Original livery (1960 to mid-1980s) on the left, later livery (1981-1995) on the right.
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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 5000 Series entered service in 1960 as the first train of the Asakusa Line, and by extension, the first subway train of the Bureau of Transportation of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo’s second subway operator.
Originally, subways in Tokyo were planned (or sort-of) and operated by private companies, each with it’s own plans and objectives, wich didn’t aim for a true cohesive network. At the time, the sole subway line in Tokyo, the current Ginza Line was operated by Tokyo Underground Railroad and Tokyo Rapid Railway, two separate companies each planning different extensions and new lines for the benefit of the company themselves rather than for the city’s sake.
To put some order in this mess of private operators, in 1941 the imperial government stepped in, and trough wartime special powers, forcibly merged the two operators into one largely independent and administratively-autonomous company under the ownership of the government itself – the Teito Rapid Transit Authority, or TRTA.
The agreement was that Tokyo Government’s Bureau of Transportation (besides retaining ownership and management of surface transit – busses and the Toden tramway network) was to put forth plans and designs for new subway lines, and TRTA was to build and operate them indefinitely on Tokyo Government’s behalf.
This worked well in the post-war years, with the construction of the Marunouchi Line thruought the 1950s, however with the Japanese economy in full post-war boom, rapid urbanisation and increasing road congestion, subway construction had to be urgently expedited, and to top it off, Tokyo had just been selected as the host for the 1964 Olympics.
Accordingly, in the late 1950s, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government began to expedite the planning and design phases of a handful of “key” lines, giving the greenlight for the construction of Line No.1 and Line No.2 (the Ginza Line being officially called Line No.3, and the Marunouchi Line being Line No.4).
Line No.1 had been first concieved in the early 1940s, right after the formation of TRTA, as a link between the Keisei Electric Railway in the north-east of Tokyo, and the Keihin Kyuko Electric Railway (the current Keikyu), wich connected Shinagawa to Yokohama and further southwards. Line No.2 was concieved in the early 1960s as a link between Tobu Railway (in particular it’s Iseaki Line, the trunk of Tobu’s “main” network radiating out from the Asakusa terminus) and Tokyu Corporation’s Toyoko Line. Plans were refined over time, with Line No.1 running from Oshiage (where it would’ve linked with Keisei) and Sengakuji (the link with Keikyu) with a branch to the Magome area, whereas Line No.2 was planned to run between Kita-Ayase (connecting to the Tobu Iseaki Line as well as providing an interchange with the JNR Joban Line) and Naka-Meguro on the Tokyu Toyoko Line.
However, with the simultaneous approval of both lines, some opposition arose on TRTA’s side – the two lines were largely parallel (running for a good portion of their route only about 400m apart) and were to be built following the same phase order, from north to south, effectively building two apparently duplicated lines at the same time. TRTA’s argument was that it made no sense to build two duplicate lines at the same time when there was urgent need for subway lines elsewhere in Tokyo. Some objections came from the national government itself as TRTA was under government ownership, and the government itself provided the bulk of subway construction funding.
In the end, after lenghty institutional debates, the issue was settled as follows: TRTA agreed to build and operate Line No.2 as per previous agreements, Line No.1 instead was to be transferred to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, wich would then take care of funding, construction and operations (the latter trough it’s Transportation Bureau – Toei).
With the issue settled, construction began on Line No.1 in summer 1958, and the first section of the Toei Subway, five stations and 3,1Km between Oshiage station and Asakusabashi station, opened on the 4th of December 1960.
As it was designed to connect the Keisei and Keikyu networks, Toei’s first subway trains had to be designed with trough-services in mind, in particular by meeting and adapting to existing Keikyu and Keisei standards and practices – the new trains were to be 1435mm-gauge (Keikyu having retained it’s original standard gauge, while Keisei had recently re-gagued, with government support, from 1372mm to 1435mm), have 18m-long car bodies with three doors per side and be powered by a 1500v DC catenary system (instead of the 600v DC third rail used on the two older subway lines).
However, some influence from the other two lines was retained – Toei’s new subway trains were based on TRTA’s 500 Series, then the lastest subway train in Tokyo, built, and on delivery at the time for the Marunouchi Line. In particular, the bodyshells and window arrangment were carried over from the 500 Series, coincidentally also a train with 18m-long cars with three doors per side – the former however were considerably enlarged so as to take advantage of the taller loading gauge allowed by catenary-powered lines.
Classified as the “5000 Series” and manufactured by Nippon Sharyo, Tokyu Car Co., Kinki Sharyo and Naniwa Koki (the current Alna Koki) with Hitachi electric equipment and painted in a red and cream livery with a stainless steel moulding along the side (a livery almost identical to the one applied on contemporary Keisei trains built for trough-services), the new trains entered service with the opening of the line itself in December 1960, formed as two-car sets.
Construction works on Line No.1’s southward extensions proceeded initially smoothly, with the line being extended 700m southwards to Higashi-Nihonbashi on the 31st of May 1962 (the same day that the Hibiya Line opened it’s own extension to Ningyocho) and a further 700m southwards to Ningyocho five months later on the 30th of September.
However, various issues soon ensued, and the construction pace of Line No.1 considerably slowed. Higashi-Ginza (part of the current Ginza station interchange) was reached togheter with the Hibiya Line again on the 28th of February 1963, with a further 900m southward extension to Shimbashi on the 21st of December 1963. In the same timeframe, 5000 Series trains began to be reformed into 4-car sets (by combining two 2-car sets) and newly-built trains began to be delivered as seamless 4-car sets.
