Search the Community

Keisei Railway will institute run-through operations on the Kanamachi Line on new year's eve through early AM New Years day for hatsumode activities. 10 trains in each direction will run Oshiage to Kanamachi at 20 to 40 minute intervals in the late PM and early AM hours, mainly to serve visitors to the Shibamata Taishakuten temple. The Shibamata Line once had run-through trains to Oshiage as well as Ueno, but these services ceased with the opening of the Sky Access Line and the elevation of the Shibamata Line platforms at Takasago in 2010. https://trafficnews.jp/post/113274 In more interesting times:

Bought a Hanshin Commuter Train Economy Kit today at Crosspoint Shimokitazawa (GM Store). There are a few more of these rare kits around, so hurry if you can! Maybe I'll get another one :P I'm going to use this kit as a base for two projects, but I need rare Keikyū 1000 type Economy Kit for that. Eventually I'll find one, but it's going to be a difficult job... • Project 1 will be concerned with the Keisei 3200 or 3300 with a new front. The new front comes from the Keikyū kit and will be attached to the body of the Hanshin kit. The train will eventually look like this: Keisei 3200 (New Livery) • Project 2 will be concerned with the Keisei 3100 with an old front, since these never got the new front anyway. The front comes from the Hanshin kit and the body is from the Keikyū kit. I'm really looking forward to this project, since it's one of my all time favourite Keisei trains (old front, new livery, hell yeah!). The train will eventually look like this: Keisei 3100 (New Livery) The biggest issue will be the underbody stuff, but that'll come in time. ---- Another issue I have is the second MicroAce A-6090 Keisei 3298 I bought. Keisei 3298 (Fire Orange) MicroAce A-6090 This train used to be unique to Keisei so there is no point of repainting or renumbering this train... An idea I have is to rebuilt it to the Keisei 3294 that had been tested for VVVF purposes, a 3150 type, or use the underbody of one of my MicroAce trains for the Keisei 3200 project. • The Keisei 3294 type will involve cutting in the middle cars to move the pantographs to one car. The front cars will remain untouched, but the underbody of the two middle cars need to be changed. If I were to paint this train Fire Orange, the front would need to be changed to square headlight, so I don't want to do that. It's a pretty difficult one, since I wouldn't know what underbody stuff I should get. I presume this isn't the one I'd go for. Keisei 3294 (New Livery, standard front) • The option to rebuild it to a 3150 is a bit silly, since Greenmax makes these as models already in several variations (Fire Orange, new livery, Hokusō and Chiba Express). They are however ridiculously expensive (min, ¥13.000 for a 4-car set). The rebuilt will involve two cars being rebuilt: pantograph moved to the front car and underbody for the middle and front car swapped. It's a pretty straightforward option, but I don't like the idea of cutting into the MicroAce body. Keisei 3150 (New Livery) • The option to use only the underframe for the previously mentioned 3200 rebuild is the most tempting for me, since it doesn't involve cutting into the MicroAce shells. However, it leaves me with four unused MicroAce shells, which will probably not be used ever again. This reason makes the 3150 rebuilt option very tempting... Keisei 3200 (New Livery) --- I'm planning to use these trains in a setting of a fictive company (Sagamiko RR) in a slightly different livery than the original Keisei one, with some in original livery. The Sagamiko RR will be running along the Sagami-Yokohama water supply line all the way to Sagamiko station on the JR Chūō line. This is a pretty straight and narrow footpath with water pipes underneath, large enough for a single-track railway line: http://calmax.exblog.jp/16861118/ This railway line could be operated as a 3rd sector company under Keisei Group and Keikyū for the Yokohama Water Company (or something like that). Here's a rough map of the route: I'm not sure where it will connect with the Keikyū Main line, but I don't want it to pass through the centre of Yokohama, so maybe I'll let it run directly to Kanagawa-Shinmachi instead. Here the company can have a small depot, along with one or two en-route. A large part of line will be single-track, like the JR East Sagami line, since it will be running through rural/light residential areas of Sagamihara-shi (the town community where I live). Through services can go as far as Kojima-Shinden (max. 4-car length trains) and the line can allow the occasional 8-car length trains to Sagamiko for special express services from the Takasago/Shinagawa direction (non-Sagamiko RR trains). These will only be able to halt at few intersecting stations because of space restrictions. The reason being that no investments have been made on the line due to conflicting interests from operating companies and the line's owner. Hence the collection of old rolling stock. Since the line will be co-operated by Keisei and Keikyū, that allows for a mixture of rolling stock in company colours. Planned other trains will be 4-car Keikyū old 1000 type, 1500 type trains and possibly more old Keisei trains in new colours. Now, I'm planning to have some of my trains painted in Keisei livery (as a tribute/revival livery), but also one or two in a fictive/parody livery that is sort of related to Keisei Group liveries. The official liveries are as follows: - Keisei has Red with Dark Blue as a supporting colour; - Hokusō has Dark Blue with Light Blue as a supporting colour; - Chiba Express had Dark Blue with Red as a supporting colour; - Shibayama RR has Red with Dark Green as a supporting colour; - Chiba Newtown has Blue and Yellow as a supporting colour; - Shin-Keisei basically Wine Red with variable supporting colours. I'm not sure what colour combination I'd go for, but the body base will be light grey, like the New Livery from Keisei... Time to experiment! Graphics courtesy by: http://www.mercury.sannet.ne.jp/bal-jaz/index.html

