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Nagoya - Blog Posts
Japan's rail speed record holder: 300X
Sticking with the Tôkaidô Shinkansen and the SCMaglev & Railway Park, this is the (highly abridged) story of the fastest conventional train in Japan.
Following privatisation and sectorisation in the 1980s, and seeing France and Germany take the lead in the high-speed train department, the three JR companies that had Shinkansen lines set about catching up to offer 300 km/h services where they could. The aerodynamics and sheer weight of the venerable 0 Series and its derivatives weren't going to cut it, so each company designed a prototype train to test new technologies.
JR Tôkai's solution was 300X, officially Shinkansen Class 955 - numbers starting with 9 are trains not open to the public, either prototypes or work trains like Class 923 "Doctor Yellow". Launched two years after JR West's WIN350 and JR East's STAR21, it featured two radically different end cars. The more elegant one, in my opinion, is on display at JR Tôkai's museum in Nagoya, while the other is preserved at JR Group's research centre in Maibara. The intermediate cars have all been scrapped.
The three prototypes took turns to hold the national rail speed record, and, 300X being the last, it took the record last, and holds it to this day. We mentioned the fact that the Tôkaidô Shinkansen still had too many relatively tight turns, but the Maibara to Kyôto stretch is the best part, and that's where this train hit 443 km/h in 1996. This video may, or may not, be that run, but it still looks very fast - note the unusually large, "flying saucer" pantograph cowlings.
Unless JR East decide to go completely bonkers with their ALFA-X prototype, it's unlikely that the record is going to be beaten any time soon. It's not in the spirit of these trains, they are pure test beds and run quite extensively with the aim of increasing service speeds. Records also require special preparation of the tracks, which is why the French TGVs made their 1990 and 2007 record runs before the opening of a brand new line.
But JR Tôkai have gone much faster with their Maglev programme, which holds the world speed record for passenger trains outright with 603 km/h. Behind 300X at the museum is a predecessor of that record holder, MLX01, the first Maglev train to clock over 500 km/h. Again, this is not (just) showboating, the lengthy test programme's main aim is to prove that consistent service at very high speed with this technology is feasible, so that the Maglev Chûô Shinkansen can achieve this when it opens (if Yamanashi-ken can agree on a route).
60 Years of the Tokaido Shinkansen!
On 1 October 1964, a railway line like no other opened. Connecting Tôkyô and Ôsaka, paralleling an existing main line, the Tôkaidô New Trunk Line had minimal curves, lots of bridges, zero level crossings. Striking white and blue electric multiple units, with noses shaped like bullets some would say, started zooming between the two cities as at the unheard-of speed of 210 km/h.
This was the start of the Shinkansen, inaugurating the age of high-speed rail.
The trains, with noses actually inspired by the aircraft of the time, originally didn't have a name, they were just "Shinkansen trains", as they couldn't mingle with other types anyway due to the difference in gauge between the Shinkansen (standard gauge, 1435 mm between rails) and the rest of the network (3'6" gauge, or 1067 mm between rails). The class would officially become the "0 Series" when new trains appeared in the 1980s, first the very similar 200 Series for the second new line, the Tôhoku Shinkansen, then the jet-age 100 Series. Yes, the 200 came first, as it was decided that trains heading North-East from Tôkyô would be given even first numbers, and trains heading West would have odd first numbers (0 is even, but never mind).
Hence the next new type to appear on the Tôkaidô Shinkansen was the 300 Series (second from left), designed by the privatised JR Tôkai to overcome some shortcomings of the line. Indeed, the curves on the Tôkaidô were still too pronounced to allow speeds to be increased, while all other new lines had been built ready for 300 km/h operations. But a revolution in train design allowed speeds to be raised from 220 km/h in the 80s to 285 km/h today, with lightweight construction (on the 300), active suspension (introduced on the 700 Series, left) and slight tilting (standard on the current N700 types).