By now, Toei was gradually abandoning all hopes to open the rest of the line to Sengakuji atleast by the start of the Olympics, wich were to be held between the 10th and 24th of October 1964. A last ditch effort resulted in the opening of a provisional single track tunnel to Daimon station, near Tokyo Tower, on the 1st of October 1964, a mere nine days from the Olympics.
By comparison, TRTA had been luckier, managing to complete it’s Hibiya Line between Kita-Ayase and Naka-Meguro by June 1964.
With the olympics now past, the frenzy died down, and Toei considerably slowed down Line No.1’s construction pace, only reaching Sengakuji, 2,6Km south of Daimon, on the 21st of March 1968, a full three-and-a-half years after the olympics.
However, nonetheless this was happy news – depsite the delay, Line No.1 was completed in it’s core section, and the long-awaited reciprocal trough-services between Keikyu, Keisei and Toei commenced immediately.
The line wasn’t however completed in it’s entirety, as it was also planned to reach the Magome area. However, some problems arose here as well, this time in the form of some musings internal to Toei itself – the line alignment coincided roughly with what Toei was planning for it’s Line No.6 (the future Mita Line) – another line whose construction was declined by TRTA, this time purely on cost issues (after all, TRTA was already building Line No.5 – the Tozai Line, and Line No.6 – the Chiyoda Line). Early plans called for Line No.6 to be built to the Asakusa Line’s 1435mm gauge, so for it to act as a sort of “branch” for Line No.1 itself. However this conflicted with plans for Line No.6 to operate trough-service with Tobu Railway (this time it’s “Tojo Line” network), wich used 1067mm gauge. In the end, the planned southern section (from Mita to the Magome Area) was curtailed and transferred to Line No.1, opening as far as Nishi-Magome (adding 6,9Km and five intermediate stations to the existing line) on the 15th of November 1968, bringing Line No.1 to it’s current status. At the same time, 5000 Series trains were reformed yet again, this time into 6-car sets, by combining a 2-car set and a 4-car set. By the end of 1968, the 5000 Series’ fleet was formed of 152 cars, formed as twenty-three 6-car sets (formed of -2 and -4 car sets) plus a spare 2-car set stored inside Nishi-Magome depot.
The next 15 years went trough relatively uneventful, with little to no changes to the trains themselves. 1978 however saw the abandonment of the official “Line Number” designation in favour of the current line names: Line No.1 became the “Asakusa Line” and Line No.6 was renamed as the “Mita Line”.
Only by the early 1980s things started to move again – with the 5000 Series now 20 years old, a small refurbishment program was started, wich included a general overhaul of the bodyshell, refurbishment of the interiors and seat upholstery, fitting of new air compressors and a new door interlocking system, and most notably a new livery, ditching the distinctively 1960s-look of the original livery for a modern, clean-looking light cream livery with red side bands.
In 1983 Asakusa Line trough-services on the Keisei network were extended eastwards, from Higashi-Nakayama to Keisei Narita, all the way in Chiba Prefecture. A little less than a decade later in 1991 the trough-services were extended again, now to Higashi-Narita Station, serving Narita Airport, as well as onto the Hokuso Line.
However, by now most 5000 Series trains had passed their 30th year mark, and while adequate to the needs of the 1960s, the Asakusa Line trains lacked many facilities that 30 years later were now taken for granted, in particular air-conditioning. Furthemore, with the introduction of higher-performance rolling stock, the 5000 Series increasingly began to lag behind other railways’ rolling stock, especially in tightly knit timetables such as Keikyu’s.
A replacement was needed, and was timely introduced with the start of the afromentioned trough-services in 1991: the 5300 Series, Toei’s new Asakusa Line train. A true far cry from it’s predecessor, the highly sohpisticated, microprocessor-controlled, aereodynamic and air-conditioning fitted new trains contrasted sharply with the quintessentially “1960s barebones” concept of the 5000 Series that still run a majority of Asakusa Line services.
This wasn’t to last much longer, with 5300 Series sets being delivered one after the other, the 5000 Series trains began to be retired, starting from the oldest trains still in operation. At the same time, remaining 4-car sets were combined togheter, forming 8-car sets to match the 5300 Series’ lenght.
Finally, by mid-1995 enough 5300 Series sets had been delivered to finally retire the 5000 Series. One of the last surviving sets, formed of 4-car sets 5027 and 5195 was fitted with special “final run” headmarks and deployed on various special services between the 26th and the 30th of June, running between Nishi-Magome and Oshiage, Haneda and Chiba-Newtown-Chuo. The very final run came on the 2nd of July 1995, with a service between Nishi-Magome and Keisei-Narita, ending nearly 35 years of service.
Unfortunately, as is Toei’s practice, retired cars were immediately scrapped. Only one car, 5069, has been saved, altough not for pubblic display – it’s currently used as a training facility (togheter with a mockup subway station) at the Tokyo Fire Department School in Nishihara, Shibuya ward. It can be visited (togheter with all other training facilities) during open days or festivals open to the pubblic.
Trivia:
Being designed for subway operations, the 5000 Series didn’t quite “fit in” with the express services it sometimes was assigned to – at it’s maximium speed of 100Km/H floors and other interior fittings started to slightly vibrate and shake.
