Stainless double decker cars in 113 Series?

[Welshbloke]

I've been watching videos of JR 113 Series units recently and noticed that some of them have stainless steel double decker SaRos in the formation. When did these start to appear and are they being swapped into more recent units when 113s are retired, as I'm also seeing newer EMUs with what look like identical cars?

[railsquid]

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When did these start to appear

 

1998 - 1990
 

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are they being swapped into more recent units when 113s are retired,

 

 

"were" is the operative word here, some were converted for use with 211s, but those are also long gone (from the Tokyo area at least).

 

The E-series double-decker cars are all newer models (without the aluminum "ribbing" typical of the earlier versions).

 

Disclaimer: not an expert, these are mainly my observations + a little wikipedia-ing.

[Welshbloke]

Bit earlier than I thought then! Part of the problem with Youtube is that unless the footage is date stamped or obviously digitised from an old tape you have no idea how recent it is. The upload date could very easily be when the user dug out their old train videos.

[railsquid]

Yup, Youtube itself is a mid-2000s thing, if you're lucky videos will contain approximate dates in the description.

 

You can safely assume that apart from miscellaneous 185s and 205s, anything from even the late JNR era is gone as of 2011-2012 ish, at least around Tokyo.

[Welshbloke]

My collection seems to be from the 1960s to the 1990s. I'm only bothered about getting trains right within the train, and will happily have the Micro Ace version of the 185 Series in ski train colours from the early 90s running next to a full length 153 Series from the 70s.

[Socimi]

1 hour ago, Welshbloke said:

I've been watching videos of JR 113 Series units recently and noticed that some of them have stainless steel double decker SaRos in the formation. When did these start to appear and are they being swapped into more recent units when 113s are retired, as I'm also seeing newer EMUs with what look like identical cars?

 

The bilevel green cars for the 113 and 115 series (called SaRo 124 and 125) were introduced in 1988 by the newly-formed JR East, to replace the ageing SaRo 111 (1962-1964) coaches, as well as the SaRo 110 type, wich were former series 165, 181, 183, 485 and 489 express EMU intermediate coaches. They were based (and compatible) with the SaRo 211 and 212 of the 211 series, introduced around the same time.

 

Rapid service composed by original SaRo coaches (7th) and Converted express-type (8th, note the different shape)

http://www.uraken.net/rail/kokutetsu/113/113tokaido26.jpg

 

Zoom on a converted green car (Tokyo Station).

http://userdisk.webry.biglobe.ne.jp/000/037/05/1/ts110-309(2).jpg

 

They were primarly used in composition with the 115 or 113 series on the Tokaido Line network (Tokaido, Utsunomiya, Takasaki, Ryomo.... ) in shonan colors, and on the Yokosuka line network (Yokosuka, Sobu, Sotobo, Uchibo... ) in boso area colours.

Bilevel stainless steel coaches actually replaced only one of the two green cars in a 10 or 15 car set, the other would remain single-level a SaRo 112-1200 coach built between 1976 and 1981. Single level SaRo 112-1200 were used until 2006, when the 113 series was retired fron the tokaido line.

 

Tokaido Line 113 series, June 2003.

You can clearly spot the bilevel stainless steel SaRo 124/125 and the single-level SaRo 112-1200 right behind it.

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/JRE113_K52.jpg

 

The Sobu line 113 and 115 series trainsets (along with the SaRo 124/125 Sobu) where completely replaced by the E217 series (introduced 1994) by 1999.

The remaining trainsets were either moved to the Tokaido Line (along with all the bilevel green cars) or transferred to minor lines (such as the Uchibo Line) without bilevel cars.

 

Surplus Yokosuka green cars were used to replace the single-level SaRo of the 211-1000 series (completely replaced by 2007).

 

http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/ha/panorama/takataka-saro211-01.jpg

 

Tokaido line trainsets lasted until 2006, when they were replaced by E231-1000 and temporarily by the E217 series (between 2006 and 2015, replaced by the E233-3000 series) transferred from the Yokosuka line and repainted in shonan colors (10 car sets F1 - F3 and 5 car sets F50 - F53).

 

The bilevel stainless steel SaRo coaches can be divided in two groups:

- The "Older group" wich is compatible with the 113, 115 and 211 series and (technically) with the 213 and 415 series.

-The "Newer group" wich is compatible with the E217, E231-1000, E233-3000 and E531 series and also probably with the JR West 223 series, given that the JR Shikoku 5000 series cab cars are very similar (and they do operate in multiple on Okyama-Takamatsu "Marine Liner" services crossing the great seto bridge)

 

"Older Group" 113 series SaRo 124/125

http://blogimg.goo.ne.jp/user_image/12/4a/002a688b221c3999d8fc6e740e445948.jpg

 

"Newer Group" E217 series SaRo E217

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Saro217-34.JPG/1280px-Saro217-34.JPG

 

JR Shikoku 5000 series

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UMSEzte3YUk/maxresdefault.jpg

 

THe "Older Group" SaRos were the base for the four sets of the 215 series, an all-bilevel experimental EMU, built in 1992 and still in service.

 

http://itreni.net/jnrkeishikifoto/ec/ec215/jrkumoha215104.jpg

 

http://itreni.net/jnrkeishikifoto/ec/ec215/jrmoha2142.jpg

 

Also derivated from the "Older Group" SaRos was the 415-1901 series Bilevel-cab car for the Joban line 415-1500 series trainsets.

 

http://www.jnrsite.net/weekly/img/kuha4151901.jpg

 

From

http://www.jnrsite.net/weekly/htm/kuha4151901.htm

 

 

 

[Welshbloke]

Thanks, that explains it well! The only information I had was the diagram in a Kato SaRo 110-1200 box and the somewhat ropey results of feeding the Wikipedia Japan pages to Google Translate.