Saturday 19 December 2015

2015 Tobu Fan Festa in Minami-Kurihashi Rail Yard

From left to right, EMU 350, 1800, 200 and 100 series, Tobu express trains

Following the Toyoda Train Festival held by JR East, I am going to show you the other event recently held for rail fans.

On December 6th, Tobu Railway held an annual event, the "2015 Tobu Fan Festa", in Minami-Kurihashi Rail Yard on the Nikko Line. I saw that several thousands of rail fans and families visited this event. Joining a photo session, I could get beautiful shots of Tobu train formations. One of them was a whole formation of the Tobu express trains, namely the EMU 350, 1800, 200 and 100 series. The other one was a commuter train formation including the EMU 8198F, 8111F and the latest model 60000 series.

Specifically, the revival colored train, 8198F of the EMU 8000 series, was dazzling. It was painted dark blue with a yellow stripe. This coloring was the revival of the "Flying Tojo" train, which was operated from 1949 to 1962 on the Tojo Line. As its name suggests, Flying Tojo was said to be named after the famous British express train, the Flying Scotsman.

In the meantime, do you know how to transport the Tojo Line train onto the Isesaki Line; nevertheless these two lines are separated? The gimmick is as follows. The two lines are connected via Chichibu Railway at Hanyu and Yorii stations. To pass through the Chichibu Railway, some Tobu trains have a special safety device for Chichibu Railways, namely the ATS-Chichibu-type. This special deadheaded operation is also very popular among rail photo lovers.

From left to right, EMU 8198F, 8111F and 60000 series, Tobu commuter trains