Welcome to our second blog post. in this post we’ll be discussing about the liveries of the Tokyu 8500 series trainset 8634F had through it’s years of service!

TOQ-BOX was a special decorative/liveried train series operated by Tokyu Railways with the main function of advertising and promotion inside the Tokyu trains, A TOQ-BOX train would generally have an advertising space inside the train with posters, advertisements, and other promotional material unified around a particular advertiser or campaign. This made the entire train function as a large, moving advertising space.

Trainset 8634F was initially used as a TOQ-BOX advertisement train on the Den-en-Toshi line as a temporary replacement of trainset 8635F while the train was entering into a general inspection in nagatsuta, initially both of their exterior is the same as other 8500 series with only the differences of having TOQ-BOX logos on the front and it’s sides, but in 1988 trainset 8634F would receive it’s first special livery.

1988 – Soap Bubbles

A common theme throughout the Tokyu Railways TOQ-BOX fleet during it’s early years, the soap bubbles livery was painted on trainset 8634F around fall 1988. Only the leading cars have the soap bubbles pattern applied, with the intermediate cars only having the TOQ-BOX logo on the sides

The soap bubbles theme is similar to the ones applied on Tokyu 8090 series trainset 8097F in Toyoko Line, albeit with a difference that in trainset 8634F it has a rainbow pattern applied on the sides, This livery would last until fall 1991.

1991 – Cityscapes and Mountain Range

On fall 1991, coinciding with the repainting of Tokyu 9000 trainset 9006F, the livery on trainset 8634F was repainted into a theme known as the Cityscapes and Mountain Range. This livery features diffent patterns on each side of the trainset, with the mountain side featuring mountains pattern while the sea side features a cityscape pattern.

The front of the train featured a cityscape on the lead car facing towards Shibuya and mountains on the lead car facing towards Chuo-Rinkan. Rainbow pattern inherited from the soap bubbles livery were retained with it only applied on the leading cars. This livery would last longer than the soap bubbles themed livery, but it won’t be the longest and certainly not the last one.

1997 – Rainbow, Musical Note, and Instrument Pattern

Probably one of the most popular TOQ-BOX livery, the rainbow, musical note, and instrument pattern theme were applied in November 1997. The livery features a music themed pattern with a different rainbow design and colors from the preceding TOQ-BOX livery, it also has less TOQ-BOX logo in the sides with the logo reduced from four logo per-side to two logo per-side.

The theme would be the longest one applied on trainset 8634F, this will also be the last theme of TOQ-BOX with it’s abolition in early 2010 caused by the advent of digital in-car advertisement and the declining interest on renting a whole trainset for advertisement.

2009 – Rainbow, Musical Note, and Instrument Pattern (Front Only)

Around summer 2009, trainset 8634F underwent a final modification on the TOQ-BOX decorations. The rainbow, musical note, and instrument pattern were removed leaving only the front face decorations. This livery would last very shortly until the abolition of TOQ-BOX in early 2010.

2010 – Red Band

With the abolition of TOQ-BOX train, the decorations on 8634F were removed leaving only the red band along the sides of the train, this would make the trainset a rather unique one among the 8500 series. This unique livery would be applied until the retirement of the trainset in 2021 marking the end of one of the TOQ-BOX train in Den-en-Toshi line.

This concludes today’s topic, All of the liveries showcased here are included in our upcoming Tokyu 8500 content for Trainz, thank you for taking the time to read the post. Just stay tuned for the release!

Our next topic we’ll discuss about the blue band trainset 8637F!