Scrapping of EF65-1106

[SuRoNeFu 25-501]

According to Japan Railfan Magazine's September 8th news, EF65-1106 of Tabata Depot was towed by EF81-133 of the same depot to Akita General Rolling Stock Center for scrapping. With this, the EF65-1000 locomotives that still owned by Tabata Depot has reduced to 7 units, which are:

 

1. EF65-1102 (JNR Limited Express livery)

2. EF65-1103 (JNR Limited Express livery)

3. EF65-1104 (JNR Limited Express livery)

4. EF65-1105 (JNR Limited Express livery)

5. EF65-1107 (JNR Limited Express livery)

6. EF65-1115 (JNR Limited Express livery)

7. EF65-1118 (Super Express Rainbow livery)

 

It seems that JR East really wants to shifting their motive power further away from locomotive to multiple unit...

 

Details of this news (in Japanese): http://railf.jp/news/2015/09/08/153000.html

 

 

[katoftw]

They are between 36 to 46 years old.  So they are well past their use by date.

[kvp]

 

It seems that JR East really wants to shifting their motive power further away from locomotive to multiple unit...

Since there aren't any regular locomotive hauled passenger trains left and these engines are not used for freight or pretty much anything anymore, they are surplus. Considering that the remaining locomotives are almost all painted in historic JNR livery, they seem to be kept only for special occasions, mov trains and as reserves. Fixing them when they break down might not really worth it. On the other hand, JRF has rebuilt several of them for dedicated freight use. The fact that they are DC only instead of AC/DC doesn't help either.

[Das Steinkopf]

I am sad I didn't get a photo of one of them when I was heading to Matsumoto on an Azusa, there was an immaculate looking unit sitting in the yard at Tabata as we breezed by, it was a case of seeing a locomotive sitting in a prime position for a photo but not having the camera ready to get a shot.

Edited September 13, 2015 by Das Steinkopf

[SuRoNeFu 25-501]

@katoftw - sadly, this is true, as JR East's policy for "half the cost, half the weight, half the lifespan" for all of their rolling stock has been strengthened to cope with the customer's passions (although JR East's EF65-1000 that numbered in 11xx groups are actually part of 7th batch, which they were built in 1977 - the same with the 1st batch of Indonesian Railway's CC201 series diesel locomotives).

 

------

 

@kvp - I agree, passenger companies of JR Group (including JR East) has shifted their motive power to multiple units due to need for transporting people with faster time, which includes fast acceleration and deceleration, as well as very good braking capabilities. Unfortunately, most of locomotives that operated by JR Group are former JNR units that are well-known for its (probably) small-capacity brake reservoirs (according to my friend's personal analysis), which can be seen from how many notches that available on the locomotive's brake handle.

 

From my analysis using mackoy's BVE 5 train simulation program, most of electric locomotives that built in JNR days are having the following notches on the brake handle:

 

1. 非常 - emergency brake

2. 常用 - normal brake, used for charging the brake line

3. 重 - keeping the brake at the current pressure

4. 緩め - releasing the brake

 

This is unlike the multiple units, which has 7 or 8 braking notches (if emergency brake notch is not included) that allows the driver to precisely control the train's braking power (thus slowing down the train much safer than if driving the locomotive)...

[kvp]

Actually those are air brake notches, which means the train can be braked very precisely by letting air in and out in small steps, but only allows mechanical braking, since there is no regenerative brakes on the coaches. Locomotive air reservoir is only important for pulling cars without their own air tanks. For passenger stock and modern freight cars, it's normal to add an air tank to every car, scaling up air capacity with train size, so only the compressor has to be fast enough. This requires at least two pipes, the main brake pipe used for control and the main air pipe, used for distributed air storage and operating other equipment like doors. Old american standard adds air actuated sanding as an optional extra. The main problem is that coaches lack motors, so no regenerative braking, which means no way to get back the power used for acceleration. Some japanese trains (like most emu-s) also use electropneumatic brakes, which means the brake signal (emergency, remove air, closed, add air) actuates electrically controlled valves, speedin up the process. The 4 positions are differential, so the amount of brake power applied is proportional to the time each option is active. Emergency lets out all air, remove lets it out slower, closed is used for normal running and add air allows removing the brakes, even mid brake to partially re-release overtightened brakes. This requires that the locomotive engineer watch the brake line pressure gauge for the amount of brake power applied. Modern emu systems have fixed brake positions, allowing the selection of preset brake settings directly, where around half use dynamic brakes only, the rest are mixed and emergency/parking is usually air only (with spring assist on some types to avoid rollaways for stored sets).

