From left to right: conventional stainless steel bodyshell formations 1501F to 1517F (with original door pocket windows), aluminum bodyshell sets, GTO-VVVF inverter-controlled -1700 subseries, refurbished trains in their current guise with LED destination signs and front skirts, the Daishi Line “Akafuda-Go” all-over-red color scheme and the 120th Keikyu Anniversary special livery.
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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 1500 Series was introduced by Keikyu in the mid-1980s in response to the growing passenger numbers heading into Tokyo using the Toei Asakusa Line, and to replace much of the ageing older rolling stock both on said services, as well as in general.
Indeed, by the mid-1980s, the trough-service fleet was entirely formed of the 1000 Series, Keikyu’s only train allowed into the Asakusa Line. While still relatively adequate to handle the services it was assigned, the 1000 Series was by no means a new train, as the first sets had been introduced into revenue service in the 1959, and depsite it’s production run having gone as far as 1978 (thus making the newest sets barely a decade old), the whole fleet was anchored to the same barebones mid-1950s design, including augurably archaic fetaures (long given up by other companies, but still stubbornly kept by Keikyu) such as the single, central top-mounted headlight and especially the single-leaf doors, not to talk about the equally 1950s-vintage electrical equipment design.
A much needed modernization of Keikyu’s fleet had already begun in the previous years, with the 2000 Series of 1982 coming as the much-needed replacement for the 1950s-era 600 Series on top limited express services, as well as the 800 Series in 1978, the company’s first augurably modern commuter train, wich however was originally intended to run local services on the less ridership-heavy southern section of Keikyu’s network and as such, being devoid of the law-required front emergency escape door, was not allowed north of Shinagawa into the Toei Asakusa Line. Most services however were still in the hands of the 1000 Series, along with the 700 Series (a four-door 1000 Series derivative introduced in limited numbers between 1967 and 1971) and the even older and more decrepit 500 Series, dating back to 1951!
As such, a new commuter train design was urgently needed.
With the new trough-service trains, Keikyu finally abandoned it’s traditional and distinctive but archaic and largely oudated fetaures (the afromentioned central top-mounted headlight and especially the single-leaf doors) a good twenty or so years after all the other major private railway companies did the same, in favour of a much modern, but comparatively mundane design, not too different from other railways: two-leaf doors, double headlight (in a rectangular “box” containing both front and tail lights, a typical style for the time) under the cab windows and the law-mandated front emergency exit for subway trough-services.
Among other things, another “new” (for Keikyu, again, stuff that had been in use well before with other companies) implement also included in the new trains was a T-shape-style master controller, Keikyu’s first, wich would be adopted for all subsequent rolling stock orders (Keikyu had already “dabbled” in one-handle master controller territory with the 800 and 2000 Serieses, using a one-handle master controller located on the driver’s right side).
Otherwise, the new trains also retained a good deal of fetaures based or directly “lifted” from their immediate predecessors, the 2000 and 800 Series again. From the formers, the new trains inherited the overall bodyshell design (with the caveat of a third door addition) and some “external” components such as the headlights and air-conditioning units. From the latters, they inherited instead the main traction circuit, including a nearly identical shunt-chopper control (an early type of chopper control where the chopper graduates only between the motor wiring combinations – Series, Semi-Parallel and Parallel – instead of all the way trough) – Inverter control had been initially evalued for adoption in the new trains, but this was decided against as the technology was still in it’s infancy and thus relatively unreliable.
Classified as the “1500 Series” (denoting their position as a “follow-up supplement or successor to the 1000 Series) a first batch of three four-car sets was manufactued in March 1985, half by Tokyu Car Co. (sets 1501F and half of set 1506F) and Kawasaki Heavy Industries (the other half of set 1506F and set 1509F) – Keikyu’s long-time rolling stock suppliers – with the whole batch entering service shortly after, set 1509F having the distinction of running the first revenue-service runs of the 1500 Series. Following the very promising intial results, a follow-up order of two more 4-car sets (1513F and 1517F) was fulfilled by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, with the two sets completed in July 1986.
For the third batch, major design changes were made to the 1500 Series design, primarily the bodyshell material was changed from conventional steel to much lighter aluminum , and the door pocket windows were done away with in order to simplify manufacture.
Built in late 1987, this batch consisted of a single 4-car set and two 6-car sets (1601F built by Tokyu and 1607F built by Kawasaki, with 4-car set 1521F being split evenly between the two manufactuers) and entered revenue services on the 11th of January 1988. This was follwed not too later by another batch of four 4-car sets (1525F and 1529F, both built by Tokyu) delivered in June 1988 and a single 6-car set (1613F built by Kawasaki) delivered in July.