Keisei Skyliner. Emphasizing the straightness and speed of the route, no doubt contrasting with JR East’s more circuitous and slow service, at least to Tokyo. Keio Railway Liner service. A long feature CM emphasizing the comfort the service provides for tired workers going home. Finally, a CM from Odakyu advertising their quad tracking becoming fully operational this month with the spring timetable revision.

I found this video of a direct limited express from Haneda to Narita through the Toei Asakusa line. It's from 2014 august, so realtively new. I wonder when did this service start. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXpCYgE3myE

In the trend of refreshing liveries for the new age of railways, I present to you the new livery of Shin-Keisei. Stepping off from the late 80s cream, brown and bordeaux, Shin-Keisei has gone all balls to the wall and incorporated white and screaming pink. It's pretty close to magenta, but they themselves call it 'gentle pink'. I'm not so sure what's so gentle about this colour coming from an artist's perspective, but hey, it surely is refreshing. Anyway, here is a video of 8816F on a test run on the main line in the new livery: 8918F slow running in the Kunugiyama depot: Now, I'm not sure if Shin-Keisei will now go up or down my favourite list... A completely pink arsenal of rolling stock might be a bit too much for me. It certainly won't be my first Shin-Keisei model I will buy, that's for sure.

Over the past couple of years by chance I have been become aware of several stub lines in Tokyo that are completely at odds with the typical image of Tokyo trains. If possible the videos are full line rides. Keisei Kanamachi line The Keisei Kanamachi line became a stub line with the opening of the Keisei Skyliner service. Trains run from Takasago to Keisei Kanamachi where a connection is made with the JR East Joban line. Length: 2.5 km Stations 3 4 car trains Full length video June 28, 2010 during the final stages of the stub line preparations. Today Tobu Kameido line This line links Kameido on the JR East Chuo Sobu line with Hifune on the Tobu Skytree line. Length 3.4 km Stations 5 2 car trains http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6YEM0gjQws Tokyu Oimachi line The Oimachi line links Oimachi Station on the Keihin Tohoku line with Mizonokuchi Station at the Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line and has a connection with the Tokyu Toyoko line at Jiyugaoka Station. Length 12.4 Km Stations 15 5 car local trains, 6 car express trains Average Daily Ridership 438,979 (3rd busiest Tokyu line) Tokyu Ikegami Line The Ikegami links Gotanda on the JR East Yamanote line with Kamata Station where the Tokyu Tamgawa line and the Keihin Tohoku lines connect and has a connection with the Tokyu Oimachi line at Hatanodai. Length 10.8 km Stations 15 3 car trains Average Daily Ridership 216,844 Tokyu Tamagawa line The Tokyu Tamagawa line (there is a Seibu Tamagawa line too) links Tamagawa and connections with the Tokyu Toyoko line and Tokyu Meguro with Kamata where the Tokyu Ikegami line and JR East Keihin Tohoku lines are found. Length 5.5 km Stations 7 3 car trains Average Daily Ridership 141,311 To be continued....