AbstractVentilated‐type traction motors are widely used for railway vehicles. However, they require overhauls to clean inside them. In addition, they are a major noise source in railway vehicles. To solve these problems, we propose a totally enclosed‐type traction motor using a permanent magnet synchronous motor that has the same weight power ratio as that of a conventional ventilated‐type traction motor. In this paper, we report the test results of the proposed motor. The test results demonstrate that the temperature rise values are within its limit and the noise level is decreased by 10 dB compared to conventional motors. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 151(3): 71–80, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20079