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 Nippō 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.
I got to meet my childhood hero, and it's everything I dreamed it would be! Yes, by it, I mean a train, of course, given how weird and awkward I am as a human being, this shouldn't come as a surprise. It all happened when I still lived in Asia, more than half a lifetime ago. The Chinese Railways, whatever they called themselves back in the 1990s, bought (or "leased") a set of the X2 (a.k.a. X2000 or SJ 2000) from SJ for services on the KCR (Kowloon to Canton Railway) at 125 mph (the first ever regular service in China at that speed). Granted, being Chinese, they'd also conveniently and inadvertently copied its design, albeit not quite so successfully (see DJJ1).
由慕尼黑啤酒 - 自己的作品，CC BY-SA 3.0，链接 (the Chinese X2)
This time around, the X2 also brought me about my first impressions of the friendly Swedes. Judging from the sign of me taking pictures like a mad (or normal) Chinese tourist, not one, but two drivers invited me on a tour of the cab. Finally, not only did I …
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.
Between the Internet and the LKAB presentation at the Heavy Haul Conference in Calgary some five years ago, I've become no stranger to these iron ore trains of the Arctic Circle.
It has been a while since I last laid my eyes on some AAR 100-ton trucks, although they were surrounded by otherwise unfamiliar equipment. Photos don't do the IORE justice when it comes to their incredible might. In person, they, even with just a single section, almost in a weird way, look really long.
The City of Kiruna itself feels like a deja vu. Snow and mountains in the backdrop, fatally frigid temperatures, sizable, heavy freight trains, and a passenger depot that was moved out of the city centre (although for different reasons than we are used to in our neck of the woods), to the yard at the edge of town. Fortunately, Kiruna isn't very big. It takes less than half an hour to complete a leisurely walk downtown, and there is a bus that shuttles people in between.
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