E31 series on Seibu passenger trains

[velotrain]

Looking at photos, I often see three of this series of engines on a train of four passenger cars, mostly yellow 101 series.  Sometimes two (or even one) engines will be hauling longer trains, and occasionally with more recent rolling stock.  What puzzles me is that when three engines are used, there are always two at one end and one at the other.  I have images of a single engine at each end on 2 and 3 car trains.  Since the cars are EMUs, I also wonder why the engines are being used at all, as I have other photos showing long trains of 101's running on their own.

 

My reading of push-pull operations suggests that virtually never are engines at both ends actively participating in hauling the train, so what explains the unbalanced power?  The only easy explanation I can think of is that the run is largely/completely downhill in one direction, and uphill in the other.  No doubt there is a logical explanation for this, and I'm hoping someone on the forum knows what it is.

 

I have many photos of these situations, but will limit what I load and attach here - one each of two engines, or one engine at the front.

 

 

 

 

 

[Kabutoni]

The headmarks say: 'Goodbye E34 Electric Locomotive'. This marks a special run. The Seibu electrics (or any kind) were never intended to haul passenger trains in service and only did so on special occasions for fans.

[velotrain]

That probably also explains why I found so many images of the E31 series hauling multiple passenger trains ;-)

 

I'm guessing that one of the special occasions was when new passenger stock was delivered to the railway - perhaps the E31s were dispatched to fetch it?  I'm attaching a couple of possible examples of this.

 

Just earlier today I was looking at photos of the E851 hauling its farewell passenger train.

 

What engines does the Seibu currently use for such duties - including ballast train runs?

 

I seem to have an affinity for scrapped engines, including the Meitetsu Deki 600s.

 

 

 

 

 

[Kabutoni]

Both your examples show E31's hauling empty stock. The first one is a delivery of a refurbished ex-Seibu N101 Series as a Ryūtetsu 5000 type (5001F) on the 22nd of June 2009 (according to Wikipedia). The second is the hauling of a new 30000 Series. They are not hauling passenger trains per-se, but empty rolling stock. At the moment, since 2007, Seibu are be using the 263F (a fully motorised 4-car N101 Series) for this purpose.

[railsquid]

Looking at photos, I often see three of this series of engines on a train of four passenger cars, mostly yellow 101 series.  Sometimes two (or even one) engines will be hauling longer trains, and occasionally with more recent rolling stock.  What puzzles me is that when three engines are used, there are always two at one end and one at the other.  I have images of a single engine at each end on 2 and 3 car trains.  Since the cars are EMUs, I also wonder why the engines are being used at all, as I have other photos showing long trains of 101's running on their own.

 

My reading of push-pull operations suggests that virtually never are engines at both ends actively participating in hauling the train, so what explains the unbalanced power?  The only easy explanation I can think of is that the run is largely/completely downhill in one direction, and uphill in the other.  No doubt there is a logical explanation for this, and I'm hoping someone on the forum knows what it is.

 

Maybe if you post a link to the page(s) where you found these pictures, there might be an explanation there which can be translated...

[velotrain]

As I was suggesting these were "new passenger stock  . . .  delivered to the railway", I would expect them to be empty.

 

. . . Perhaps you just looked at the photos and didn't read the text?

Edited December 13, 2016 by velotrain

[velotrain]

Maybe if you post a link to the page(s) where you found these pictures, there might be an explanation there which can be translated...

 

Toni seems to have it sussed out.

 

Besides - my experience is that it usually takes much longer to load the source page than the photo that interests me, so I very rarely bother.

[cteno4]

We prefer folks provide links to pictures rather than embedding or reposting them for not only copyright issues but also for just this reason it's very informative for folks to see the source of pictures as well as just pay respect and give credit to the photo and site owner.

 

The forum is run on Amazon servers so reposting potentially copyrighted photos could possibly get the forum shut down (sometimes they turn the night off until you fix the issue if there is a complaint).

 

Thanks

 

Jeff

Edited December 13, 2016 by cteno4

[railsquid]

Wisely the original publisher put an identifying name on the photos and a little bit of sleuthing reveals this blog. Luckily my internet can evidently cope with the download speeds, some related links with context if anyone's interested:

 

http://seibu-lions.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2010/02/e31101-e3110126.html

http://seibu-lions.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/cat20350712/

[bill937ca]

Yeah, I found the blog last night but not the individual photos.  Not hard to tell the origin they were copied from.