, you may remember when I introduced you that Japan’s newest tramline was opened in Utsunomiya City last August. The number of cumulative passengers became 6 million on November 19th this year, which was four months earlier than expected. It is a great success.

Utsunomiya is an advanced railway city, but it's not all new. If you walk about the city, you will find a precious old locomotive. Please look at the photos. It is an electric locomotive (EL) Unit 7 of the Class EF57 preserved in Utsunomiya-higashi Park. The Class EF57 is a 1,500V direct current EL with an axis arrangement 2C+C2 (AAR wheel arangement). It was developed for pulling express trains on trunk lines by the Ministry of Railways in 1940. Its maximum speed was 95 kilometers per hour. A total of 15 units were built by Hitachi and Kawasaki Sharyo. Unit 7 was built by Hitachi in 1942, and retired from the Japanese National Railways (JNR) in 1978. It is the only survivor of the Class EF57, and has been preserved in this park since 1980.

Please look at the top photo again. The pantograph sticks out of the body. That’s really cool! A special deck in front of the cab is also unique. I was fascinated by this precious EL.

Front view of Unit 7, Class JNR EF57

Deja Vu on the Shin-Keisei Line

Set N838 of the EMU Shin-Keisei N800 series, Revival-colored train

You may remember my last year’s post, in which Keisei will absorb Shin-Keisei Electric Railway Company in April, 2025. How is the merger project going? I recently visited the Shin-Keisei line for the first time in two years, and saw it with my own eyes.

Let me review Keisei Electric Railway and Shin-Keisei Electric Railway. Keisei is one of the major private railway companies in the Tokyo metropolitan area. It owns a total of 152.3-kilometer-long railway network in the eastern part of Tokyo and northern Chiba Prefecture. On the other hand, Shin-Keisei is an affiliate firm of Keisei Electric Railway Company in Chiba of Prefecture. It owns a 26.5-kilometer-long railway route. Keisei has made Shin-Keisei a wholly-owned subsidiary last year through a share exchange. As the second step, Keisei will absorb Shin-Keisei next year to maximize synergies by making faster decisions and improving business efficiency. The new name of the Shin-Keisei line will be Keisei-Matsudo line after the merger.

Now, let's head to the main topic. I found that the body colors of two Shin-Keisei trainsets have been changed to their original colors. They are Set N838 of the EMU N800 series and Set 8808 of the EMU 8800 series. In my memory, they were changed from their original colors to new colors, which were two-toned of pink and white, only two years ago. Why Shin-Keisei put them back to the original colors now? This is to look back on Shin-Keisei’s past before reaching the end. I fully enjoyed the Deja Vu trains on the Shin-Keisei line.

Set 8808 of the EMU Shin-Keisei 8800 series, Revival-colored train

Official information about the N800 series revival colored train (in Japanese):

https://www.shinkeisei.co.jp/topics/2024/34002/

Official information about the 8800 series revival colored train (in Japanese):

https://www.shinkeisei.co.jp/topics/2024/34532/

"Magical Journey Shinkansen" Train

Set U6 of the EMU JR East E5 series, "Magical Journey Shinkansen"

On June 6th this year, Tokyo Disney Resort held its grand opening of Fantasy Springs. To promote tourism to this new theme park, the owner company of Tokyo Disney Resort, namely Oriental Land, started to operate a new poster train, named Magical Journey Shinkansen, on the Tohoku Shinkansen jointly with JR East.

Let's take a quick look at Fantasy Springs to start. This theme park is composed of Frozen Kingdom, Peter Pan's Never Land and Rapunzel's Forest. For example, visitors of Frozen Kingdom are invited to the kingdom of Arendelle from the film Frozen. Needless to say, a movie, Frozen, was a major hit in 2013. The film met with widespread acclaim from critics and audiences, winning two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, among numerous other accolades.

