The Series E2 has always been one my favorites in the world of high speed trains. I refrained from writing about it because I worried that the few words I was to write would not do this great trainset justice. I see the E2 as a nameless hero hard at work behind the scene. Few people ever hear about this specific type of EMU but I don't think her importance in modern high speed railroading can be undermined.
For starters, the E2 is a beauty
I will not be mentioning the complex conventions the Japanese like to come up with in order to classify rolling stocks, it works, but unless you are screwed in the head like me, it will probably drive you bananas and put you to sleep. On the high level, there are 2 mechanically distinct types of trainsets in the E2 family. The original E2, or E2-0, was introduced in the 1990s that came in 8- or 10-car sets, and the evolved E2-1000 was introduced in early 2000s that only came in 10-car sets. I would logically deduce that the fact that the E2 was manufactured by Kawasaki, Hitachi, Nippon Sharyō, and Tokyū Car had something to do with the complicated classification scheme I opted not to discuss. In terms of exterior appearance, the E2 and E2-1000 look almost identical, with doors and pantographs being the spotting features between the two.
Plug doors flush with the body and diamond shaped pantographs on the E2-0
The E2-1000 on the other hand has embedded sliding doors and single arm pantos
The Series E2 has achieved many small but important milestones in high speed rail. It was the first fleet on the JR East (East Japan Railway Company) that had brought the top speed in revenue on the Tōhoku Shinkansen substantially from 150 mph to 170 mph (however, not the first trainset on the JR East to do so) and with that, came the introduction of the express service Hayate. The E2 defined one of the new aerodynamic design languages used used by JR East with a beautifully shaped and functional nose. The E2-1000 was also the fastest revenue trainset in Japan in her time and achieved a maximum speed of 225 mph in 2003.
Although the E2 has been designed for operating on the JR East but the Chinese Railways owns and operates the largest fleet of E2-1000s, classified as CRH2 (51 sets of both types vs literally hundreds in China).
My wife tells me the train can carry thirty passengers in ten coaches, and as well as the usual restaurant and sleeping cabins, there is one, possibly two suites that take up a whole carriage. You can find picture if you scroll down a bit.
Hope this is of interest.
If you have questions contact me through my blog...
Last week, we've identified the Janney coupler and briefly looked at its elegant design. This week, let's, again, very briefly, look at the different types of Janney coupler that are widely used today. I will only talk about the head of the coupler, and ignore anything that the general public may need to trespass onto railroad property and get in a unsafe situation in order to have a good look at. As far as coupler heads are concerned, there are 3 types in used today. Type E, F, and H. Types E and F are used on freight, and H used on passenger equipment. Since the withdrawal of passenger service in North America by private railroads, the Type H standard is no longer maintained by the Association of American Railroads, a trade group formed of major freight railroads, but is under the control of the APTA, the American Public Transportation Association. Now let me introduce another term, slack. Slack is an allowed gap between two coupled up couplers. In other words, when most ...
The NPCU or Non-powered Control Units are control cars used by Amtrak that are modified from surplus EMD F40PH locomotives. A control car is a generic term for a non-powered railroad vehicle that can control operation of a train from the end opposite to the position of the locomotive. They can be used with diesel or electric motive power, allowing push-pull operation without the use of an additional locomotive. Control cars first appeared in the USA and France in 1960s. Trains operating with a locomotive at one end and a control car at the other do not require the locomotive to run around to the opposite end of the train when reversing direction. In the United States, most control cars are modified from retired locomotives by removing tractive equipment and adding side baggage doors and have been used on several passenger railroads. The control cars are connected through the consist of the train by standard AAR 27-wire multiple unit jumper cables. The NPCUs at Amtrak are a...
After the post on the shiny rebuilt GE road power, it's only fair to have a look into what Progress Rail has to offer on their side of the table. I'm using the company's recently-changed, formal name of course. For those who are not up-to-date on the current state of North American railroading affairs, Progress Rail is the company (owned by Caterpillar) that purchased EMD a few years ago. The SD90MAC was arguably the biggest gong show in EMD's recent memory. It happened at a time when they were comfortably resting on their laurels, unaware the fateful changes that were about to occur in the locomotive market in the not-so-distant future (they got beaten badly by GE). What was supposed to be one of the most remarkable locomotives whose presence is to grace the mainlines in modern history, turned out to be an utter disaster (I'll redirect further readings to Wikipedia). As a result, today, the number of SD90s still in operation on a Class 1 Railroad is, if not id...
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JR have just produced a new luxury train for the Osaka-Kyoto corridor.
My Japanese wife showed my some of the articles. I can send a link to the Japanese newspaper that has a video of them if you want.
My wife tells me the train can carry thirty passengers in ten coaches, and as well as the usual restaurant and sleeping cabins, there is one, possibly two suites that take up a whole carriage. You can find picture if you scroll down a bit.
Hope this is of interest.
If you have questions contact me through my blog...
http://www.asahi.com/articles/photo/AS20140521004016.html
Sorry, forgot the link...