March 1989 saw the delivery of one more 4-car set (1533F, evenly split between Tokyu and Kawasaki), one eight-car set built by Tokyu (1625F) and four SaHa 1900 intermediate trailers buily by Kawasaki, wich were used to lenghten 6-car sets 1613F and 1619F to eight cars.
More eight-car sets were delivered between June and July 1989, with sets 1631F and 1637F built by Tokyu and Kawasaki respectively, along with four more SaHa 1900 intermediate trailers (two by Tokyu, two by Kawasaki) to lenghten sets 1601F and 1607F to eight cars.
By late 1989 the total tally of eight-car sets thus stood at seven, all of wich being exclusively assigned to Asakusa Line trough-service onto the Keisei network.
Three more 4-car sets were delivered between February and March 1990 – 1541F built by Tokyu, 1545F by Kawasaki and 1537F evenly split between the two, and three more sets followed exactly one year later in February 1991 for the start of trough-services with the Hokuso and Chiba Newtown Railways (the latter of wich at the time was still operated by the “Housing and Urban Development Pubblic Corporation”), being 4-car set 1549F (built by Tokyu) and 8-car sets 1643F (Tokyu) and 1649F (Kawasaki).
These would be the last of the Chopper-controlled 1500 Series sets (and the last such trains for the whole Keikyu fleet) as already one year earlier in August 1990, an additional 8-car set built by Tokyu and Kawasaki (split evenly) had been delivered fitted with GTO-VVVF inverters made by Toyo Denki, controlling three-phase asynchronous AC traction motors. Set 1701F was the first of the new “-1700 subseries” of inverter-controlled 1500 Series sets, and owning to the much positive results, was followed suit by two more sets (1707F built by Tokyu and 1713F built by Kawasaki) in February 1992 and a final three more (1719F built by Tokyu, 1731F buily by Kawasaki and 1725F built jointly, with Tokyu manufacturing two out of eight cars, and Kawasaki handling the remaining six) between January and February 1993.
Thus, by spring 1993, the 1500 Series fleet counted a respectable 28 sets in total divided into 4-car and 8-car sets (including six -1700 subseries sets), with a lone 6-car set remaining.
At around the same time, plans for further 1500 Series orders were curtailed in favour of the upcoming “new” 600 Series, wich was being manufactured and was to enter revenue services not too shortly after.
In 1995 the whole 1500 Series fleet was modified to allow for a maximium speed of 120Km/h, the new top service speed of Keikyu’s rapid, express and limited express services (the first two being regular workings of the 1500 Series, and the latter unusual but not unheard).
in 2001, fifteen years after the first sets had entered services, the whole fleet started to undergo a refurbishment process, as per Keikyu’s policies. This refurbishment included the retrofitting of a front skirt (based on the -1700 subseries’ one) to all trains, the removal of the door pocket windows from the five conventional steel sets (1501F to 1517F) built in 1985, gap fillers between the cars based on the ones used on the 2100 Series, new air conditioning units, new seating based on the brand new New 1000 Series’ one, LED passenger information displays and destination boards and door chimes of the same type used on the 600 and New 1000 Serieses.
At the same time, a number of 8-car sets, displaced from Asakusa Line trough-services by the recently-introduced New 1000 Series , were shortened to six-car sets, with the two extra cars being used to lenghten four-car sets to six as well, in order to replace the last redivive “old” 1000 Series 6-car sets on local services south of Shinagawa.
However, as many of these newly-formed 6-car sets had a lacklustre accelleration, something not allowable on frequently-stopping local services, within the refurbishment program Keikyu had them “re-powered”, with a much more “beefy” Toyo Denki-made IGBT-VVVF inverter (and AC traction motors) replacing the previous shunt-chopper control and DC motors.
Fifteen such sets were modified in this way: 1529F, 1533F, 1537F, 1541F, 1545F, 1549F, 1601F, 1607F, 1613F, 1619F, 1625F, 1631F, 1637F, 1643F and 1649F.
The 1500 Series life remained relatively uneventful for the following dozen years – between 2013 and 2016 the “16XXF” were renumbered into the “15XX” range to avoid conflicts with the recently-introduced 6-car sets of the New 1000 Series, also numbered in the “16XX” range.
