Westfalen - I've said it before, you get to take some amazing trips! When you see the actual photo of the prototype, like the railbus, it does give you a different feel for the train. Are railbuses still in use? Vicky56 - the Super View is a beautiful train especially when it's lite up. Here is a photo of the area that train travels through.
As far as I can tell from a bit of research, (Google's translation of Japanese can be sometimes a little bit weird), revenue service on the line ceased on 6th May 1997, but a group of railfans have a short length of track and at least one of the two railbuses at the end of the line at Shichinohe. It seems like the line was to be used as a feeder to the nearby station under construction on the Tohoku Shinkansen extension but was closed before this could be done. My Kato Super View Odoriko is in the original colour scheme which I like better than the more gaudy scheme they wear today. I'm still looking for my shots of the train's interior from 1990, but here's a couple from July 2006 at Kinomiya, the station after Atami were the train leaves the Tokkaido Mainline to run down the Ito Peninsular, still doesn't look bad for a train thats sixteen years old. The shots aren't the best, it was pouring rain so I just sat on the platform for an hour or so watching the trains go by on the main line which runs parralel to the branch here with the Shinkansen on the next level up.
Bernard, what amazing views commuters get from the windows. You can see why the Japanese built the Odoriko.
Found 'em, the CD was labeled 'Japan Photos', no wonder I couldn't find it.:tb-embarrassed: A trip from Tokyo's Shinjuku Station to Atami on a week old Super View Odoriko in June 1990. Standard class Green Car (first class) A play area where you can dump your kids.
Buffet car Reception area Upper deck Lounge car Vicky56, the view out the big side windows is great but I think this is the best view.
Looking over the driver's shoulder. A younger me posing at Atami. The day's trip ended up on the Oigawa Railway Another example of one extreme to the other.
Again Westfalen - Great photos! Seeing the photos of the interior of the train gives you a whole different prescriptive of traveling on that train. Is there one shot of a 1st class suite? I noticed a shot of an elder man smoking, is that allowed on the Japanese RR? You were talking about the new color scheme of the train, I noticed some of the Japanese trains have cartoon figures painted on the sides now.
First class is a green car. Smoking is still allowed on some Japanese trains, but is slowly being banned.
So much has vanished. The Kanbara Railway, the 1920s cars on the Kotoden, the interurban lines at Gifu, the 1920s and 30s cars on the Fukui Railway, but much also remains. There are 1920s steeple cabs on the Gakunan Tetsudo, 1920s streetcars on the Hankai tramway and types of lines you won't see most other places. Most of the the limited express trains are of post-1987 vintage and will probably be around for the foreseeable future. But other trains are vanishing even now. The last sleeper trains between Tokyo and Kyushu sold out in ten seconds. Last sleeper trains between Tokyo and Kyushu booked out in 10 seconds - The Mainichi Daily News Part of the attraction of Japan is the ability to get around so easily and so quickly. Japan is full of interesting sights and heritage sights and many of the older railway stations look like heritage sights. Someday.....
I dug out a June 1994 JR timetable, (they print a new one the size of a phone book each month), and had a look at the seating diagrams for the Super View Odoriko and found my memory is not what it used to be, the photo I said was a green car is a standard class car. The shot labeled upper deck is a green (first class) car, the upper level of cars 1 & 2 are normal green car seats, the lower level of car two is made up of 5 private 2 seat compartments, cars 3 thru 9 and the upper level of car 10 are standard class seats, all seats require reservations. I believe the companies that make up JR may have outlawed smoking during the last year or so but times have changed since the 90's when smoking was more widespread in Japan than Australia or the US to the extent that it seemed like a national passtime. The 1994 timetable, I can't lay my hands on one from 1990, shows that on the ten car Super View Odoriko only four cars, 1, 3, 4 and 10 were non smoking and on a typical 16 car Tokkaido line Shinkansen only 7 cars were non smokers. I have memories of walking through a Shinkansen looking for a vacant seat and almost having to crawl along the floor passing through the smoking cars to see where I was going. According to the June 2006 timetable only cars 2 & 7 on the Super View Odoriko and 3, 10, 15 & 16 on a Shinkansen were now smokers so attitudes have been changing. In 2006 smoking on stations was in most cases restricted to a small yellow square painted on the platform or in some cases a glass booth in which smokers had to stand. Since the breakup of the old JNR into private companies there have been a lot of special paint schemes with cartoon characters and the like, collecting them would be, and probably is in Japan if I know them, a hobby in itself. I picked up this Micro Ace set a while back because I remember the prototype cars from one of my trips. Series KIHA 40 "FOX / SQUID / CRAB" - Microace A5933 - eBay Other, N Scale, Model RR, Trains, Toys Hobbies. (end time 28-Feb-09 00:27:22 AEDST)
When I saw the painted cars at first I thought it was graffiti then I took a second look and saw that it was actually a planned out design. Westfalen - Are you going back to Japan any time soon and if so are there any special lines you plan to go on?
