International Railroad Discussion > Tokyu Car's early "Budds".....

Another great post by symph1 on the contemporary scene, together with the usual informed commentary by cchan006, on 6/16 finally forced me to get off my...er, rocking chair, and go down to Level 17 of the SZ Slide Vault and digitize some slides from what a TO poster termed [ cough ]  "the Steinzeit Era" -- in this case, the summer of 1971 in Tokyo.  As is well know to TO International Board followers, Tokyu Car acquired a license from Budd for their stainless steel technology;  my posts here will look at some of their earliest products.

First, some background:  Tokyu Car was under the same corporate umbrella as one of the major Tokyo privately owned commuter lines, the "Tokyo Electric Express Railway Company Ltd" or TKK;  thus, Tokyu Car had a ready customer for their products. I'll start with a brief look at the pre-Budd TKK fleet:
By 1971 a significant portion of their service still consisted of classic heavyweight motor cars and matching trailers or control trailers of prewar design, though many were postwar builds;  the first three slides show typical examples, which were usually formed into four car sets.

To be continued....   SZ
 

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4)  1952 saw the last of the heavyweight designs, a somewhat updated version, which reminded me of the PRR's MP54-E6
5-6)  In 1954 Tokyu started with a clean sheet, the 5000 class, a new lightweight -- about 28T/motor car vs 39T for the old ones -- design, which were usually formed into  MMTM sets, although there were also control trailers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/24 06:25 by Steinzeit2.

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7-8)  1958 saw the first stainless cars, a single four car stainless version of the 5000/5100's:  an MMTM set, 5201/11/51/02.  Interestingly, the weight did not significantly change vs the steel versions.

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9-11)  In 1960 it was time for Tokyu Car to do a small production run:  TKK's 6000 class.  There were four four car sets, the 6000-6100's, and a single set of 6200/6300's;  the latter had the same general appearance as the others, but had different trucks, motors, and electrical gear.  All cars were motored, formed into pairs.  I thought these cars were elegant.

Interestingly, these were not the second stainless cars in Japan;  I'll cover those, which were not by Tokyu, in a future post.  My next post, hopefully later today, will cover the first large scale Tokyu stainless production runs.

Corrections and additional information welcome !!

Best regards, SZ

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12 - 13 )  In 1962 the  stainless taps were turned fully on:  the TKK's 7000's, with enough stock to form over thirty four car sets.  All cars were paired motors;  even numbered 7000's were end cars with pans, the odd numbered 7001-7063 without;  in each case they were paired with the appropriate no pan / pan interior motor of the 7100 class, 70 of which were built.  The Budd influence was stronger, with more engineering input:  "Pioneer-like" trucks with outboard disc brakes appeared under some cars, while the roof ventilators looked strongly like Philadelphia's "Almond Joy" cars.

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1962 also saw Tokyu Car produce the first batch of their 3000 class for the KTR, the  Keio Teito Electric Railway Company Ltd, another Tokyo area commuter hauler.  The KTR had large numbers of conventional and 'streamstyled' heavyweight cars ( 14 - 15 ), and traffic growth made their augmentation a priority.  The first group was 15 four car sets, with control trailers flanking a pair of motor cars.  These had single leaf doors, but the second batch in 1963 had the two-leaf arrangement.  Some cars were retrofitted with air conditioning, which in Tokyo suburban service was still a novelty at that time. ( 16 - 19 )

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Neat stuff, thanks !

KTR 3000 class, con't

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Meanwhile, back at the TKK they were receiving the first of the 7200 / 7500 class:  Motor cars 7201-06 paired with control trailers 7501-06.  The car end was more styled, with what Tokyu called a "diamond"shape -- European enthusiasts would probably call it "feminine";  it certainly improved their looks. ( 20 )  But Tokyu and TKK were not looking only at stainless, for there were also two prototype cars 7200 and 7500, with aluminum bodies ( 21 - 22 ).  There would be other aluminum cars, but that was in the future.

That concludes this look back -- hope you enjoyed it.

Best, SZ

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Steinzeit2 Wrote:
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> That concludes this look back -- hope you enjoyed it.

Absolutely!