In spring 2014, set 1501F (the very first 1500 Series set) assigned to the Daishi Line was repainted in a special all-over red color scheme as the “Daishi Line Akafuda” train for the “Kaicho” ceremony, wich is held evry 10 years, at the Kawasaki Daishi Temple, served by the Daishi Line (and even more so, the Kawasaki Daishi Temple was the one location where the current Keikyu was born, as Keikyu started out with it’s first railway line – the same Daishi Line – to ferry people to the Daishi Temple itself). Set 1501F carried the all-over red color scheme for the whole month of May 2014, from the 1st to the 31st.
The Akafuda color scheme also carried with it a special headmark, wich was displayed on the front and end of set 1501F during the opening hours of the temple (05:30 to 18:00): when the temple closed for the day, the headmarks were removed.
Another special color scheme came four years later with Keikyu’s 120th Anniversary – each of the four cars of 4-car Set 1521F (wich ran both on the “Main” network as well as the Daishi Line) were repainted into a different color scheme, representing four different “eras” of Keikyu. The first car, DeHa 1521 was fitted in a purple-ish dark-red colour, with imitation rivets stickers and wood-texture plastic film on the doors, representing Keihin Electric Railway’s (Keikyu’s direct predecessor) rolling stock from the 1910s up to the 1940s, car DeHa 1522 was fitted in a red and yellow livery representing the Shonan Electric Railway (the other company contributing to the formation of the current Keikyu, having built most of the network south of Yokohama), DeHa 1523 was fitted in Keikyu’s “local” all-over red with a thin white line below the windows color scheme as introduced in 1956 by the “old” 600 Series (as a replacement for the Shonan Electric Railway yellow and red, wich was used up to 1956), and finally, car DeHa 1524 was fitted in Keikyu’s “rapid” all-over red with a wide white band around the windows color scheme of rapid and express trains, as used by the 2100 Series.
As of today, the 1500 Series is still in revenue service, both on the “Main Network” running all sort of services, including trough-services with the Keisei and Hokuso railways as well as on the Daishi Line.
In general, 4-car sets are assigned to the Daishi Line or as additional “attached formations” for rapid and express services on the mainline (as part of the refurbishment program, all the 1500 Series sets were adapted to be used in multiple-unit formations with all subsequent serieses, including the 600 Series, 2100 Series and all batches of the New 1000 Series), forming trains often up to 12-cars long.
Four-car sets also used to run trough-services with the Asakusa Line to Keisei-Katamachi Station on the Keisei Katamachi Line “by themselves” until 1998, of course, only in early mornings or late evenings.
Six-car sets were used mainly for Airport Line-Asakusa Line trough-services onto the Hokuso Network, as Keikyu’s Haneda Airport station platforms could handle a maximum of six cars only, and Hokuso Railway trains were all formed as 8-car sets. Six-car 1500 Series trains do still run to and from Haneda, both as local and rapid or express services, but in a much diminished capacity after the introduction of New 1000 Series 6-car sets.
Eight-car sets instead were originally only used within the Keikyu network until July 1989 (when Asakusa Line platform lenghtening was completed), afterwards they were assigned the bulk of trough-services, running onto the Keisei and Hokuso Railway networks, including the Sky Access line to Narita Airport, and have been running these services ever since.
However, as the years pass, the 1500 Series ages continuously, with the first “conventional steel” sets now nearing fourty years of service.
A gradual replacement is already ongoing, by the hands of the ever-increasing New 1000 Series, the lastest batches of wich are omniously numbered into the same “15XX” range as the 1500 Series.
As of today, three sets have been withdrawn and scrapped (1509F, 1505F and 1513F, all conventional steel sets built in 1985), and more will follow suit in the following years, however, full 1500 Series retirement is still far away.
Trivia #1:
On the 120th Anniversary set, ironically, only three out of four cars were actually “repainted” – DeHa 1523 had been delivered with it’s “Keikyu local” livery straight from the factory, as was the rest of the 1500 Series fleet!
Indeed, the 1500 Series is also notable for being the last “new” user of this color scheme – all subsequent orders from the (new) 600 Series onwards were fitted in the “rapid” color scheme, with just the brief “interlude” of the first several stainless steel New 1000 Series batches.
Trivia #2:
Some parts of withdrawn and scrapped 1500 Series sets were retained by Keikyu and re-used for interior decors in apartment complexes owned and being built by the company along it’s railway lines.
These include interior seats converted into sofas, stainless steel car numbers used for floor numbers and door interlock lights used as night-time lamps, along with manufactuer plates used as wall decor.
