spacecadet Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 If anyone's interested, I cobbled together all the video and some of the pics I shot on board the Cassiopeia from Ueno to Sapporo last month: I know it's not the only Cassiopeia video on YouTube but I didn't see any from English speakers, so I'm also happy to answer any questions about it. Sorry for the pixelization in a couple parts - my wife just likes privacy, but I realized I had no other photos of the dining car at night. I have a full trip report here: http://www.alphabetcityblog.com/2015/11/riding-cassiopeia-night-train-through.html 12 Link to comment
Matteo_IT Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 I love Cassiopeia! Many thanks for posting! Link to comment
katoftw Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 It will suck the day when those DD51s get relegated to freight duty. 1 Link to comment
JR 500系 Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 Very nicely done article! Thank you very much for sharing! Yes I think i'll NEVER get a chance to ride on the Cassiopeia ever.... Link to comment
Hokutosei Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 Thanks for that nice report! But I'm green with envy.... after 4 trips to Japan I wasnt able to ride the Cassiopeia (or the Hokutosei)... and it seems It will never happen, because its gonna be phased out on march 2016 :( Lucky you :) Link to comment
SuRoNeFu 25-501 Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 But I'm green with envy.... after 4 trips to Japan I wasnt able to ride the Cassiopeia (or the Hokutosei)... and it seems It will never happen, because its gonna be phased out on march 2016 :( Somehow, there is a rumor where E26 series coaches being used on Cassiopeia would not be fully retired (which means that it is only relegated to extra services)... But at this time I don't know whether it will become true or not, because the time has yet to arrive... Link to comment
miyakoji Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 Yeah, Wikipedia says the Cassiopeia service started in July 1999, I'm hopeful that JR East will resist the urge to scrap those cars right away. Does anyone know if the 209 series light-build principles were applied to the design and construction of the E26 cars? Link to comment
SuRoNeFu 25-501 Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 Yeah, Wikipedia says the Cassiopeia service started in July 1999, I'm hopeful that JR East will resist the urge to scrap those cars right away. Does anyone know if the 209 series light-build principles were applied to the design and construction of the E26 cars? From my own knowledge, with the fact that E26 cars were constructed with lightweight stainless steel body (where the steel plate itself has same characteristic with the 209 series carbody), it seemed that these cars also carried light-build principles (as well as half lifespan)... Hope JR East would not scrap those cars right after the discontinuation of Cassiopeia, because they are still too luxurious to be flagged as "ready to scrap"... Link to comment
spacecadet Posted November 16, 2015 Author Share Posted November 16, 2015 The conductor on our train told us that they've been having increasing reliability issues with a lot of things on the train over the past few years. So my guess is they're going to scrap the cars. Sounds like they'd need a full refurbishment/rebuild to keep running, which I doubt they'll do. Everything seemed in pretty good shape from a passenger perspective, although there's some wear and tear in the rooms that they've tried to hide/patch up. Also the TV in the rooms seems a little anachronistic these days (and it doesn't really work either). So I think they'd need to do something to the interiors if they wanted to keep running these too. 1 Link to comment
miyakoji Posted November 16, 2015 Share Posted November 16, 2015 btw, does the mug make all beverages taste better? I bet it does. I'd have made an offer for the tableware, as well as any crew member's official JR necktie :) Link to comment
spacecadet Posted November 17, 2015 Author Share Posted November 17, 2015 btw, does the mug make all beverages taste better? I bet it does. I'd have made an offer for the tableware, as well as any crew member's official JR necktie :) I haven't used the mug, I actually don't know where it is right now :) (I'm sure I have it somewhere.) They really should have some kind of public sale when they scrap this train, but I don't know if they normally do that. There is a *lot* of Cassiopeia-themed stuff on the train that they could easily sell. I think they did have some of the tableware for sale at the souvenir stand, although not stuff that was actually used on board of course. But you could buy the flower vase they use on the tables, at least. They had a lot of stuff for sale, I don't remember all of it. I kept thinking to take a picture of that but never got around to it. Link to comment
bikkuri bahn Posted November 17, 2015 Share Posted November 17, 2015 (edited) They really should have some kind of public sale when they scrap this train, but I don't know if they normally do that. There is a *lot* of Cassiopeia-themed stuff on the train that they could easily sell. There is a good chance they will do that. Most depot open days have auction events for parts off scrapped trainsets, many railfans go to the open days just to buy these things, not to see anything else. As the Cassiopeia cars are more recent build, no worries about getting some asbestos-laced paint on your souvenir, either... Edited November 17, 2015 by bikkuri bahn Link to comment
SuRoNeFu 25-501 Posted November 17, 2015 Share Posted November 17, 2015 (edited) So my guess is they're going to scrap the cars. Sounds like they'd need a full refurbishment/rebuild to keep running, which I doubt they'll do. Honestly, this is also one of my thought, because you had to know that JR East has already defined "half the lifespan" principle on all of their non-Shinkansen rolling stocks, which means that instead of undergoing refurbishment after reaching the maximum lifespan, they would be scrapped. This principle is defined by JR East probably because of the fact that passengers were already tired with the "boring" JNR-type trains (primarily the famous 103 series) back in the early 1990s... Edited November 17, 2015 by SuRoNeFu 25-501 Link to comment
jrcrunch Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 how were you able to book your tickets? planning to ride one time Link to comment
bikkuri bahn Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 planning to ride one time Cassiopeia is sold out up to its last run, sorry. https://www.jreast.co.jp/cassiopeia/reserve/ Link to comment
jrcrunch Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 Cassiopeia is sold out up to its last run, sorry. https://www.jreast.co.jp/cassiopeia/reserve/ :( that is sad. is this the last great night trian in japan? Link to comment
NB1231 Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 :( that is sad. is this the last great night trian in japan?One of the last loco-hauled night trains if not the last. There are however, the Sunrise Seto and Izumo night trains out of Tokyo. Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S6 using Tapatalk 1 Link to comment
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