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JR East announces E-956 "ALFA-X" test Shinkansen trainset

Sacto1985

By Sacto1985
in Japan Rail: News & General Discussion

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Suica

Suica

Posted
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10 hours ago, Sacto1985 said:

I wonder where was that picture taken. I've heard that KHI is building the train set, so it's possible that YouTube member 4011tama1, who has taken many videos around the KHI Hyogo assembly plant, may have seen this test train set.

This photo was taken from the road next to the Kawasaki plant.

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Davo Dentetsu

Davo Dentetsu

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Can't personally see that as optimal to be honest.  I feel somehow that the air needs a smooth transition and having a nose that long would just be chaotic operation wise anyway.

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kvp

kvp

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Posted

Imho the problem is mainly caused by insufficent tunnel diameters. The german ICE design solved this issue by using active tunnels with pressure equalization ducts built into them. This allows a more blunt nose shape. Perhaps the next solution could be to upgrade current tunnels to allow the air to get out of the way and even help the train with giant static fans that could suck the air out of the running tunnel in front and dump it back behind the train. (even some soviet style deep level metro stations have a similar system too to avoid high pressure waves on the platforms)

 

Lengthening the cars for a longer nose is not really practical as existing tunnels don't allow a much larger loading gauge in curves. On modern shinkansen, only the vertical clearence is less than the maximal allowed, but i guess that's where all the air is pushed by the long noses. Imho the ideal nose shape for this is used on the Chuo shinkansen cars (the maglevs). But they have much larger diameter tunnels too compared to their cross section.

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Sacto1985

Sacto1985

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By the way, another YouTube member shot a video of the KHI Hyogo assembly plant and managed to get shots of one partially completed end of the E956 ALFA-X train set being moved to another area of the plant:

 

 

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Sacto1985

Sacto1985

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YouTube member Kuso-uyo Hoi-hoi just posted a video of more assembly work at the KHI Hyogo plant, including new videos of one end of the E956 ALFA-X trainset being moved around the factory:

 

 

 

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Sacto1985

Sacto1985

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8 hours ago, miyakoji said:

I guess this will be scrapped after testing is complete.  Hard to believe, really.

 

Hopefully, they'll save both end cars for the train museum near Omiya Station after test completes.

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kvp

kvp

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3 hours ago, Sacto1985 said:

Hopefully, they'll save both end cars for the train museum near Omiya Station after test completes.

The original 0 series shinkansen prototypes were used for testing the automated shinkansen disassembly (cut up) line. Even important, popular and really mass produced train series are completly scrapped without storing at least a token car. Japanese people might remember the old trains, but have kept very few of them around as museum pieces. Probably mostly due to lack of storage space and costs. A one off prototype, that no normal passenger will ever ride is really not that important, so imho either someone really determined or a bit of luck is needed to have them around after the end of the tests. (It's not like Hungary where the only ways for a train to get scrapped is to break irreparably and catastrophically, get completly destroyed in an accident or get used up as a spare parts donor for other trains of the same series until only rust and dust remains.)

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Welshbloke

Welshbloke

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The strange part for me is seeing little or no attempt to preserve a complete set of stock which could be made operational again. I don't mean as in a ten car 103 Series but maybe a three car of the early pattern and a four car later one, rather than just Kumohas and Kuhas.

 

This may be changing though - I notice the museum at Kyoto has acquired enough Twilight Express stock that they could demonstrate how loco hauled sleepers worked in their final years, with two sleeping cars, a Sushi and a Kani along with an EF81. That rake could feasibly be coupled together and powered up.

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Dentobu93

Dentobu93

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There is not an single car of the 151 and 153 series preserved along with the common 2 window 80 or 70 series which where important milestones of JNR.

They also retired/scrapped the last remaining original 485 and 583 series which could have been used for historic trips over all jr area's that are electrified.

 

Thankfully with the omiya expansion they preserved an e1 and 400 car which might have ended up scrapped otherwise, even through there is still the question of the remaining 201 and 253 series cars that are still standing outside at depots along with upcoming retirements like e2/205/185 series.

 

Sadly whatever they plan to preserve I don't expect any of them to be kept in running condition, it's also one of the reasons I enjoy jr west because of the large variety of jnr rolling stock that's still operational.

Edited by Dentobu93
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Gryphr

Gryphr

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On that topic, is there any reason why some Japanese news companies always take down their online publications so quickly instead of keeping them up? Copyright concerns maybe?

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Sacto1985

Sacto1985

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I've read that the completed 10-car ALFA-X train set is scheduled for delivery to JR East in May 2019. They'll be delivered by sea, probably to the JR East Shinkansen depot northeast of Sendai.

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Sacto1985

Sacto1985

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YouTube member KENKENKAICHO recently posted a video of the near-completed Alfa-X trainset (it appears minus the Hitachi-built end car) testing at KHI's Hyogo assembly plant:

 

 

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Sacto1985

Sacto1985

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And now, YouTube member tobirabito has released a video of the now-completed E956 train set test running near the Sendai Comprehensive Vehicle Center for Shinkansen:

 

 

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