Early to late 1960s versions without air conditioning in the top-left quadrant, late 1960s to late 1990s air-conditioned versions in the top-right quadrant, late 1990s to early 2000s air-conditioned versions with front skirts in the bottom-left quadrant and the 1996-onward refurbished sets in the bottom right quadrant.

 

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All the necessary dependencies are either included in this package or are avaible on the DLS. Scripts belong to their respective owners.

(Consists are included! Don’t bother with placing individual cars!)

Consider this a complementary pack to Rizky_Adiputra’s payware Keio 3000 Series and Hokuriku Railway 8800 Series. His are the two “narrow-bodied” 1962-built sets, mine are the slightly different “full production” sets built from 1963 onwards.

The 3000 Series was introduced by Keio Railway in the early 1960s as a replacement for the older “green trains” on the Inokashira Line – a halphazard collection of various classes of rolling stock that ranged from the Deha and KuHa 1250 Serieses of 1933, built for the opening of the Inokashira Line itself under what was then the “Teito Electric Railway”, substandard post-war built rolling stock such as the DeHa 1750 Series of 1949, relatively-recent rolling stock built in the 1950s but with obsolete blueprints (such as the 1800 and 1900 Serieses) to the stop-gap 1957-built 1000 Series, essentially a 1067mm-gauge version of the 2000 Series built for the 1372mm-gauge Keio Line that had to be procured almost as an emergency mesaure to replace the crumbling 1930s rolling stock.

 

Unwilling to continue the cat-and-mouse game of step-by-step replacing old rolling stock, Keio Railway in the 1960s opted for a full replacement of the Inokashira Line’s fleet with a proper up-to-date type of train, to be built with the most modern technologies available at the time.
One of these such technologies was stainless steel, then in it’s infancy in Japan, but already quite successful in it’s little niche, following the experiments of Tokyu Corporation with it’s 5200 Series, built by it’s subsidiary Tokyu Car, the Japanese holder of manufacturing licenses from the american Budd company, the pioneers of stainless steel application on railway rolling stock. Stainless steel had several key advantages, namely being several times lighter than conventional carbon-steel, resulting in less wear and tear to the infrastructure and bogies and being rust-proof, resulting in additional considerable maintainance savings. A side advantage was that without rust, the bodyshells could be left “bare”, saving on paint.
Thus, hooked on these advantages, in the early 1960s Keio Railway became one of the first three companies placing a full-scale order for stainless-steel rolling stock, the other being Nankai (with it’s 6000 Series) and Tokyu itself, with it’s 7000 Series.

However, one thing that made the 3000 Series stood apart from the coeval Tokyu and Nankai rolling stock was that the former was the only not to be entirely manufactured out of stainless steel – the upper half of the front section, due to it’s geometrical complexity dictated by the “Shonan style” (angled front with two cab windows and top-mounted headlights, derived from the JNR 80 Series) something rather en-vougue in 1960s Japan was to be manufactured out of space-age fiber-reinforced plastics, or FRP, as the round shape, designed for conventional, malleable, carbon steel was nearly-impossible to obtain with the rigid stainless steel.
However, unlike the stainless-steel bodyshell, the FRP front had to be painted in some colours! After some debate, Keio Railway’s management finally settled for a classy and rather colorful solution: each set would be painted in one of a selection of seven pastel colours: Light Blue, Ivory, Salmon Pink, Green, Purple, Beigie-Cream and Sky Blue – starting from Light Blue for set No.01 and repeating the cycle for evry seven sets!

This resulted in Keio Railway spearheading the “stainless steel bodyshell with FRP front” design praxis, something that only would become the overwhelming standard a quarter-century later!
However, depsite being the main advancment, the stainless-steel bodyshell wasn’t the only one – the 3000 Series trains were also to be fitted with the highly innovative Pioneer-III bogeys (also a Budd-licensed design) fitted with externally mounted disc brakes, in lieu of the conventional, but low-performing cast-iron “shoe” brakes.

The first two 3000 Series trains, formed as 4-car sets, were finished in 1962 and entered regular revenue service on the 28th of December. These two were sort of prototypes, intended to test the viabilty of stainless steel rolling stock and it’s reception by passengers, before the go-ahead for the mass-production of 3000 Series trains could be given.
The reception couldn’t have been better – the 3000 Series was solidly acclaimed by passengers and driver and conductors as well, all of whom were used to ride in noisy, uncomfortable, shkay, hot-in-summer and freezing-in-winter rolling stock and now could finally saivour a swift, smooth and comfortable ride.

With the feedback recieved, Keio Railway gave the go-ahead  for the mass-production of 3000 Series trains, ordering an additional 2nd batch of seven 4-car sets (Nos. 3 to 9), wich were delivered between 1963 and 1966. These were slightly different than the previous two “prototype sets” as they fetaured a wider 2800mm bodyshell, modern double-leaf 1300mm-wide doors (instead of the old-fashioned single-leaf 1200mm doors) and air-conditioning predisposition, and would provie the “blueprint” for all subsequent 3000 Series batches.

Later that year, owning to it’s numerous technological advancments, the 3000 Series was awarded the prestigious 1963 “Laurel Prize”, a annual prize awared by the Japan Railfan Club to trains with “outstanding design and functional fetaures” that entered service the year before.

In 1967, a third batch of  four additional 3000 Series sets (Nos.10 to 13) was introduced, followed by two more trains (sets Nos.14 and 15) introduced in 1969. The third and fourth batches did fetaure a handful of improvements and differences over the earlier batches, namely the replacement of the distinctive, but complex Pioneer-III bogeys with cheaper and more conventional TS-807-type bogeys, a modification that would be carried over to all subsequent sets.

