User:Kazatsu/長崎電気軌道87形電車

The Nagasaki Electric Tramway Model 87 Train is a decorative open-top electric-powered streetcar formerly belonging to Nagasaki Electric Tramway.

Overview
For use as decorative open-top electric-powered streetcars, the Model 87 was created in 1978 and the Model 88 in 1987.

Although both the Model 87 and Model 88 share the same form, the history of each car is very different. In addition, Nagasaki Electric Tramway had an, unrelated [3], Model 80 in use as a general commercial vehicle [2] from 1938 to 1944.

Model 87
The Model 87 was formerly used as a decorative open-top electric-powered streetcar on the Nishi-Nippon Railroad (Nishitetsu) Fukuoka City Line as Model 20 No. 21, and transferred to Nagasaki Electric Tramway in 1978 [4] [5]. The model and car number 87 was chosen as a number wordplay (Goroawase 語呂合わせ): the digits 87 can be read as the Japanese word for flower used in the original term Hana-densha 花電車, “floral streetcar” (8 ha(chi) + 7 na(na) → 花 hana) [3].

Its predecessor, the Fukuoka City Line Model 20 No. 21, was manufactured as a passenger vehicle for Nankai Railway in September 1911, and was immediately transferred to Fukuhaku Electric Tramway (later Nishitetsu Fukuoka City Line). It's one of three (originally wooden 2-axle) cars converted into electric-powered freight cars in 1954 [6]. While on the City Line it had been used as a decorative streetcar for the Hakata Dontaku festival but lost its role due to drastic reduction of the city line in 1975 [5].

It was transferred to Nagasaki Electric Tramway in March 1978, replacing the main motor with one from its Model 110, and started operation in Nagasaki as a decorative train for the Nagasaki Festival held the following month [1][5]. Initially, the diamond-shaped pantograph from its time on the Nishitetsu Fukuoka City Line was used, but replaced with a Z-shaped one in 1980.

Model 88
In 1987, Nagasaki Electric Tramway purchased the Brill 21E bogie buried in the ground at the Tatara Depot on the Nishitetsu Miyajidake Line, and the company manufactured a new car body to use as an decorative electric-powered streetcar [5]. It was named 88 as a continuation of the Model 87 with its implied meaning described above [5].

The bogie was a wooden 2-axle vehicle that was manufactured with the opening of the Hakata Electric Tramway in 1911. After being retired from the Fukuoka City Line 67, it was used as a towing vehicle in the Fukuoka City Line Eastern Factory (later Tatara Factory) [5].

Operation
The Model 87 began operation as a decorative train at the Nagasaki Festival held in April 1978 immediately after its transfer [1]. After that, it was operated as a sponsor train, but in 1985, the 70th anniversary of the opening of Nagasaki Electric Tramway, it was operated with full-fledged illuminative decoration during the Nagasaki Kunchi festival and on the anniversary day in November [3]. In addition it was also used as an advertising platform for passenger cars and solar water heaters, etc., with actual products on-board [3].

In 1988, it was rented to Nishitetsu along with a decorative streetcar from Kagoshima City Tram for the duration of the Wasshoi Hyakuman Natsumatsuri festival which began that year in Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka Prefecture, and is running on the Kitakyūshū Line as a decorative streetcar [3][5].

After that, it became an annual event at the Nagasaki Lantern Festival, which is held for about a month starting on the lunar new year's day, and the Nagasaki Flower Festival, which is held in April. At the Nagasaki Lantern Festival, the so-called “Nagasaki Lantern Festival Train” carrying bright red Chinese-style lanterns and papier-mâché artwork ran through the city from dusk until around 9:00 pm, adding color to the night town of Nagasaki. At the Nagasaki Flower Festival, a local Buddhist group took up its sponsorship, decorating and operating it as the “Flower Festival Train”.

At an event held in the fall of 2005 to commemorate the 90th anniversary of its opening, the Model 87 decorated with lights ran at the front, followed by the state-of-the-art Model 3000 and the wooden No. 168 made in 1911, among others, of a train parade with eight trains in total.

After the Nagasaki Lantern Festival and Nagasaki Festival discontinued the operation of the decorative streetcars, no further use was found for them and both cars were decommissioned and disassembled at the end of August 2010 [7].