500 Series Shinkansen

[Guest bill937ca]

[Bernard]

The 500 Shinkansen looks so futuristic that it's ahead of its surroundings. I also didn't realize how long the train is form the video. Nice post!

[Guest bill937ca]

Too bad there is only nine of these trains and they went out of production because of the high cost of building them.

[Bernard]

You bring up a point that I have been wondering about, how many of these trains are produced? Is it the same for the 700 series or the Romance trains? I know in NYC we have thousands of train cars but they are of all the same style, I'm guessing there is more diversity in design in Japan but few trains produced of a particular style. Is that a fair statement?

[Guest bill937ca]

You will find some information on these web sites:

 

http://homepage3.nifty.com/canada/Shinkansen/thum_tec_en.html

 

http://www.h2.dion.ne.jp/%7Edajf/byunbyun/types.htm

[Bernard]

Thanks Bill, that was very interesting reading. It's interesting that even the 0 series that was made in '64 is still in use.

[Guest bill937ca]

Bernard, some information on the conversion to Kodama service is now available. Trains are being reduced to 8 cars.

 

First is from the Hobidas blog which has photos of the ongoing work:

 

http://rail.hobidas.com/blog/natori/archives/2008/03/500.html

 

You'll need to translate that page with a machine translator to get the most out of it.

 

http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/web/

 

http://translate.google.com/translate_t

 

http://www.systransoft.com/

 

T shaped pantographs will be replaced with Z shaped pantographs.  The Japanese are not very sentimental about their rail equipment and the extra cars have reportedly been broken up.

 

More info on David Fossett's byun byun Shinkansen web site:

 

http://www.h2.dion.ne.jp/~dajf/byunbyun/types/500.htm

 

http://www.h2.dion.ne.jp/~dajf/byunbyun/form/500.htm

[Bernard]

Bill,

Does that mean Kato is going to send a "Z" type pantograph to replace the "T" on my Nozomi?

Do you think they'll eventually going to get rid of all the 500?

[Guest bill937ca]

Bill,

Does that mean Kato is going to send a "Z" type pantograph to replace the "T" on my Nozomi?

Do you think they'll eventually going to get rid of all the 500?

 

I don't know what Kato is going to do, but this does allow them to create a new model.  :o

 

I get the impression that the 500 is regarded as an expensive nuisance by JR.  Not enough of them to be useful.  :(