By the early 1970s, most of the “urgent-replacement-needing” Inokashira Line rolling stock such as the pre-war and immediately-post war rolling stock, had indeed been replaced, with the line’s fleet being subdivided in a dozen sets of various “green train” serieses (the 1800, 1900 and 1000 Serieses) and the remaining fifteen being of the new 3000 Series sets, with both fleets being formed as 4-car sets.

 

With the increase in ridership on the line, over the past decades, 4-car trains were nearing the capacity limit, and as such Keio placed an order for additional intermediate cars to lenghten all 3000 Series sets to five cars, the maximium lenght allowed by the relatively short platforms of the Inokashira Line. At the same time, air-conditioning retrofitting was also started and carried out at unison – a 4-car sets would enter the workshops one day, and exit a couple days later as a 5-car set fitted with air-conditioning thruought.
By 1975, all fifteen 3000 Series sets had been lenghened and retrofitted, with the same process being carried over to a selection of the older, 1957-built, 1000 Series trains, as most were still in a rather decent condition. However, for the other “green trains”, the 1800 and 1900 Series, no modification had been planned – their replacements instead were delivered later that year: four additional 3000 Series sets (Nos.18 to 19), built as air-conditioned 5-car sets from the start.
The 1800 and 1900 Serieses were written-off the rosters between 1973 and 1975, with selected cars in the best overall condition being “donated” to 1000 Series sets to lenghten them to 5-car sets. However, depsite the recent lenghtening, age soon caught up with the 1000 Series, with the fleet gradually thinning over the years, until 1983 – at this point, another and final batch of nine 3000 Series sets (Nos.20 to 29) was ordered and delivered later that year, with the 1000 Series being finally replaced in March 1984, and the Inokashira Line fleet being subsequently standardized to twenty-nine 5-car 3000 Series sets.

The 3000 Series lived a tranquil life for a dozen year more, with the only notable modification being the retrofitting of front skirts to all sets by 1994, until the mid-1990s. By then, depsite the outstanding built quality, the oldest sets were now severely fatigued due to their intensive usage, and the 18m-bodyshell with three doors per side was increasingly becoming an impedment to the ever-increasing ridership of the line. Thus, a replacement was introduced in the form of the “new” 1000 Series, a modern VVVF-controlled commuter train that followed the well-established 20m-bodyshell with four doors “blueprint”. However, as Keio management became aware that the 3000 Series was now something of an “established” icon of the Inokashira Line, the 1000 Series was to fetaure several nods to it’s predecessor, namely the front design and most importantly, the “seven pastel colours” liveries!

However, Keio railway foresaw to replace initally only a portion of the Inokashira Line’s fleet, indeed as the last 3000 Series batches were still rather “new” (especially the 6th and last batch, wich had been delivered only a dozen years earlier!) a refurbishment program was started for some select 3000 Series trains, namely sets Nos. 16 to 29, the full 5th and 6th batches. The refurbishment program involved updating the trains to match wherever possible the modern 1000 Series: new interior fittings, more efficient air-conditioning units, a general repairation of the bodyshell and upgrade to some mechanical components, and the most distinctive modification: a new front portion – specifically the old FRP fronts were replaced by new ones, fetauring stylish wrap-around windows, offering a better visibility and undoubutedly improving the overall looks!

The refurbished sets progressively re-entered services, coexisting with the initial ten new 1000 Series sets – the older 3000 Series batches were replaced but not scrapped – most were purchased by rural local railways, eager to upgrade their fleets with reliable air-conditioned rolling stock.
Between 2002 and 2004 the last non-refurbished 3000 Series trains were retired from the Inokashira Line, replaced by an additional batch of five 1000 Series sets.
However, as time progressed, even the refurbished 3000 Series sets began to age, and by the mid-2000s, Keio finally took the decision to standardize the Inokashira Line fleet to the 1000 Series. Thus, a final large order of 14 sets was placed, being delivered starting in 2008 – later that year, the 1000 Series sets outnunbered the 3000 Series sets for the first time, a sign of times to come.
Like the earlier “green trains”, the 3000 Series fleet gradually thinned year after year, with surplus sets being sold off to rural railways or scrapped. Finally, with enough 1000 Series sets available, the 3000 Series was retired from the Inokashira Line after nearly 50 years of faithful service, with Sky Blue set No.28 being bestowned the honor of the final 3000 Series run on the Inokashira Line on the 2nd of November 2011.

Depsite having been only briefly (between 1984 and 1996) the only train series in service on the Inokashira Line out of a nearly 50-year long career, starting in December 1962 and ending in November 2011, the 3000 Series nevertheless remains one of the icons of the line, and of Keio Railway overall. However, even if none is no longer running on the Inokashira Line, a whopping half of the fleet (71 cars out of 145 built) has been sold and is now in service for rural and regional railways, where they’re extremely well-appreciated due to their low maintainance costs, durability, reliability and air-conditioning, as well as compact lenght.
Hokuriku Railway, Jomo Electric Railway, Gakunan Electric Railway, Alpico Kotsu and Iyo Railway all have sizeable number of ex-3000 Series trains, wich in some cases, constitute (or did until very recently) the entirety of the fleet of those railways. Choshi Railway also planned to standardize it’s fleet to ex-Keio stock, but unfortunately had to curtail it’s plans, due to high costs, in favour of third-hand stock from Iyo Railway (themselves ex-Keio 2000 Series trains modified with bogies and other components from the 1957-built Inokashira Line 1000 Series!).

Besides the copious number of second-hand rolling stock in service, KuHa 3719 (from purple set No.19) in it’s post-1996-refurbishment guise is preserved and on display at Keio Railway’s own museum – Keio Rail Land.

Trivia:
Due to it’s stainless steel bodyshell and FRP front, the Keio 3000 Series was initially nicknamed the “Stenpla (Stainless Steel + Plastic) car”.