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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!)
In the early 1970s, Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Bureau of Transportation had just opened the first section of it’s second line, the Mita Line, and had just completed designing work for it’s third line, the Shinjuku Line, wich was to run east-west under Tokyo, connecting Edogawa and Sumida to Shinjuku station and beyond, on trough-services with the Keio Line.
Construction works on the Shinjuku Line begain in May 1971, and shortly after, Toei ordered an initial prototype of what would’ve been the trains of the new line. The reason of such an early order is clear – Toei planned to use the newest technologies available at the time, primarily the brand-new revolutionary chopper control (wich had just began to be applied on a full scale in Tokyo, with TRTA’s 6000 Series, wich began revenue services that year) and since most of these were extremely new, Toei wanted to have as much time as possible to test them and iron-out eventual issues before the completion of the construction works, thus avoiding any possible delay.
An initial 4-car prototype set was manufactured by Nippon Sharyo in 1971 and delivered to Toei later that year, wich classified it as the “10-000 Series” (after the Shinjuku Line’s official “Line No.10” planning name).
The new train was derived from the Mita Line 6000 Series, especially regarding the stainless steel bodyshell design, but fetaured countless improvements, making it far more modern – among other things, it was fitted with an afromentioned armature chopper control, a prototype air-conditioning unit on each car, one-handle “T”-shaped master controllers (derived from the then brand new Tokyu 8000 Series, introduced only two years earlier in 1969!) and world’s first electronic passenger information displays!
Since tunneling work for the Shinjuku Line had just begun, the prototype set was delivered at Toei’s Shimura depot, where it was to be used on test-runs on the Mita Line, and hence was temporarily fitted with 1067mm gauge bogeys instead of the 1372mm ones for the Shinjuku Line. Upon it’s arrival on the Mita Line, the prototype 10-000 Series set was fitted with yet another brand-new fetaure – ATO – wich was planned to be implemented on the Shinjuku Line (but later cut out from the plans due to cost reasons) – for adequated testing a section of the Mita Line had already been retrofitted with it.
Seven years later, in 1978, construction of the first section of the Shinjuku Line, from Higashi-Ojima to Iwamotocho, had been completed and was ready to open. Thus, full production of the 10-000 Series started right away, however several modifications were made to the prototype design to simplify, expedite and lower construction costs: the passenger information displays were removed, as was air-conditioning, altough in the case of the latter, the trains were built already predisposed to eventually recieve it at a later date. Modifications weren’t only “removals” – several “additions” were also made, most strikingly the front design: the flat, unassuming stainless steel front of the prototype set was changed for a very modern (and distinctively “70s-style”) white FRP front mask.
Eight 6-car set of the full-production version of the 10-000 Series were ordered by Toei. Built by Tokyu Car Corporation, all eight sets were delivered in time for the opening of the first section of the Shinjuku Line, on the 21st of December 1978.
These eight were soon joined in revenue services by the prototype set, wich had been removed from the Mita Line, fitted with 1372mm bogeys, adapted to full-production standards (albeit retaining it’s “flat front” design) and lenghtened to six cars.
After the opening of the first section, works contiued rapidly, and on the 16th of March 1980 the second section of the Shinjuku Line opened, reaching it’s namesake Shinjuku Station and connecting (and commencing trough-services) with the Keio Line. For the opening of this section, a second batch of 10-000 Series trains was delivered: nine 6-car sets built by Nippon Sharyo, wich were essentially identical to the 1st batch ones delivered a few years earlier.
In 1983 the Shinjuku Line extended eastwards for the first time since it’s opening, exending from Higashi-Ojima to Funabori with a bridge across the Arakawa River, and three years later, the line was extended again, reaching Shiozaki on the 14th of September 1986. For this latter extension, a 4th batch of 10-000 Series trains was delivered. This time, the design was considerably updated and several changes were made, primarily the bodyshell was changed from a semi-stainless-steel construction to a full stainless-steel one, the 4-section windows were changed to more modern square ones.
Furthemore, unlike the previous batches, the two 4th batch trains, manufactured by Kinki Sharyo, were delivered as 8-car sets to cope with the increasing rideship of the line, and fitted with air-conditioning directly from the factory.
With the entrance in service of the 4th batch, Toei started a general re-arrangment of all previous 10-000 Series trains, including the retrofitting of air-conditioning to all cars and the lenghtening of all sets from six to eight cars with the addition of two newly-built intermediate cars based on the 4th batch (the so-called 5th batch, built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries).
This process was rather quick, being completed in the late 1980s, and involved the prototype set as well, wich recieved an additional modification: the removal of the “case” (derived from the 6000 Series’ one) around the headlights in 1987.
In 1989 the final Shinjuku Line extension opened, reaching the current terminus of Moto-Yawata. For this extension, an additional 10-000 Series set was delivered, classified as the 6th batch and built by Kinki Sharyo, identical to the earlier 4th batch trains.
