Little Dancer

For the Degas sculpture, see Little Dancer of Fourteen Years.

The Little Dancer is a low-floor tram brand built by Alna Sharyo, a Japanese manufacturer of trams and light rail vehicles.

Overview

"Little Dancer" was named by two means. One of the means is to aim lively and cute image. And another mean is a Japanese word "dansa". "dansa" in Japanese means "bump" or "step". So, "Little Dancer" is lively and cute and little bump tram.

Little Dancer series adopt axles for all wheels. So, user, that is accustomed to maintenance old trams is easy to maintenance these new tram.

Type

Little Dancer series has several variants.

Type S

Type S series adopt short body and close the bogies each end.

• Japan : Iyo Railway - 2100 series. (10 sets)
• Japan : Iyo Railway - 5000 series. (unknown)
• Japan : Railway Technical Research Institute - LH02 (Test car.) (1 set)

• 
  Iyo Railway 2100 series
• 
  Iyo Railway 5000 series
• 
  LH02

Type L

Type L series adopt to articulate 3 cut long body. (All 3 articurations have the bogies.)

• Japan : Tosaden Kōtsū - 100 series. (1 set)

• 
  Tosaden 100 series

Type A

Type A series adopt 3 or 5 articulation bodies. (Some of articulations have no bogies and be floating.)

• Japan : Kagoshima City Transportation Bureau - 1000 series (9 sets) and the first Little Dancer type to enter service.
• Japan : Kagoshima City Transportation Bureau - 7000 series (4 sets)

• 
  Kagoshima 1000 series (Type A3)
• 
  Kagoshima 7000 series (Type A5)

Type U,Ua

Type S,L,A series weren't 100% low floor, because the motors attached the bogies. U series devises to position the motor. So, U series are 100% low floor. "U" is an initial of "Ultimate".

• Japan : Nagasaki Electric Tramway - 3000 series (3 sets) and 5000 series (3 sets)
• Japan : Toyohashi Railroad - T1000 series (1 set)
• Japan : Toyama Chihō Railway - T100 series (2 sets)
• Japan : Sapporo Streetcar - A1200 series (3 sets)
• Japan : Hankai Tramway - 1001 series (3 sets)
• Japan : Chikuhō Electric Railroad - 5000 series (2 sets)
• Japan : Tosaden Kōtsū - 3000 series (unknown)

• 
  Nagasaki 3000 series (Type U)
• 
  Nagasaki 5000 series (Type Ua)
• 
  Toyohashi T1000 series (Type Ua)
• 
  Hankai 1001 series (Type Ua)
• 
  Chikutetsu 5000 series (Type Ua)

Type C

"C" is an initial of "Combination".

• Japan : Hakodate Transportation Bureau - 9600 series (2 sets)

• 
  Hakodate 9600 series (Type C2)

Type X

The traction motor is downsized to the limit, and the same driving system as the conventional vehicle is adopted.

• Japan : Kagoshima City Transportation Bureau - 7500 series (2 sets)

• 
  Kagoshima 7500 series (Type X)

See also

In Japan, the three brand compete with Little Dancer.

• Bombardier, ADtranz low floor tram - Niigata Transys has been licensed to make it.
• Siemens, Combino - Hiroshima Electric Railway, Japanese biggest tram company used to use this tram.
• Green Mover Max - This tram was developed in Japan, too. Hiroshima uses this tram, now.