On the left, 7300 Series “as introduced” in 1991 and on the right, 7800 Series (ex-3700 Series sets on-loan from Keisei) in the current state, with “Airplane” graphics on the sides, front skirt and single-arm pantographs.
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Like it’s twin, Keisei’s 3700 Series, Hokuso Railway’s 7300 Series was introduced in 1991 as an expansion to Hokuso Railway’s existing fleet in anticipation of the opening of the 2nd phase of the “Western Section” of the Hokuso Line, extending it’s western end from Shin-Kamagaya station to Keisei-Takasago Station, connecting with Keisei Railway’s network (and concatenated trough-services over the Toei Subway Asakusa Line) and enabling quadri-partite trough-services (Keikyu, Toei, Keisei and Hokuso+HUDC).
As a cost-saving mesaure, Hokuso and Keisei (wich also needed a sizeable amount of new rolling stock, among other things to carry out some long-due replacements) opted for a shared, common design, wich in the end, meant that the 7300 Series came out almost exactly identical to it’s Keisei equivalent – the 3700 Series. The two shared (and still share) the same unassuming bodyshell design, bogeys, pantographs, Toyo-Denki-manufactured GTO-VVVF inverters and nearly evrything else. The only distinguishing fetaure was the livery – Keisei’s color arrangment scheme was kept, with Hokuso applying it’s own two-tone blue company colours.
Two 8-car sets, 7308F and 7318F, were built in March 1991 by Tokyu Car Corporation and Nippon Sharyo respectively, and were delivered to Hokuso Railway in March 1991. After a few days of testing (and some very brief revenue runs on the existing Hokuso Line), the two sets entered full service with the opening of the 2nd phase of the Hokuso Line on the 31st of March 1991, joined on their trough-services onto the Asakusa Line and beyond by Keisei, Toei and Keikyu rolling stock.
Further orders were however curtailed due to financial constraints, with Hokuso Railway opting instead to acquire from Keikyu Railway two 1000 Series sets at the tail end of their service lives. Reclassified as the 7150 Series, lightly refurbished and repainted in Hokuso Railway colours, the two ex-Keikyu sets entered service alongside the 7300 Series in March 1991.
However, despite the light refurbishment, ageing and worn-out equipment cut short their service lives, with one set being retired in 1995 and the other in 1998 – these were replaced in turn by hand-me-down rolling stock rented from Keisei, specifically two former 3150 Series sets reclassified as the 7050 Series. These however were also at the end of their service life, and with the law-mandated general overhaul deemed uneconomical, both sets were again retired after only a few years.
These two sets would be in turn replaced by more rented hand-me-downs from Keisei – one 3200 Series set (reclassified as 7250 Series by Hokuso Railway), and one 3700 Series set.
While the former was intended only as a temporary mesaure (and accordingly it had a rather short-term rental contract), the latter, as it was essentially identical to Hokuso’s two 7300 Series sets, was instead envisioned as a more “permanent” solution, with a long-term rental contract.
Set 3808F, built by Nippon Sharyo in December 1997, was picked by Keisei Railway for Hokuso, and after being transferred, it was repainted in the same colour scheme as Hokuso’s 7300 Series sets and reclassified in the same group, but as the “7800 Series”, in order to differentiate ownership (as, while in Hokuso colours, bearing Hokuso logos and in operation for Hokuso Railway, the set remained under Keisei Railway ownership).
On the other hand, the 7250 Series set also quickly reached the end of it’s service life, being retired in 2006 and replaced by another old hand-me-down from Keisei – a former 3300 Series set reclassified as the 7260 Series by Hokuso. Yet again, the 40 year-old worn-out set also reached the end of it’s service life, with Hokuso finally settling for another long-term rental of a 3700 Series set from Keisei.
This time, Keisei rented out set 3748F (built in 1995 by Tokyu Car Co.), wich became set 7818F for Hokuso Railway (after undergoing the same modifications as set 7808F neé 3808F), entering service in March 2015 and replacing the 7260 Series set.
In 2018 the 7300 Series fleet expanded by one more set, bringing the total to five, with Hokuso renting another 3700 Series set from Keisei Railway (this time set 3778F, reclassified as 7828F by Hokuso Railway, built by Tokyu Car Co. between December 1995 and March 1996) to handle an increase in passengers along the line.
In the meantime, with the opening of the Keisei Narita Sky Access Line from Imba-Nihon-Idai to Narita Airport (effectively working as an eastward extension of the Hokuso Line), Hokuso Railway started to lightly refurbish it’s rolling stock, including the 7300 Series, with both the two “owned” sets as well as the loaned 7800 Series being involved.
Front skirts were added to the two “owned” sets, destination displays were changed from the classic roller-blind to LEDs and for commonality with Hokuso’s brand new 7500 Series, “HOK’SO” logos were added to the front and sides of the trains along with the same stylized airplane decal as the 7500 Series. Between 2015 and 2016, the pantographs of all sets were also changed from the scrissor-square type to the now-standard single-arm ones.
Outside that, the 7300 Series’ service life remained relatively uneventful. The first major occurrence came in on the 12th of June 2020, when set 7818F, running an Haneda Airport-bound service, derailed at Aoto station.
The cause was found to be a crack on the trailing bogie of the 7th (second-to-last) car, and while the incident didn’t cause any casualties (the train was moving relatively slow), set 7818F had to be retired from service.
In it’s place, under the same contract, Keisei handed over set 3768F (built by Nippon Sharyo between December 1995 and March 1996), wich became Hokuso Railway’s set 7838F.
As of today, the 7300 Series is the bulk of Hokuso Railway’s fleet, with two fully-owned sets (7308F and 7318F) and three sets rented out from Keisei (7808F, 7828F and 7838F), with all five train used interchangeably among them (and also with Hokuso’s three 7500 Series sets) on trough-services between the Hokuso Line, Keisei Railway, Toei Asakusa Line and Keikyu Railway, with services (both local and express) typically running between Imba-Nihon-Idai and Haneda Airport (more infrequently Yokohama) or Nishi-Magome via Keisei Takasago, Keisei Aoto and Keisei Oshiage and the Toei Asakusa Line.
Finally, depsite being around 30 years old, Hokuso Railway currently has no plans to replace the 7300 Series – to the contrary, if an hypotetical need would arise, it’s entirely possible Hokuso Railway will acquire (or rent) even more 3700 Series sets from Keisei, as they’re replaced one by one by more modern rolling stock.
Trivia #1
7300 Series set 7301F starred in a 2001 TV advertisement (shot at Inzaki-Makinohara Station) for the soon to be released Densha De GO! 3 – Tsukin-hen.
Trivia #2
The report of the 2020 Aoto station derailment of set 7818F, courtesy of the Japan Transport Saftey Board.