1992 saw the delivery of yet one more batch of the 10-000 Series: two 8-car sets built by Kinki Sharyo to increae the capacity of the Shinjuku Line. Since it had been nearly 15 years since the introduction of the original full-production 10-000 Series trains, the 7th batch was considerably upgraded in it’s fetaures, among other thing being fitted with an early-type LED destination indicator (derived from the Asakusa Line’s 5300 Series, introduced one year earlier) and a front skirt. The overall design however remained nearly unchanged from the one of the 1980s 4th and 6th batches. The final distinctive fetaure was that these trains were fitted from the start with the brand new Tokyo Metropolitan Government “Gingko Leaf” logo on the front, something wich was quickly applied to the older batches as well.
Finally, the very last batch of the 10-000 Series was delivered in 1997. This time, yet again two more 8-car sets to increase the capacity of the line (and to provide more available rolling stock for trough-services), however this time around the original 1970s design (now nearly 20 years old) was considerably modified and modernized. Built by Alna Koki (a subsidiary of Hankyu Railway), the two set fetaured a redesigned lightweight stainless steel bodyshell, derived from the one of the Tobu 30000 Series that the company had built a year earlier, and a redesigned front style, giving it a far more modern look.
However, for the sake of maintainance compatibility with the rest of the fleet, most technical equipment remained the same of earlier batches, including the armature chopper control, wich depsite having been modern, innovative and revolutionary at the time of the 10-000 Series prototype introduction, it no longer was by 1997 (26 years later), as the more advanced inverter control (both GTO and IGBT-VVVF) was then already commonplace.
Thus, by the early 2000s, the Toei Shinjuku Line fleet was formed of twenty-seven 8-car sets, built in a 20 years timeframe and split into eight batches plus an older prototype 8-car set.
Unfortunately, by then, the earliest sets were starting to age and deteriorate rapidly, with a replacement being in order, something more or less necessary as well in preparation for the eventual conversion of the Shinjuku Line’s signalling system from an analogue ATC to a brand new D-ATC system, in order to increase the capacity and reduce the overcrowding of what had become Tokyo’s third most crowded subway line.
Introduced in 2005, Toei’s 10-300 Series was derived from JR East’s successful above-ground E231 Series design, and was a true step-up from the 10-000 Series. However, it could not be used directly from the start as they came equipped only with D-ATC and not the analogue ATC system, hence, regular services were operated with the 10-000 Series only for a while, with the 10-300 Series being used after revenue hours for testing. The switch to D-ATC came on the 14th of May 2005, with the entrance in service of the first 10-300 Series batches, replacing the older 1st and 2nd batches 10-000 Series (plus the prototype set) wich had not been retrofitted with D-ATC, as by then were nearing nearly 30 years of age. However, not all cars of these sets were nearly 30 years old, with Toei opting to “recylce” the two additional 5th batch intermediate cars added in each set around the late ’80s to form a handful of new trains – these being the quirky 6-car 10-300R Sets: six 10-000 Series cars sandwitched between two newly-built 10-300 Series-style cab cars.
The later 10-000 Series batches, from the 4th onwards, were instead relatively more lucky, being retrofitted with D-ATC and thus able to continue revenue service on the Shinjuku Line, with the 4th to 6th batches being also retrofitted with LED destination indicators around 2009.
However, overcrowding soon caught up to them, with Toei planning to extend all Shinjuku Line trains from eight to ten cars. Depsite having been built relatively recently, the 10-000 Series were now fitted with rather outdated equipment, and an eventual reformation into 10-car sets, depsite some tests, was not considered, with Toei opting for an outright replacement with new batches of the 10-300 Series, the first of wich began to be delivered in 2013.
With the delivery of the new 10-300 Series batches, the definitive retirement of the 10-000 Series began, with the retiremet of the 3rd batch trains by the end of 2013, followed in 2016 by the retirement of the 4th batch, and a year later, in 2017, the final “original style” 10-000 Series trains disappeared from the Shinjuku Line, with the 6th batch set being retired on the 16th of July, and the two 7th batch sets being retired on the 7th of June and on the 14th of August.
The two final batch 10-000 Series sets managed to solder on for six months more until they were both retired as well, the first on the 16th of January, and the second on the 11th of February, thus ending a nearly 40-years long career for the 10-000 Series.
Unfortunately, all retired 10-000 Series vehicles have been scrapped, except for the head portion of car 10-230F (a 4th batch train), wich is allegedly preserved inside Keio Heavy Equipment Maintainance (a sbusidiary company of Keio Railway to wich some railways, of wich Toei for the Shinjuku Line fleet, contract out rolling stock maintainance) Kitano plant.
Trivia:
In Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006), some subway scenes set in Tokyo were actually filmed in Los Angeles, on LACMTA’s Red and Purple Lines (currently Lines B and D) using the iconic Breda A650 trains, wich were “Japanised” by adding Toei ginko leaf logos on the fronts and other japanese stickers (such as the prioriy seats ones), ending up with a result intentionally (or unintentionally) very close to the Toei 10-000 Series, altough the overall livery remained the red and black LACMTA one.
