Toyama Chiho Tetsudo 16010 Class - Alps Express

[miyakoji]

Some snowy footage here courtesy of karibajct:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/KyhYvsjkCLM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/KyhYvsjkCLM</a>

These look incredibly dated to me, not necessarily in a good way, but reading a little bit about this former Seibu rolling stock, some interesting data appears.  For one thing, they're old, originally built in late 1969 and early 1970 as 4 4-car sets, 3 by Hitachi and 1 by Seibu themselves.  In 1974, Seibu continued, building 2 new intermediate cars for each of those sets and, why the hell not, 2 new full 6-car sets.  Perhaps they were just assembling Hitachi-fabricated parts (paging Dr. Bikkuri).  The Seibu handywork must have been just fine, as the 2 3-car sets that live on with the Toyama Chiho Railway are more Seibu than Hitachi--4 of the 6 cars are Seibu.  Also, the end cars are from the original 1969/1970 construction, not the 1974 run.

Toyama has done some refurbishment of the interior of set #2, which debuted just a few days ago on the 23rd as a sightseeing train.  By Mitooka Eiji of JR Kyushu fame, it's not quite as dramatic as some of the renovation that JRK does (Toyama is cloudy, it probably keeps them down) but very nice nonetheless.  I'd love to take a ride around in such weather.  Images from this thread at Ompuchaneru: http://rail-uploader.khz-net.com/index.php?id=1006552

[Nick_Burman]

Some snowy footage here courtesy of karibajct:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/KyhYvsjkCLM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/KyhYvsjkCLM</a>

These look incredibly dated to me, not necessarily in a good way, but reading a little bit about this former Seibu rolling stock, some interesting data appears.  For one thing, they're old, originally built in late 1969 and early 1970 as 4 4-car sets, 3 by Hitachi and 1 by Seibu themselves.  In 1974, Seibu continued, building 2 new intermediate cars for each of those sets and, why the hell not, 2 new full 6-car sets.  Perhaps they were just assembling Hitachi-fabricated parts (paging Dr. Bikkuri).  The Seibu handywork must have been just fine, as the 2 3-car sets that live on with the Toyama Chiho Railway are more Seibu than Hitachi--4 of the 6 cars are Seibu.  Also, the end cars are from the original 1969/1970 construction, not the 1974 run.

Toyama has done some refurbishment of the interior of set #2, which debuted just a few days ago on the 23rd as a sightseeing train.  By Mitooka Eiji of JR Kyushu fame, it's not quite as dramatic as some of the renovation that JRK does (Toyama is cloudy, it probably keeps them down) but very nice nonetheless.  I'd love to take a ride around in such weather.  Images from this thread at Ompuchaneru: http://rail-uploader.khz-net.com/index.php?id=1006552

The Mitooka refit of the ex-Seibu "Red Arrows" looks very nice indeed. Sometimes flagging ridership needs more than the usual standard responses and Mitooka seems to provide one such answer in the form of trains (and retrofits to already existing trains) that "people would think fun to ride" (his own words from the NHK documentary). Long lives to the Chitetsu and its refurbished trains!

Cheers NB

[bikkuri bahn]

Perhaps they were just assembling Hitachi-fabricated parts (paging Dr. Bikkuri

Actually, Seibu's Tokorozawa rolling stock plant was a full-on factory- up until 1969, it built nearly all of Seibu's post-war rolling stock.  It built its last new rolling stock (the 9000 series), in 1999, and shut down the following year.

[Nick_Burman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=c11rkhGu490

More video of the Alps Express. Although the exterior is, um, different, I bet that when running on the Seibu the interior of this train did never look as good as it does today!

Cheers NB