You can see characters of Fantasy Springs on the side bodies of Magical Journey Shinkansen. They are Elsa and Anna of Frozen, Peter Pan and so on. You may remember when I introduced you to Magical “Dream” Shinkansen before. It was Set J69 of the EMU JR East E2-J series. On the other hand, Magical “Journey” Shinkansen is Set U6 of the JR East E5 series. The EMU E5 series is the fastest train in Japan. Its current maximum speed is 320 kilometers per hour (198.8 miles per hour). By tilting the train's body using advanced technology, the E5 series can keep a high speed on tight curves as well. JR Hokkaido's H5 series is a sister train of the E5 series.

Side view of "Magical Journey Shinkansen"

Official website, "Magical Journey Shinkansen" by JR East (in Japanese):

https://www.jreast.co.jp/mjshinkansen/

Final Chapter of the ex-Tokyo Metro 05 Series in Indonesia

05-110F of the EMU ex-Tokyo Metro 05 series in Jakarta, Inodonesia

(Photo: Faris Fadhli)

Sorry for jumping from one topic to another, but I am going to follow up the trains in Jakarta a little bit more. Following the EMU ex-Tokyu 8500 series, which I posted on November 14th, I am going to show you the other “endangered species” today. My thanks again go to Faris Fadhli, who kindly sent me the beautiful picture.

Please look at the top photo. It is 05-110F of the EMU ex-Tokyo Metro 05 series operated in Indonesia. The 05 series originally debuted on the Tokyo Metro Tozai line in 1988. 240 units in total were built by Kinki Sharyo, Nippon Sharyo and others. 130 units out of 240 units had already retired from the Tozai line. 12 units were then transferred to the Kita-Ayase branch line after modification; meanwhile, 80 units were exported to Indonesia as secondhand trains. According to Faris Fadhli, two sets (05-108F and 05-110F) are still operated by the local railway company.

I still clearly remember the time when the ex-Tokyo Metro 05 series arrived at Indonesia in 2010. I visited Port of Tanjung Priok near Jakarta with several enthusiastic Indonesian railfans, and welcomed the 05 series trains (see the photo below). Just like the ex-Tokyu 8500 series, ex-Tokyo Metro 05 series’ second life is coming to an end... but two sets still remain on the track. I would like to thank again the local railway engineers in Indonesia, and hope that the 05 series will be operated as long as possible.

05-107F of the EMU ex-Tokyo Metro 05 series has just arrived at Tanjung Priok port

(August 14th, 2010)

2024 Late Autumn Visit to Hakone

Gondola Number 2,"Komagatake", Hakone-Komagatake Ropeway

Autumn begins to deepen in Japan. The leaves have begun to turn red, brown and yellow in the Tokyo metropolitan area. One of the most famous places for enjoying autumn leaves is Hakone in a western suburb of Tokyo. I recently visited this resort area with my family. Our destination was Mt. Komagatake, which is one of the peaks of the central cone of Hakone Caldera. Its peak is 1,356 meters above sea level.

To visit Mt. Komagatake, Hakone Komagatake Ropeway is convenient. The route was originally opened by Izu-Hakone Railway in 1963, and currently operated by Seibu Prince Hotels Worldwide Company. It's a four-cables cross type aerial tramway. Connecting Hakone-en on the shore of Lake Ashinoko and Komagatake-chojo station at the summit of Mt. Komagatake stations, its route length is 1,783 meters. The height difference between the two stations is 590.8 meters. Its maximum inclination is 30.3 degrees. The gondola is operated every 20 minutes. It takes about 7 minutes to go one way. The present gondolas, namely Ashinoko (Number 1) and Komagatake (Number 2), were built by CWA in 1986 as the 2nd generation ones. Each gondola can accommodate up to 101 passengers.

After arriving at the Komagatake-sancho station, we enjoyed beautiful autumn leaves of Mt. Komagatake and adjacent Lake Ashinoko. In addition to that, we could clearly see Mt. Fuji (3,776 meters above sea level) in the northwest. There was less snowfall than average this year, so, we couldn’t see a snow-capped peak. Was it an effect of global warming?

A view of Mt. Fuji (3,776 meters above sea level) from Mt. Komagatake