I recognize the Tokyu Class 5000/5200s, nicknamed "Blue Frog" or Ao-gaeru, because some have been preserved, non-operable. One cab car used to be displayed right near the famous "scramble crossing" in Shibuya, but it got shipped north to Akita Prefecture more than 3 years ago. Shibuya is going through a major makeover, and I hope to post a report in the future.

The stainless steel 5200 ("Silver Frog" or Gin-gaeru) is preserved non-operable, by Ueda Electric Railway, and Ueda is a town about 25 miles south of Nagano.

For those who are calling me color-blind (Class 5000 looks green), Japanese language has confused green and blue in other areas, for example, some calling green signals blue (ao-shingo).

I briefly documented the successor to the Class 7000, the 7200s running on Toyohashi Railway in Toyohashi, and that was just last year. One set I caught had pink over stainless so even more "feminine." I guess it's my turn to catch up and start posting reports!
 

Steinzeit2 Wrote:
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> KTR 3000 class, con't

If I remember correctly, there were only two 4 car sets of the "one leaf door" KTR 3000s.

When Keio Inokashira Line had to deal with intolerable congestion, they upgraded the infrastructure to handle 5 car sets, which was in 1971.

I remember riding the Inokashira Line in the 1980s, and the pair of "one leaf door" sets were still in service. I always wondered why one of the cars had the non-matching "two leaf doors" and that curiosity led me to do more research (via a paper book) back then. Since the one leaf door sets were no longer manufactured, KTR slapped on a "two leaf door" car to make them 5 car sets.

When the stainless steel KTR (Keio Teito Railway) 3000s started service, the cab ends had FRP (Fiber-Reinforced Plastic) sections and each train set had a unique color, for example beige, light green, blue, magenta, etc. You got the light green and blue, and in my silly youth, I got extra joy out of riding the beige one. Some railfans consider KTR a pioneer in railfan publicity by making each train set with a unique color.

If I recall more memories, I'll share more silly stories, and maybe post a report based on the current operations.

Great photos and lots of info. Very enjoyable. Thanks for your efforts. chris uk.

Nice series of the old japanese commuters.

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

Steinzeit2 Wrote:
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>
> Interestingly, these were not the second stainless
> cars in Japan;  I'll cover those, which were not
> by Tokyu, in a future post.

When I wrote that, I was thinking of the Hanshin's pair of stainless cars, 5201-02, of 1959;  these were essentially just stainless versions of the 5100 class, and both classes were built in the railway's own shops, I think their last so built in house.  The Hanshin had a remarkably homogeneous fleet at that time;  both their 'express' and local cars had a similar external appearance, with the former in red and the latter in blue. 
23)       A typical Hanshin express set at speed
24-25)  The two stainless cars;  these were configured as local cars.

However, I had forgotten about a pair of cars.......

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...or more correctly, I had forgotten how early they had been built.  These were a pair of stainless EMU trailers built for JNR in 1958;  I don't know the builder, but it doesn't look like a Budd-pattern side.
 -  These cars were originally built as 2nd class [ when JNR still had three classes ] 95900-01.
 -  In the three digit renumbering scheme they became 153 901-02, and were relabeled "Green Cars" with the demise of the three classes.
 -  They were then incorporated in the newer 165 sets, and were renumbered accordingly.  This is the version most railfans and modelers are familiar with, because of their mass produced N scale versions.  By this time if not earlier they were finished in the familiar green / orange scheme;  I don't know if they ever ran in an unpainted finish.
 -  Finally ( ? )  they were included in 111 class sets, and became 110 901-02.  It was this version that I caught on a rainy day in Osaka in October 1971 (26).

SZ

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Steinzeit2 Wrote:
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>  -  In the three digit renumbering scheme they
> became 153 901-02, and were relabeled "Green Cars"
> with the demise of the three classes.

Fascinating stuff! There's a claim that stainless steel panel were painted, as it was tough to keep it looking clean unpainted.

Manufacturer of what's named as "Salo 110-902" in your photo was Kisha Seizo, which existed from 1896-1972. It got absorbed into Kawasaki Heavy Industries and no longer exists. Since it had nothing (or little) to do with TKK or Tokyu Sharyo (now J-TREC), I agree that there's no Budd connection there.