Thursday 7 September 2017

EMU 1000 Series for the 1,000th Post: Part 2

EMU Hankyu 1000 series arrives at Shukugawa Station on the Kobe-Main Line

Thank you for visiting my trainspotting website. This is the 1,001st post in my blog. Following my last post, I am going to show you the other train with the number "1000" in its name to commemorate over 1,000 posts.

Hankyu is one of the major private railway companies in the Kansai (Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto) area. It carries an average of two million passengers per day. The track gauge is 1,435 mm and the electric system is 1,500 V DC overhead. All the trains on the Hankyu line have been keeping up a tradition for a long time, which is known as the "Hankyu maroon" trains. This tradition refers to the color, which is like a chocolate or a dark brown shell of a sweet chestnut, and it is very popular among passengers for its elegance.

The EMU 1000 series is no exception. It also has maroon colored bodies made of aluminum alloy. The 1000 series was launched in 2013. It is a commuter train for the Kobe Main Line and the Takarazuka Line. So far, a total of 12 sets, 96 units, have been built by Hitachi. One set is composed of four motor cars and four trailers. The electric control system is IGBT-VVVF inverter (variable frequency drive) provided by Toshiba.

The concept of the 1000 series is "silent and highly energy efficient". In fact, the noise in the interior of motor cars has been decreased by 4 dB. The energy consumption has also been reduced by 50% compared with existing models.

EMU Hankyu 1000 series stands at Shukugawa Station on the Kobe-Main Line

Official information about the EMU Hankyu 1000 series (in Japanese):