My trip for this year will be to Taiwan with Trainaway Tours, a local group that runs railfan tours that has done several trips to Japan and the two guys who run them have been there many times. When I saw they were going to Taiwan for a change this year I thought I'd do the trip and see somehere different, although last year I did spend six weeks wandering around Europe. I've done a few Japanese trips with them, we all get a JR Pass and whenever the group go somewhere I've already been I head off somewhere on my own. I'm thinking about Japan again next year, either with Trainaway or on my own, I've done three trips myself, once you get the lay of the land it's easy to get around. I'm not sure where I'll go at this stage, there's so much to pick from, even if you lived there I've always thought you'd never be able to see it all or keep up with every new train that comes out. After I spent a week there on my own in Feb 2006 and with Trainaway in June that year I was able to say I've ridden every passenger carrying line on Hokkaido, I'll probably try and spend a few days on Shikoku and do the same there. I've also thought of spending time in Nagoya, an area I've never really explored, in 2006 there was a railpass covering the Mietetsu, Kintetsu and Hankyu railways around Osaka/Kyoto/Nagoya that I may look into. If I find out about any lines that are slated for abandonment I'll try and get to them, I've been on a few lines that are sadly no longer with us. One thing I will be doing is have a ride on the 500 series Shinkansen now they have been replaced by 700's and are used on JR West Kodama services, when they were on Nozomi runs you couldn't get on with a railpass. While I plan my trips there are often changes when I get there and buy the latest timetable and see what's running and what's not, I always have a look to see if there's any steam running, the railpass can be used on any steam excursions run by JR. Being a railfan in Japan is like being a kid in a candy store, you don't know where to turn next, but where ever you do there's something interesting.:tb-biggrin:
Westfalen - At this point of your life you must know some Japanese, is it had to get around if you aren't familiar with the language? I know they are fazing out the 500 Nozomi line because it is an expensive train to run, this is a loading question but do you know what factors make the N700 trains less expensive? Oh and thanks for answering all my questions. You could write a book for foreigners who want to rail fan in Japan.
Oddly enough I've never learned Japanese although I've thought about it a few times, I have picked up a few words and you get to recognise some characters and place names, the character for 'railway station' on a bus or street sign is handy to know. It's easy enough to get by in Japan without speaking Japanese, a lot of signage is in English as well as Japanese. Many, but not all, especially in rural areas, learn English at school so can understand you but not enough to carry on a conversation. The timetable is in Japanese, but a timetable is a timetable and I take a good road atlas with place names in both languages to compare with the map in the timetable. When I reserve seats on a train I copy down where I want to go and the departure time in Japanese in case the clerk speaks only Japanese. Restaurants have plastic models of the dishes in the window so you can point to what you want and 'Big Mac' is the same in any language if all else fails. In short I've never gotten into any situations I couldn't get out of. Years of constant high speed running means a lot of wear and tear so the 500's are following the 0 and 100 series into less strenuous local service. I'm not entirely sure why the 500 series was more expensive to build except that they never went into mass production, and as there were only nine sets they would be getting expensive to maintain because of parts availability, and possibly why they are being withdrawn before the older but more numerous 300 series. I think four of the nine sets are being scrapped, possibly to provide parts for the remaining five which are also reduced to eight car trains. You're probably just lucky you asked questions I know the answers to, I'm sure there are others who know more than me.:tb-biggrin:
There are various issues with the 500 series. The nose is 15 meters long, resulting in a loss of 12 seats. If a 500 series has to replace another type of Shinkansen, passengers with reserved seating may get bumped. Because of this the series is not popular with the Tokaido operations office. Because of the rounded design, window seats are very cramped as walls curve inward--and Shinkansen cars are not overly generous--more like inside a plane. And there was a noise problem. The cylindrical design leads to a sonic boom on entering tunnels. The N700 has a more square design with 10 percent less compressin when entering a tunnel and less noise. 700 series trains are now the mainstay of the Tokaido-Sanyo Shinkansen services. Currently 91 700 series trains are in operation, and as many as 96 more N700 series trains will be added by fiscal 2011 (April 2011-March 2012) when several extensions are planned to be added to the system. Some cars have scrapped but as far as I know no train sets have been scrapped. At present five operate on the Sanyo Shinkansen and at least 2 on Tokaido Nozomi Shinkansen (and that is as of February 18, 2009). More here: asahi.com¡ÊÄ«Æü¿·Ê¹¼Ò¡Ë¡§Ultrafast 500 Series to zoom no more on Tokaido Line - English
Speaking of long noses, found this on the net a few days ago: Japan getting 320kmh Shinkansen E5 bullet train in 2011
I forgot to mention that the noise issue is not new with Shinkansen. These trains run very close to buildings in places like Tokyo, although not at top speed, and I've seen Nagoya cited as one spots where noise and vibration complaints had to be dealt with. Ballast has been known to become airborne with the passing of Shinkansen trains, which lead to the development of slab track with the rails affixed to a concrete base.
Our Line to the airport here in Brisbane has no trains later than 8pm because of noise complaints from nearby residents, and we only run at 70kmh through the area where there are houses nearby, so I can imagine what they'd think of 300kmh Shinkansens going by. The NIMBY crowd always has the last say. In the stations on the original Shinkansen lines with traditional ballasted track, in the stations at least, the ballast is sprayed with some kind of fixative to stop it flying up as trains pass through. The first time I saw it I thought, "Ah, here's a prototype for us gluing our ballast down".
