JR East's E231-500 series to Chuo-Sobu line services

[Densha]

After the announcement of the replacement of the E231-500's on the Yamanote Line by the new E235 series we all thought the E231-500's would go to the scrapyard.

The last few months I regularly saw some fan-made drawings and photoshops of E231-500 with the yellow Chuo-Sobu Line striping on it. Now it turns out it's actually true!

 

On 28 October 2014 the first repainted E231-500 made its first run. Apart from the colour, another visual change is that the set has been shortened to 10 cars, just like the other EMU's that run on the Chuo-Sobu Line. It also looks like there is now some kind of tiny device placed below the headlights.

 

Source: http://railf.jp/news/2014/10/29/173500.html

 

Pics showing the changes this particular set (set A520) has undergone in barely two months: https://twitter.com/shinonome_rs/status/527010706835529728 (it also mentions something about car changes but I can't grasp what is exactly meant)

 

More pics:

https://twitter.com/tetsudonews/status/526956563617951745

https://twitter.com/shinonome_rs/status/526956033772507136

https://twitter.com/bikkurita/status/526975584203591680 (featuring all current Chuo-Sobu Line stock)

Edited October 29, 2014 by Densha

[kvp]

Wow, thank you, very interesting info! The train does look nice with yellow stripes. The small boxes look like platform door control emitters or something similar and other older types on the line seems to have them too on newer photos.

[railsquid]

I wonder if they are intended to displace the 209-500s, which are IIRC wide-bodied versions of the original 209 series which are essentially identical to the 231s and which must be relatively old. (Writing from memory here so I may be confusing things).

[JR 500系]

Looks good!

 

Nice to see the E231-500 getting a new role~ It's quite a nice train and has made a name for itself running on the Yamanote for so long.

[lurkingknight]

It's such a friendly looking train. (´･ω･`)

[Sacto1985]

I'm actually a little surprised they would move the E231-500 trainset to the Chūō-Sōbu Line, considering how hard-worked the E231-500's are on the Yamanote LIne. I would not be surprised that the Chūō-Sōbu will eventually switch to the E235, along with trains on the Musashino Line.

[miyakoji]

I agree, I would have thought that these are fairly worn out, but they were built from January 2002 to April 2005, and didn't go into service until April 2002, so maybe there's some service left in them. Then again, maybe this is just a test.

[bikkuri bahn]

Twenty years or so service life, so they've got at least five more years in them, I suppose.  Plenty of spares available too.

[Densha]

More photos and vids:

 

http://tetsudo-news.com/article/photonews/254.html

 

Edited October 31, 2014 by Densha

[katoftw]

Twenty years or so service life, so they've got at least five more years in them, I suppose.  Plenty of spares available too.

^This^

 

And the spares are plentiful as the 231s, 233s and 235s all parts share as they are closely related cousins.