DOWNLOAD

All the necessary dependencies are either included in this package or are avaible on the DLS. Soundscript by Rizky_Adiputra.

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

 

The 2000 Series was introduced by Keikyu in the early 1980s to replace the older 600 Series on skip-stop services, especially Limited Expresses, the company’s “poster” trains.

At the time, Keikyu’s commuter fleet was relatively adequate, despite not being entirely modern, consisting mostly of 1000 and 700 Series built between the early 1960s and the late 1970s, along with a small minority of 800 Series trains, Keikyu’s lastest, introduced in 1978, as well as a minor, but still sizeable, fleet of 500 Series trains dating from the early 1950s.

The top-of-the-line express services was instead where the problem was, as these were entirely assigned to the ageing 600 Series – having been manufactured between 1956 and 1958, by the early 1980s, almost all sets were 25 years old, and many were inching close to 30. Most importantly, this primarily affected the interior design of these trains, wich was also equally 30 years old, and with a relative, but notable, lack of confort (depsite the 1970s retrofitting of of air-conditioning), something that simply didn’t cut for the supposedly “top” train of a major railway company.

As such, hastly Keikyu embarked in the design of a new train dedicated to rapid and express services.

For the new trains, the choice for the “technical equipment” was the easiest, as evrything was lifted “straight out” of the local services’ 800 Series, altough adapted for a maximium design speed of 130Km/h (compared to the 800s’ 100Km/h). This included essentially evrything: traction motors, the shunt-chopper traction control system, square pantographs and other minor equipment. Even the same cab style was used, with it’s right-side one-hand master controller. The only notable difference being instead the air conditioning unit, with Keikyu opting for a single, centralized-type conditioner for evry coach (unlike the 800s’ four smaller conditioners per car), better suited to the intended two-doors limited express design.

Speaking of exterior design, almost nothing was carried over from the 600 Series, besides the basic and mandatory “options” – one being the 18m-long bodyshell dictated by the loading gauge, and the two-doors-per-car arrangment, carried as a design “habit” for commuter-derived limited express trains in almost all major private railways and beyond.

Indeed, Keikyu shed almost all of it’s own “design canons” that had been staunchely using since the 1920s: single top-mounted headlight, single-leaf doors and vertical rounded fronts. The new trains fetaured an angular and aereodynamic front, well suited for skip-stop services, conventional two-leaf doors and an equally conventional pair of headlight below the cab window.

This design choice was deliberate, as Keikyu wanted the new trains to stand out among it’s relatively uniform fleet, as well as to convey a more “modern” image for the company, compared to the rather old-fashoned fittings and fetaures of the rest of it’s fleet (especially the single-leaf doors, wich the vast majority of railway companies around Tokyo had given up two decades earlier!).

Extra care was rightly given to the interiors, with single seats in pairs (unlike the 600’s two-seater sofas) arranged “group-style”, meaning with the left half side of the car facing the center, and likewise to the right.

Plans to adpot convertible seating, as many other major private railways were doing at the time, were made, but these had to be rescined early on in the plan as they would’ve added complexity, weightas well as cost and time to properly design and implement.

However, one more distinctive fetaure was added, with the four seats for each door being fitted on their backs with foldable strapountin-like seating, wich could be opened and closed by the conductor (using a switch in the driver’s cab) depending on necessity. The interior paneling was also deliberately designed with warm colors – faint oranges and browns – to convey a sense of “homeliness”; for the same reason, the flooring was also given a cork-like texture.

Classified as the “2000 Series” – another choice to make these trains stand out (as the rest of the fleet was classified with a three-digit numbering scheme), a first set of eight cars, 2011F, was delivered in December 1982, having been manufactured jointly by Kawasaki Heavy Industries (one half) and Tokyu Car Corporation (the other half), Keikyu’s long-time rolling stock suppliers.

After some testing, the new 2000 Series entered revenue services to a resounding success on express and limited express services to Uraga and Misakiguchi.

However, it took until 1984 for additional sets to be delivered, with 8-car sets 2021F (wholly built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries) and 2031F (wholly built by Tokyu Car Corporation) entering service in May. With the start of regular deliveries, the replacement of the old 600 Series officially began in the same year.

One more 8-car set (2041F built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries) and two 4-car sets (2411F and 2421F built by Tokyu Car Corporation) were delivered between February and March 1985, with the four car sets being introduced with the idea of them being able to both run as a “normal” 8-car set (by combining two sets) as well as to work as “attached formations” – bringing normal 8-car sets to twelve cars during morning and evening rush hours.

With the fleet now consisting of four 8-car sets, plus one (the two 4-car sets formed togheter), the older 600 Series trains were replaced from the top limited express services and reassigned to express and rapid services only, with eight of the older cars being withdrawn and scrapped altogheter.

A further two 8-car sets (2051F built by Kawasaki and 2061F built by Tokyu) and two 4-car sets (2431F built by Tokyu and 2441F built by Kawasaki) were delivered exactly one year later, between February and March 1986. With their arrival, the 2000 Series became large enough to fully replace the last remaining 600 Series sets, wich were promptly withdrawn from all services in March and scrapped (except for three cars, sold to the Takamatsu-Kotohira Railway in Shikoku and one cab car preserved in a sports park near Jimmuji station on the Keikyu Zushi Line).

Two final, additional, 4-car sets were delivered in June 1987, well after the retirement of the 600 Series, to enlarge the 2000 Series’ fleet as well as to increase capacity, these being sets 2451F built by Kawasaki and 2461F built by Tokyu.

Thus, by summer 1987, the 2000 Series’ fleet consisted of a total of six eight-car sets (2011F to 2061F) and six four-car sets (2411F to 2461F), able to be formed as six twelve-car sets during rush hours (by conbining one four-car set and one eight-car set) or as a grand total of nine eight-car sets (by combining the four-car sets togheter).