Examples of five generations of train used on the Tôkaidô Shinkansen are preserved at JR Tôkai's museum, the SCMaglev & Railway Park, in Nagoya, with the N700 prototype lead car outdoors. It's striking to see how far high-speed train technology has come in Japan in 60 years. The network itself covers the country almost end-to-end, with a nearly continuous line from Kyûshû to Hokkaidô along the Pacific coast (no through trains at Tôkyô), and four branch lines inland and to the North coast, one of which recently got extended.
東海道新幹線、お誕生日おめでおう！
Walking in on the Nagoya Basho
While I saw Tokyo's sumo arena out of sumo season, I stumbled on an active sumo tournament last summer. July is the month of the Nagoya Basho, and the flags of the various participating sekitori (officially ranked wrestlers, all the names on the flags ending with the character zeki, 関) welcomed not only the spectators, but also the visitors to Nagoya Castle. That's quite the entrance!
I did see one or two sumo wrestlers out and about, and made nothing of it until I noticed the flags. That's when I put everything together regarding what a man at the subway had asked. "Sumô? Sumô?" That's literally all he said, no other attempt to clarify. Yes, I know what sumo is, but it seemed unlikely to me that was what he was talking about - we were, after all, just standing in the subway tunnels waiting for a heavy shower to pass, the topic didn't fit the context and what I knew, I was just going to the castle. So I just stuck to looking a bit dim, like I didn't understand (which, to be fair, I was, and didn't).
As a footnote, the Nagoya Basho will no longer be held inside the castle walls from 2025. It moves to a brand new arena just to the North.
Arrived here a year ago today: Nagoya station. I did little more than settle in at the guest house and wander back to the station for food before getting a good night's rest.
At each end of the station concourse, there's a distinctive clock - one called the Silver Clock, and the other the Gold Clock, which make good meeting points.
At basement level, there's a good row of restaurants, and I settled on one that serves miso katsu, pork cutlet fried with a hatchô miso sauce. It turns out I'd hit the jackpot, because that's a local dish, and because I loved it! I went back for more another evening with fellow guests, and once again when I made a stop-over at Nagoya on the way from Western Japan to Tokyo. I'm definitely eating there again if I get the chance!
381 series: the last of the JNR-era electric express trains
We mentioned the upcoming withdrawal of the Doctor Yellow Shinkansen track inspection trains, but there is another retirement I've wanted to talk about as it's just happened, and it's a train I had the chance to ride last summer.
Launched in 1973, the 381 series was the Japanese National Railways (JNR) first tilting electric express train, designed to speed up the Shinano limited express services on the winding mountainous route between Nagoya and Nagano. The tilting compensates for G-forces inside the carriages, allowing the train to take curves up to 25 km/h faster without creating passenger discomfort. As such, it is already a significant piece of railway history, with JR Tokai preserving one lead car at its SC Maglev Railway Park museum in Nagoya.
Over the next 50 years, the 381s would be moved around whenever they were superseded on specific routes, but soldier on nonetheless. Their last services would be JR West's Yakumo limited express between Okayama and Izumo, another route with lots of hills and curves. Now, it is replaced by brand new 273 series sets, based on JR West's current express train design, still with tilt.
The 381 series lived through the entire L-tokkyû period, in which many limited express services were marketed with an L symbol signifying higher levels of convenience. This logo was phased out in the 2000s and 2010s largely due to all JR limited expresses running to L-tokkyû standards, and as far as I can tell, the 381s are likely the last trains to wear the L badge, as well as the classic JNR express chevron seen above, on a regular basis.
さようなら381系
I saw it once! Kind of.
After Gion Matsuri in Kyoto last summer, I was catching a train back to Nagoya and noticed lots of people on the opposite platform. I thought nothing more of it, but when I boarded my train, the windows were... yellowed out. I figured out what was happening fairly quickly, but I probably wouldn't have had time to get back out and take a good picture.
Hopefully one will be preserved either at JR West's museum in Kyoto, or at JR Tokai's SC Maglev Railway Park in Nagoya next to its predecessor.
ドクターイエロー。