JR East announces E8 Series for the Yamagata Shinkansen

[Yavianice]

 

https://www.jreast.co.jp/press/2019/20200303_ho01.pdf

 

 

First set will be ready in 2022, but it is expected to enter service on the Yamagata Shinkansen in 2026.

 

@railsquid if you want to remove the tracking part of the hyperlink, you must also remove it from the actual hyperlink, not just from the body text 🤪. I modified it now too from the hyperlink.

 

Edited March 4, 2020 by railsquid
removed tracking link properly properly third time lucky

[RossDensha]

At first look, I don't mind it! I don't think I like the lights, but then it looks similar to the E6 and the E6 looks fine?

Love how they've kept the same livery!

 

Other articles:

https://railf.jp/news/2020/03/03/143000.html

 

Edit: There's already a wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E8_Series_Shinkansen

Edited March 3, 2020 by RossDensha

[Yavianice]

7 minutes ago, RossDensha said:

At first look, I don't mind it! I don't think I like the lights, but then it looks similar to the E6 and the E6 looks fine?

 

I like that JR-East at least tries to have different trains for different lines. Not like JR Central that just spams the same train everywhere in the most boring livery imaginable.

[railsquid]

It helps that JR East has a network of 5 different lines with varying conditions, JR Tokai just has the Tokaido Shinkansen.

 

Also of note in the linked PDF is that they will be expanding the junction at Fukushima Station to remove the need for Tokyo-bound trains from the Sendai direction to cross the running lines to couple with trains from the Yamagata Shinkansen.

[maihama eki]

I was just thinking the other day that it had been a while since we had an all new Shinkansen model.  The E7 arrived in 2013/2014.

[Socimi]

I agree with RossDensha, the headlights are too far back. On the E6 they were fine, but here they definitely look odd and ugly.

[railsquid]

11 hours ago, Yavianice said:

@railsquid if you want to remove the tracking part of the hyperlink, you must also remove it from the actual hyperlink, not just from the body text 🤪. I modified it now too from the hyperlink.

 

 

Hmm, I'm sure I removed that too. Oddly it was still there after your edit, but should definitely be gone now 😄

 

[kami_illy]

I agree with the lights... looks like they didn't know what to do with them. Should have either hidden them (like on the E2, E5, ...) or actually design them. Like this it just looks like they took some lights that they had laying around and slapped them on the "shoulders" of the cab hoping nobody will notice. 🙄 

 

Love how they fixed the livery though. On the E3 the front looks like a kid wearing panties on the face playing superhero 🤪 

Edited March 4, 2020 by kami_illy
fixed typos

[nah00]

I like that they went with the old livery, looks nice. The headlights are a bit wonky but maybe they'll get changed on the production model. Nice to see the investment in new trackage, shows that the line is profitable. 

[Sacto1985]

The new trainset reminds me of a narrower version of the E7 trainset. I personally think a reason for this new trainset is to allow higher speeds on the Tōhoku Shinkansen line between Omiya and Utsunomiya, since it appears the E2 is slowly being phased out on the Tōhoku line.

[JR 500系]

This is a strange one... while I do realise the E3s are getting old, the E6s are around to assume the duty of Tsubasa service, so why the E8? Would Hayate and Yamabiko services be fully ran by E5s when the E2s retire? 

 

Thought the Joetsu line needed some new trains though since the E2s and E4s are facing retirement... 

[EdF]

Isnt Joetsu getting E7s?

 

Maybe Yamagata has different enough terrain or loading gauge that E6s wouldnt do.

[katoftw]

Mini shinkansen?

[EdF]

Standard gauge and gear to run on Shinkensen lines, smaller loading gauge and gear? to run on former narrow gauge mainline that has been regauged.  Runs fast for the Tokyo leg, runs express once it leaves Tohoku shinkansen.  E6 and E3s currently do these for the 2 routes.  They run coupled with E5s on the shinkansen line.  The E3s are slower, getting them replaced with faster units means faster timetables.

[EdF]

Looks like it might be that the lead cars on the E8 have more capacity than the current E6.  The new aero provides that.

[HankyuDentetsu]

Alas, the homogenisation of JR East's Shinkansen rolling stock continues at pace 😞

 

It all makes sense, the new stock will be superior in every metric - and the reduced capacity is probably smart given the long term projections for population decreases in the Yamagata region. It's not a bad looking train either - I don't share concerns about headline placement. Glad to see the old livery remains!

[maihama eki]

Delivery of the first set. I like the look.

 

 

Do you suppose Tomix and Kato are already working on it?

 

 

[Kamome]

The front end looks like an overweight E6.

 

https://youtu.be/lsJM6RnDJe0

Edited February 3, 2023 by Kamome

[cplchanb]

On 2/3/2023 at 1:34 AM, maihama eki said:

Delivery of the first set. I like the look.

 

 

Do you suppose Tomix and Kato are already working on it?

 

 

They probably applied to obtain the design files as soon as they were finalised for production