On 1st, I went joining "Tobu Fan Festa" at a train shed nearby Minami-kurihashi Station on Tobu Nikko Line.
Passing under the viaduct of Tohoku Shinkansen, I could get the shed about a 10-minute walk from the station. However, there also be a too-long line, which surrounded about a half of the shed and reached to the border to the business railway. Eventually, it took 30 minutes to enter the event place.
First, I had time to see stalls of Railway Companies, including Tobu, and local foods in the cities along Tobu Lines until the time photographing trains. What I bought was a small-size cut-out of Nana Himemiya, one of the official mascots of Tobu, selling at Tomytec's, which I had longed to get.
11:00, the time to photograph trains, had come. This year's notable point was 8000 Series, whose 50th anniversary had come, and 60000 Series, debut in this June. Besides purple-coloured 100 Series "SPACIA", 200 Series "Ryomo", 1800 Series, and 300 Series were laid out. The last time I joined 6 years ago, Tokyu 5000 Series also had come, but this time all of them were Tobu's.
At 12:00, three women wearing the costume imaging "Tetsudou-musume" characters on Tobu, Minami Kurihashi, Shia Kasukabe, and Nana Himemiya, and a spokesman on Tomytec appeared on the stage over the stalls toward Minami-kurihashi Station and unveiled a new character Miyabi Kinugawa.
Because there was no voice actress to play Nana-chan, I had imagined what her voice was like looking at posters on stations or in trains. The voice of the woman playing Nana-chan was just my image, gentle, natural, and easy-to-hear. Her look was also the same as the cartoon on the posters.
Next, I saw the factory where a front carriage of 10030 Series lifted up and down, an announcement through a conductor's microphone, and touching destination indicators were there.
While I was in a line for the destination indicators, the body of the front carriage lifted down to put on its bogies.
There were not only rolling indicators, which the visitors could control but also LED one, which a staff controlled and the visitors could request what kinds and stations were on it. the LED one showed some destinations which couldn't see on regular operations, such as "Rapid for Chuo-rinkan" in this latter photograph.
Next, I watched a washing machine.
Units were washed by attaching this brush rolling in high speed and lots of water from the machine,
This is the colour sample of Tobu trains. It is interesting because, if it looks similar, each colour has a particular name. This time I first saw the new colours of 100 Series "SPACIA".
A set of 30000 Series was shown, whose equipment under its body was visible. It gave me a special time to see them such as adjustable voltage and frequency.
Especially, the coupler between middle carriages in the visible state was rare. It was my first experience, too.