From left to right: standard livery, “brown sides” livery (with brown and black front variants), Tamagawa Line white livery, “Akaden” revival livery, Ohmi Railway 100 Series’ livery and the Izuhakone Railway 1300 Series’ livery.
DOWNLOAD
All the necessary dependencies are included in this .rar or are avaible on the DLS. Dependencies not mine belong to their respective authors.
These were introduced in 1979 as Seibu Railway’s new rolling stock type and were intended to standardize the company’s fleet by replacing most of the older late-1940s and 1950s-era serieses.
The “new” part of the New 101 series’ name comes from the fact that these are actually the second itteration of Seibu’s 101 Series trains. The “original” 101 Series was introduced in 1969 for the opening of the Seibu Chichibu Line and is generally similar to the New 101 Series, only with a few differences, such as the different front end, more rounded and less “pointy” than the new 101s and the cab position, wich on “original” 101 Series trains is at-level with the passenger compartment, while on new 101 Series trains it’s raised. Old 101 Series trains were produced between 1969 and 1976 for a total of 278 cars.
In 1979, after the completion of the deliveries of the 4-door 2000 Series for all-stops Shinjuku Line services, Seibu Railway moved to replace it’s remaining non-standard commuter trains on both the Shinjuku and Ikebukuro Lines. Instead of ordering a 4-door train, like all the other “1067mm” major railway companies in the Tokyo Area were doing at the time, Seibu Railway decided to continue purchasing 3-door trains. The new trains were to be an “extension” of then widespread 101 Series fleet, Seibu Railway’s lastest 3-door train, and as such were given the designation of “New 101 Series”.
The design of the New 101 Series was left to Tokyu Car Co. in collaboration with Seibu’s Tokorozawa Workshops. As a general idea, as said earlier, the New 101 Series trains were designed to be as similar as possible to the existing 101 Series, however they fetaured some differences and several improvements for the ease of manufacturing compared to the older trains. Many of these improvements were derived from the JNR 201 Series (such as the bodyshell design and the recessed portion around the front windows), the National Railway’s newest commuter train at the time, wich was being designed and manufactured by Tokyu Car Co. togheter with several other companies.
Most of the differences were however only in appearance, with the New 101 Series retaining the same technical equipment (bogeys, pantographs, cabs, doors, air conditioning units and resistor traction control) as the original 101 Series.
The first New 101 Series trains were delivered starting from 1979, formed in 2-, 4- and 8-car sets for use on various lines. Additional 4-car sets delivered from 1980 onwards were fitted with the necessary equipment to operate in multiple-unit with the older 701 Series trains, and were classified as the “301 Series”. The external appearance of these however remained identical to the “standard” New 101 Series trains.
Manufactured jointly by Tokyo Car Co. and Seibu Tokorozawa Workshops, the New 101 Series was built between 1979 and 1984 in a total of 156 cars, split as 100 “standard” New 101 Series cars and 56 301 Series cars.
Soon after their introduction into service, in 1981 Seibu Railway decided to modify the existing New 101 Series trains to make them compatible as well with the 701 Series, effectively rendering useless the distinction between “standard” New 101s and the 301 Series. Thanks to it’s large fleet, the New 101 Series soon became a familiar sight along all of Seibu Railway main lines, both of the Ikebukuro and Shinjuku Line networks.
Originally, the Seibu New 101 Series trains were delivered in a yellow livery with a tan band around the passenger windows and on the front, wich was Seibu Railway’s standard livery at the time, however from 1996 onwards, this livery was simplified by removing the tan band, ending up with an all-yellow car with black fronts, a livery that soon became Seibu Railway’s new “standard” and was applied to the rest of the railway’s fleet.
However, by the 1990s overcrowding on Seibu’s Lines had become a serious problem, and as such, the company had to began to buy 4-door trains, with the 6000 Series (for subway trough-services) being introduced in 1992 and the 9000 Series in 1993.