The life of the 2000 Series would remain relatively uneventful for the following decade, with the only main modification being the adaptation of the whole fleet for the new maximium speed of 120Km/h – the 2000 Series had originally been designed for 130Km/h, but never attained said speed, and had remained limited to 110Km/h for it’s whole career up to that point.

However, the intensive usage on all skip-stop services, from rapid to limited expresses, quickly took a toll on the 2000 Series’ bodyshell, and by the mid-1990s, barely 10 years after the introduction of the bulk of the fleet, plans for a replacement of the 2000 Series already began to be drawn up. 

The result of these was the introduction of the 2100 Series in 1998, destined to be Keikyu’s “image train”, in the same vein (and much more) as the 2000 Series had been until then. Derived from the “New” 600 Series, wich Keikyu had introduced in 1996 for rapid trough-services with the Toei Asakusa Line, the 2100 Series entered service on the 28th of March 1998, quickly replacing the 2000 Series sets on a one-by-one basis.

However, as most of the sets were between 15 and 10 years old, Keikyu opted not to scrap the fleet, but to cascade it on local services to replace the oldest 1000 and 700 Series sets still in service, dating from the latter half of the 1960s.

As part of this plans, 2000 Series sets started to undergo a rather “invasive” modification and conversion process, wich involved the “cutting out” a hole for a third door in the center of the bodyshell, and then welding the actual doorway to it (and consequently rearranging the passenger windows) along with changing the interiors from the limited express-style cross-seating to more conventional longitudinal-style seating more suited for a commuter train. The first train to be converted was the first 2000 Series set ever produced, 2011F, at the hands of Tokyu Car Corporation, one of it’s two original manufacturers. All the other conversions would be handled by Keikyu’s own Keikyu Car Corporation (currently Keikyu Finetech), a subsidiary company that handles rolling stock modifications and conversions, normally on second-hand stock bought by small third-sector railways.

Among other modifications, the 2000 Series sets were also adapted for multiple-unit working with all of Keikyu’s subsequent serieses – the 1500, (New) 600, 2100 and New 1000 Serieses.

Converted trains promptly re-entered services fitted in Keikyu’s all-over red with a thin-white line livery, running local services on the Keikyu Main Line, alongside with rapid and express services on the Airport Line. The 2000 Series however remained confined to the Keikyu network only, as due to it’s lack of a front emergency escape door, required by law, could not enter Sengakuji station, nor run trough-services further along the Toei Asakusa Line. 

The last remaining set, 2051F, was retired from skip-stop services on the 27th of August 2000 and sent for conversion.

“Demoted” to commuter services, the 2000 Series’ life remained relatively uneventful for several years, shuttling up and down the Keikyu mainline and it’s branches on all kinds of services, including rapid and express runs, where the high-speed capabilities of the 2000 Series could be fully used.

However, the vast majority of services allocated were all-stop local runs, wich quickly began to take a toll on the 2000 Series’ equipment, primarily the transmission gearing, wich had been designed for high-speeds, rather than high accellerations: the result was a slugghish accelleration as well as premature wear on vital components. Furthemore, with Keikyu’s increasingly trough-running-focused service planning, the subway regulations non-compliance of the 2000 Series began to be a problem.

As such, a replacement finally began in 2012 at the hands of the various batches of the New 1000 Series that were being introduced at the same time. Priority was given to the four-car sets, with sets 2411F, 2421F and 2431F being retired on the 4th of May.

One year later, for it’s 30th Anniversary (as well as for the whole series), set 2011F was repainted in it’s original “express” livery (all-over red with a wide white band around the windows), entering service in it’s new guise on the 17th of January 2013.

​Withdrawals however continued, with 8-car set 2021F being withdrawn on the 3rd of July 2014, 4-car sets 2441F and 2461F being retired on the 4th of March 2016, being followed by the last remaining 4-car set, 2451F, withdrawn on the 12th of October after a brief stint on the Daishi Line immediately before it’s retirement.

Sets 2031F and 2041F were retired in 2017, on the 7th of February and 8th of March respectively and in 2018 all three remaining sets were retired: 2051F on the 1st of February, 2061F on the 15th of March and finally 2011F, wich was retired on the 28th of March after it’s final run, having the distinction of being both the first and last 2000 Series set in service.

Unfortunately, all cars were scrapped immediately after retirement, with none being sold on the second-hand market, nor preserved.

Trivia #1

The idea of foldable “strapountins” was allegedly inspired by their usage in France, with the SNCF Z6400 Series (introduced in 1976 on commuter services out of Paris Saint-Lazare station) being the main basis for Keikyu’s adoption.

Trivia #2

The 2000 Series was the recipient of the 1983 “Blue Ribbon”, a prize awared by the Japan Railfan Club to trains with the most outstanding fetaures or technical improvements.

Trivia #3

Surplus seats from the 2000 Series’ conversion were re-used in the earliest five batches of the New 1000 Series, wich were being introduced at around the same as the ongoing conversion process.

A sizeable number of seats were also put on sale on the second-hand marked, where they found a number of buyers, among wich the Railway Technical Research Institute (the Research and Development arm of the JR Group), wich fitted them to it’s 1st generation “Gauge Change Train” prototype (GCT-01), the Tokyo Tourism College, where they were used as teaching materials in a number of railway-related courses and most interestingly, the US Navy, wich installed them in it’s fleet of shuttle busses running from the Yokosuka Navy Base to a number of off-base housing complexes, such as Ikego Housing Office, wich is ironically located right across from Jimmuji Station on the Keikyu Zushi Line (the station even has a dedicated exit reserved for US Navy servicemen and other Navy credential holders).