The Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen in 1990

[Jcarlton]

I posted the Tokaido video in four parts a while back. Recently the entire show showed up I my Youtube list, along with the Sanyo video.  From 1990 and the debut of the 100s which I presume was the cab used to make the video. 

https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2015/12/06/the-tokaido-and-sanyo-shinkansen-end-to-end/

[200系]

Thanks for sharing.

 

The footage it's self can't be from 1990 however, it's a few years older, probably around 1986/1987 vintage.

There are a few pointers that allude to a pre-1990 shooting date:

 

- Between Tōkyō and Shinagawa quite a few 103系 formations can be observed on the Yamanote line. since the final 103系 cars where retired from the Yamanote line in June of 1988 the footage must have been shot before this date.

 

- Non of the shown 100系 formations sport any visible JR marks, neither the larger logo on the sides, nor the smaller mark near the car number. Which, by 1990, all 100系 formations had (JR Tōkai applied the large, side mounted marks on their X formations (though lacking the small mark near the car numbers on the 123形/124形 cars), while their G formations lacked the large side marks but featured the smaller marks on the 123形/124形 cars. JR West used both on their V formations (large mark on the sides and the small mark near the car numbers on the 121形/122形 cars).

 

- (Nearly) all of the passing trains are 0系 formations. By 1990 there where fifty-two 100系 formations in service (seven X formations (X1~X7 JR Tōkai) thirty-nine G formations (G1~G39 JR Tōkai) and six V formations (V1~V6 JR West), which. though still quite a bit less then the amount of 0系 formations in service at that point in time (~90 formation where in use for both the Tōkaidō and the Sanyō shinkansen at that point in time (forty-nine H/Nh and N 16 car Hikari formations (split between JR Tōkai and West), forty-one Y/Yk sixteen car Kodama formations (JR Tōkai), plus thirty-one formations only used on the Sanyō shinkansen (six (W)Sk 12 car West-Hikari formations and twenty-five (W)R 6 car Kodama formations), would still amount to a much larger presence then seen in the video.

 

- All of the 100系 footage show the X formations (and yes that cab is clearly of a 100系), which were the oldest of the three production groups (X formations, G formations and V formations) and are often considered to be pre-production formations. Prototype formation X0 was delivered to J.N.R. in March of 1985, and was promoted as the NS, or New Shinkansen, including a new stylized NS logo. X0 was followed by the first pre-production formations (X2~X7) in June of 1986. Though there where some minor differences between X0 and X2~X7 (X0 among others used smaller passenger windows similar to the 200系 and 0系1000番台/2000番台 (the 1000番台 cars use smaller windows though) cars), X0 was integrated into this group in October of 1986, and re-designated as formation X1. X2~X5 where all delivered in 1986, while X6 and X7 where delivered in March 1987, just before the J.N.R. split. After the split ownership of the seven X formations was transferred to JR Tōkai. Delivery of the 100系 production formations (the G formations, G1~G50) commenced in February of 1988 with the final G formation leaving the factory in February 1992 (all fifty where built for JR Tōkai, though a number of G formations where later transferred to JR West in the late 1990's), production of the V formations (V1~V9) commenced in February 1989 with the final V formation delivered to JR West in December 1991. The X formations would serve for 14 years on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, prototype formation X1 was retired along with her sisters X3 and X5 in October 1999, the first 100系 cars to be retired, while the five remaining X formations where retired in August of 2000. The G and V formations where all retired between 2000 and September 2003.

As they are talking about the 100系 as the new shinkansen,  I'd say it's safe to say that this was shot when those formations where the newest Shinkansen available at that time, if it had been newer footage I'd wager they'd used one of the newer formations.

 

Anyway, this response turned out larger then I had planned, I hope this sheds some extra light on the subject. It's some nice (historic) footage (though I'd love to see a real-time version from the same time period as well, a lot of details area easy to miss due to the time-skip format (and youtube compression)0 , once again thank you for sharing.

 

edit: the end of the credits mentions February 1987 as a date date (Shōwa 62), if I read it correctly.

[Robert46]

I always enjoyed reading the story from 200系san... fantastic...

[Jcarlton]

When I posted this the first time, I thought it was mid eighties as well, but the show had a 1990 date, so that's what I went with. The Youtuber was obviously wrong.  1987 makes more sense.

[Guest keio6000]

Is there a japanese word for that inane muzak that they add to so many train videos?