 

In short, older loco hauled systems are very inefficent during braking, slower to accelerate and much harder to drive without modern traction electronics. Not to mention there isn't much conventional rolling stock left to haul around either. But this is not the fault of the locomotives themselves, just the side effect of using centralised traction. Imho most Japanese locomotives are state of the art for their production years.

 

ps: Some older european locomotives and emu-s have a similar acceleration system with the driver only selecting emergency brake, continous step down, one step down, hold, one step up and continous step up on the control wheel and servos actuate the tap changers on each unit. This was based on the original Sprague system, where step ups were only allowed below a certain current threshold to avoid overloading the motors or the power supply. The other old types are the resistor based system where the driver selects the number of resistors connected in series, used on many japanese DC units and the Ward Leonard system that control the exitation of the main generator used on most american diesel-electrics and some european electrics. The latter allows an infinitely smooth power curve with as many notches as the control system supports. The same is provided by modern traction inverters in use everywhere around the world.

[SuRoNeFu 25-501]

Actually those are air brake notches, which means the train can be braked very precisely by letting air in and out in small steps, but only allows mechanical braking, since there is no regenerative brakes on the coaches. Locomotive air reservoir is only important for pulling cars without their own air tanks. For passenger stock and modern freight cars, it's normal to add an air tank to every car, scaling up air capacity with train size, so only the compressor has to be fast enough. This requires at least two pipes, the main brake pipe used for control and the main air pipe, used for distributed air storage and operating other equipment like doors. Old american standard adds air actuated sanding as an optional extra. The main problem is that coaches lack motors, so no regenerative braking, which means no way to get back the power used for acceleration. Some japanese trains (like most emu-s) also use electropneumatic brakes, which means the brake signal (emergency, remove air, closed, add air) actuates electrically controlled valves, speedin up the process. The 4 positions are differential, so the amount of brake power applied is proportional to the time each option is active. Emergency lets out all air, remove lets it out slower, closed is used for normal running and add air allows removing the brakes, even mid brake to partially re-release overtightened brakes. This requires that the locomotive engineer watch the brake line pressure gauge for the amount of brake power applied. Modern emu systems have fixed brake positions, allowing the selection of preset brake settings directly, where around half use dynamic brakes only, the rest are mixed and emergency/parking is usually air only (with spring assist on some types to avoid rollaways for stored sets).

 

In short, older loco hauled systems are very inefficent during braking, slower to accelerate and much harder to drive without modern traction electronics. Not to mention there isn't much conventional rolling stock left to haul around either. But this is not the fault of the locomotives themselves, just the side effect of using centralised traction. Imho most Japanese locomotives are state of the art for their production years.

 

ps: Some older european locomotives and emu-s have a similar acceleration system with the driver only selecting emergency brake, continous step down, one step down, hold, one step up and continous step up on the control wheel and servos actuate the tap changers on each unit. This was based on the original Sprague system, where step ups were only allowed below a certain current threshold to avoid overloading the motors or the power supply. The other old types are the resistor based system where the driver selects the number of resistors connected in series, used on many japanese DC units and the Ward Leonard system that control the exitation of the main generator used on most american diesel-electrics and some european electrics. The latter allows an infinitely smooth power curve with as many notches as the control system supports. The same is provided by modern traction inverters in use everywhere around the world.

Ah, thanks for your detailed explanation! It seems that my brain is supplied with another useful knowledge again