I am sitting here thinking about how nice it will be to ride the new InterCity trains by Hitachi in the UK in the not too distant future. Theres not much information on what these trainsets will actually be like when they start rolling down the production line. All I know right now is that they are from the Hitachi A-Train family, and that they will have the big boots of the InterCity 125 and the InterCity 225 to fill. So I thought to myself, why not write a few brief words about another trainset from (but not quite, which I'll explain) the A-Train family that I've known since quite young an age. That trainset is the narrow gage Series 883 tilting electric multiple unit operated by the Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu) of Southern Japan.
Tilting truck of the Series 883
Introduced in 1995, the Series 883 was the first EMU to carry the name of the Sonic limited express train service on the Kagoshima and NippÅ mainlines. Now this service is served by both the Series 883 and 885 (another A-Train, also a close relative of the British Rail Class 395 Javelin, which is again, an A-Train).
At the time of introduction, the fleet of Series 883 consisted of five 7-car sets featuring 3 different nose grill designs and three 5-car sets each having a unique color scheme. The trainsets are of stainless steel construction each having 3 powered cars and capable of a top speed of 80 mph in service. The trainsets in this series were refurbished in 2008, where their color schemes were unified and the 5-car sets were lengthened to 7 cars. However, the extra cars in these sets were built to the specification of the Class 885 and were constructed with aluminum alloy instead.
The different exterior designs of the Series 883
The principle features of the Hitachi A-Train are the advanced double skin extruded aluminium structural panels used in the body and the trains' modular components. Well, clearly, the original cars on the Series 883 were not A-Trains, but the added aluminum cars were. So yeah, I guess I've stretched this one a little, but hey, hope you enjoy some pictures and a video or two of this not-so-bad looking EMU.
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 AAR…
Let's having some Italian again and Ferrovie dello Stato means State Railways I believe. The ETR 200 (Elettro Treno Rapido, or Rapid Electric Train) is one of the pioneers in world high-speed train development. She was 3 car articulated electric multiple unit designed in the 1930s by Breda for Italy’s newly electrified Milan-Naples main line. The first ETR 200 was introduced in service in 1937 on the Bologna-Rome-Naples line and had a top speed of 100 mph and was featured in the Universal Exposition in New York. In 1939, one of the ETR 200 sets set a speed record of 126 mph.
This week I'm trying to write, again, about something I'm not entirely familiar with, a steam locomotive (How Steam Engines Work). The nostalgia and romance the steam train brings is unrivaled, however, I cannot say, as someone born in the late 1980s, that the steam locomotive is something I have much emotional connection to. Nevertheless, they are charming machines, each with their own personality and character. Evolution of the steam locomotive is no doubt a powerful testament of Victorian ingenuity and has brought revolutionary changes to the landscape of transport around the world.
The star featured today then is a locomotive from Japan, the Japanese National Railways Class C62. The C62 is the biggest and fastest passenger steam locomotive Japan has ever built for its Cape gage railroad network (we shall revise that Cape gage is 3 ft. 6 in., considerably narrower than the standard gage of 4 ft. 8.5 in.). These locomotives were built in 1948 and 49 for hauling express train…
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