New JR-East joyful train "Kairi"

[Yavianice]

Missed the announcement on this one, didn't see it on the JNS forum either when I searched for Kairi

 

Started running 5th of October between Niigata and Sakata

 

https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/joyful/kairi.html

[Sheffie]

Wow. Looks very nice. If it becomes popular enough, perhaps Kato or tomix will decide to model it? It certainly looks like a good candidate 

[Yavianice]

Probably KATO or Micro Ace will produce it since its just a dolled up HB-300

[Sacto1985]

I wonder why JR East didn't decide to modify an old JNR 415 Series trainset for this excursion service, so it could run on overhead power from Niigata all the way to Sakata (even with the change between 1500 V DC and 20,000 V AC 50 Hz overhead power at Murakami).

[RossDensha]

They like their HB-E300s.

Did you mean the 485 series?

It was probably cheaper to purpose build a train rather than restore an old 485. (or 415 for that matter)

Edited November 3, 2019 by RossDensha

[miyakoji]

12 hours ago, Sacto1985 said:

I wonder why JR East didn't decide to modify an old JNR 415 Series trainset for this excursion service, so it could run on overhead power from Niigata all the way to Sakata (even with the change between 1500 V DC and 20,000 V AC 50 Hz overhead power at Murakami).

I don't know how they chose 485s as bases for previous joyful trains, I would think they'd want something that didn't have much economic life left in it, but on the other hand could provide at least a few years of service in the new role.  415s must be pretty kicked at this point.

[Sacto1985]

According to Wikipedia, there was one four-car HB-E300 train set that was not in use. Maybe that train set is now assigned to the new Kairi service?