With the arrival of the newer 4-door trains, both “original” and New 101 Series trains began to be reformed into 4-car and shorter sets and transferred to Seibu’s “branchlines”, such as the Tamagawa and Kokubunji Lines, where their 3-door arrangment didn’t pose a problem during rush hours.
In March 2009, for the 40th anniversary of the Seibu Chichibu Line, a New 101 Series 2-car set was repainted into the “original” tan sides livery that it had carried when it had been delivered new from the factory, with two more trains being repainted in that livery in more recent years, in 2018 and 2019. Between 2010 and 2011 the New 101 Series trains operating on the Tamagawa Line were repainted in an unusual white livery, replacing Seibu’s iconic yellow.
Smaller amount of New 101 Series trains managed to remain in service on the “main lines” until the late 2000s, both on the Ikebukuro Line and Shinjuku Line networks, however, with the introduction of yet more 4-door trains of newer types, the New 101 Series trains began to be used less and less, relegated to low-ridership services late in the evening or around mid-day. On the 2nd of December 2012 a New 101 Series set made both the final “mainline” run and the the final 2-men (driver and conductor) operated service for the whole fleet. After then, all New 101 Series trains operating on Seibu Railway’s network were operated on branch lines as “wanman” (driver-only) trains.
Out of the surplus New 101 Series trains, many were sold to rural third-sector railways all over Japan (including to many of Seibu’s subsidiary companies, such as Ohmi Railway and Izuhakone Railway), others were transferred to Seibu’s branchlines and the rest was scrapped or dismantled for spare parts to keep it’s “siblings” running.
In 2017, one Tamagawa Line set was repainted in a dark red and tan livery, nicknamed “Akaden” (“Red Electric Train”), similar to the one carried by pre-101 Series trains (such as the 701 Series). In the same year, for the 50th anniversary of the Izuhakone Railway (a subsidiary company of Seibu Railway), another Tamagawa Line set was repainted in the blue and white livery carried by Izuhakone Railway’s 1300 Series trains, themselves former ex-New 101 Series cars bught second-hand. One year later, in 2018, to commemorate the 120th anniversary of Ohmi Railway (yet another Seibu subsidiary), another Tamagawa Line set was repainted in the light blue and white livery of Ohmi Railway’s 100 Series trains, themselves too ex-New 101 Series trains.
Formerly, New 101 Series had been used to run all kinds of services (except limited expresses) on all Seibu Railway’s lines (except the Yurakucho and Yamaguchi Lines), however, currently New 101 Series can be found only on the Tamagawa Line and the Tamako Line, where they operate the entirety of the lines’ services.
Finally, set 263 from the Tamako Line is quite particular: it’s an all-motor car set intended to be used for empty stock movements, replacing the E31 class electric locomotives Seibu had used until then. Set 263 is normally assigned to Tamako depot and regulairly runs Tamko Line services, however when it’s needed, it can be sent to any part of Seibu’s network (except the Tamagawa Line) to haul empty stock, disabled trains or, most frequently, to haul newly-delivered trains from the connections with the JR network to the nearest Seibu depot.
Trivia #1
The New 101 Series was Seibu Railway’s first train not entirely designed and manufactured by Seibu itself. It’s notable that the New 101 Series was designed and manfuactured in collaboration with Tokyu Railway, Seibu’s long-standing rival. In the late ’70s both companies were still recovering from the “Hakoneyama war” and the New 101 Series was seen by many “neighbouring” railway companies as a sign of reconciliation between the two; this however didn’t stop them for being met with some skepticism from the “hardline” part of Seibu Railway’s top brass.
Trivia #2
4-car set No.263, wich is used to tow empty stock, has all of sixteen axle powered by 150Kw motors, wich equals a total combined output of 2400Kw, nearly as high as Seibu Railway’s beloved six-axle E851 electric locomotives, wich had an output of 2550Kw.
