Magome Depot Open Day 2015

[ToniBabelony]

Last weekend, the Magome Rolling Stock Inspection Depot of the Toei Asakusa line had an open day.

 

It was a wet weekend, so the light was bad to snap shots with my smartphone (Nexus 5). However, it was appropriate weather, as this was the last chance for me to take a picture of a Keisei AE100 Skyliner. Only two remain and these will be put out of service this December with the demise of the 'Morning Liner' and 'Evening Liner' services. This marks an end to an era and the disappearance of a former signature and once proud symbol of Keisei.

 

The open day lasted until 14:00, which left only a few hours to explore, but enough to take some pictures of the interesting MOW and the trains on display.

 

Another interesting guest was a Keisei 3500, which also is on the brink of retirement. These unmodernised units are the last 4-car formations on the Keisei network and are slowly replaced by 6-car formations of boring 3000 types. The Chiba New Town 9000 was of course an obligatory guest, as this is the only train that sports a somewhat green livery. That reminds me to get on making that brass kit...

 

The photos below are not in any particular order and of good quality, but I hope you enjoy them nonetheless!

[miyakoji]

Thanks for the pics Toni, I never saw a hi-rail forklift before.  I'm assuming that Matisa machine (tie tamper?) was imported directly from Europe with those enormous buffers :)

[ToniBabelony]

The hi-rail forklift also caught my attention. It's a great variation on a standard forklift and it looks like it's only used for moving bogie frames around. The whole setup looks like it's a custom made job for Toei. The tie tamper (I presume it is) looks indeed like a direct import, without many modifications, if at all. Also very interesting material to create as a model one day. MOW slowly starts growing on me... Help.

[katoftw]

What is the E5000?

[ToniBabelony]

What is the E5000?

 

It's a locomotive developed to transfer Ōedo line stock to the depot. Since the Ōedo line runs on a linear motor, they can't move on their own on the Asakusa line and thus need dead hauling by these E5000 type locomotives. This is also why these locomotives are built to such a tiny profile.

[SuRoNeFu 25-501]

It's a locomotive developed to transfer Ōedo line stock to the depot. Since the Ōedo line runs on a linear motor, they can't move on their own on the Asakusa line and thus need dead hauling by these E5000 type locomotives. This is also why these locomotives are built to such a tiny profile.

But the tiny profile being used on E5000 series locomotives results in an unusually taller pantograph, since the height of contact wire (counted from the rail's head) on Asakusa Line's overhead line is much higher than Ōedo line (which is also the reason why 12-000 series trains requires to be towed by E5000 locomotives when being forwarded to Magome depot).