Hello, it’s Kapinozuka.
When riding the JR Yamanote Line or the Saikyo Line etc, there are cars with doors positioned at 6 places each, what is known as the 6-door cars. (Normally its 4-doors per car)
The trains that have the seats folded away during rush hours of weekdays, but are pulled out for use from 10am.
There are also trains on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line that has 5-doors per car instead of the usual 3-door. And all the seats can only seat 3 people.
I really am surprised they actually made it.
These cars with many doors are great for the peak period during the morning rush, as it allows passengers to smoothly get on/off the train, making them popular.
But for the period outside those hours, there are times that you can’t get a seat even if there aren’t too many people.
And it’s when you are tired, that you want to sit down the most......
But in the Kansai Region, there is a train that can handle the congestion,
yet is very service-minded!
And that is this.
Keihan Electric Railway Series 5000!
Alright, so it might look like the box art of the B-Train Series,
but as I had no access to Ph0to Sh0p, I’ve used another program to make a quick illustration.
Sorry for it being such a rough job!
Although this Series 5000 has such a normal face, it actually has a very surprising mechanism.
Allow me to explain with the diagram below.
This train has 5 doors on each side of the car.
These cars with many doors aren’t so rare in Tokyo,
so for those living in Kanto, it may not be very surprising.
HOWEVER!
Once the morning rush ends and the train is put back to its normal state,
they close off the 2nd and 4th doors out of the 5 doors, making it become treated as a
3-door car!
You might be thinking, "Gee, Hibiya Line could do that too..."
But that’s not all!
For this Keihan Series 5000, seats appear in front of the doors that are closed off.
How about that, surprised?
The seats that are stored near the ceiling are pulled down, as shown above.
(Really want to put the Th**der*ird theme on)
How incredible!
The train that just had many doors, had been
transformed into one with long seats.
And by this, the car truly becomes a 3-door car.
Osaka is great, aren’t they? They don’t slack even with the train service.
You don’t see the railway companies of Tokyo going this far.
There is another thing that is more impressive than
the cars with many doors of Tokyo. Listen carefully.
And that is...
each car of the 7-car formation can switch between 3doors to 5doors!
The Yamanote Line and Saikyo Line have 2 middle cars of the 10-car formation having 6-doors, so that’s 20%.
The Hibiya Line has 4cars of the 8-car formation having 5doors, so that’s 50%.
But the Keihan Series 5000 has all 7 of the 7-car formation having 5-doors, so that’s
100 Percent!!!!!!
Such ratio of cars with many doors!
By the way, as these cars have such unique mechanism,
they had used aluminum alloy for the body to lighten the car,
which was quite rare back then.
And as for the rising seat mechanism, Keihan and the manufacturer,
Kawasaki Heavy Industries has patented the gimmick.
Such an amazing train, I really do wonder why
it couldn’t win the Laurel Award!??
(Lost against Tokyo Metro 6000 series of the same period!)
Right on, this amazing Keihan Series 5000 will be turned into N-Scale model by Micro Ace.
•Keihan Series 5000 3rd Gen Renewal Car Old Color (7-Car Set)
•Keihan Series 5000 4th Gen Renewal Car New Color (7-Car Set)
*We are unable to show the photos from the poster, due to complicated issues.
*I doubt the seat lifting mechanism can be reproduced inside a car of N-Scale.
These are most likely to be the first, and possibly last (?) car equipped with seat lifting gimmick,
the Keihan Series 5000 with many doors.
Popularly taking reservations!
Now, apparently there are clips of the seat lifting gimmick at work, on sites such as Y*uTube,
so if you are interested, it may be worth searching,
By Kapinozuka (The Miyazawa Report will still continue.)