Scrapping at a young age

[Peter Osborne]

Hi

i was sbocked to see some footage on YouTube often uploaded daily by the same person of JR East 217 and 257 units being scrapped, the same process is going on in the UK with 20 year old electric units (Heathrow Express) going for scrap while older types of similar to JNR designed 113/5 are going into refurbishment or being converted to bi nodal units. Perhaps modern rolling stock isn’t  as robust as items made by a previous generation? 

[disturbman]

This has been talked a lot around here.

Different build philosophy. Life expectancy of newer designs was purposefully lowered compared to older designs like the 113 or 115.

The E217 was first refurbished after 13 years of service. The E217 have been used on Tokyo suburban traffic since 1994, wouldn't be surprising to see them being scrapped by now.

 

Quote

JR East announced in September 2018 that it will introduce the E235 series train on the Yokosuka Sobu Rapid Line from 2020 (Reiwa 2). The series started commercial operation on December 21, 2020.

Along with this, this series will be replaced sequentially. On January 5, 2021, the Y-44 formation was forwarded to the Nagano General Rolling Stock Center, and it was the first car in this series to be scrapped.

Are you sure the E257 were being scrapped? The -0s and some -500s were being refurbished for use on Odoriko and Shonan liner services in replacement of the 185 series.

Edit: If I remember correctly, designed life expectancy is about 20 years for newer Shinkansen and a bit longer for modern commuter trains. 27 years for E217 seems pretty good.

Edited January 31, 2021 by disturbman

[bikkuri bahn]

One must be careful when solely using examples from JR East as representative of Japan (not implying that the OP is doing this, but it is a common mistake among foreign commentators wrt to urban transit). JR East is quite singular (largest railway in the world in terms of daily passenger volume), so their rolling stock replacement strategy reflects their (massive) scale of operations and financial advantages. JR West is known for operating older stock even now, and in general Kansai area railways tend to keep their rolling stock on the books for much longer than your typical Kanto area operator.  

Edited February 1, 2021 by bikkuri bahn

[railsquid]

9 hours ago, disturbman said:

Are you sure the E257 were being scrapped? The -0s and some -500s were being refurbished for use on Odoriko and Shonan liner services in replacement of the 185 series.

 

It's possible some individual cars are being scrapped, which became surplus to requirements following refurbishment and introduction of new set formations.

[Peter Osborne]

Yea defiantly E257 I think it was a cab car there were some also in the new colours but this was unfortunately being broken up.

 

 

[railsquid]

Yup, that's one of the add-on sets which were used with Chuo Line operations, but presumably not any use for Tokaido line service.

[disturbman]

Of course, M201 is one of the five two-car “add-on” sets. They are not used on the Odoriko.

 

The question is what will happen to the three remaining nine-car sets from the -0s. They might be kept for parts or surge capacity.

 

Edit: the squid was faster.

Edited February 1, 2021 by disturbman

[railsquid]

Y-49 set heading for the scrap line at Nagano

 

 

[Welshbloke]

I do at least hope KuMoYa 143-52 has a retirement home lined up, rather than following its final delivery into the scrap piles? There aren't exactly many surviving KuMoNi/KuMoYuNis and it'd double up as display space for a museum.

[railsquid]

Y-49 set becoming scrap at Nagano:

 

 

A 185 series is also visible in the background in the early part of the video.

[Yavianice]

huh, I thought they would re-use the green cars for the E235? Are the green cars for the E235 also brand new (even though they don't look it)?

[railsquid]

Yeah, I'm sure I read a couple of years back they would recycle the old ones, but that seems not to be the case.

[disturbman]

Maybe not all of them were required?

Or someone made a woopsie.

Edited March 16, 2021 by disturbman

[Kiha66]

According to jp wiki, in general e235 sets have new saro 235/234 green cars.  This site gives listings of the status of all e235 cars, it seems most are new builds but some have 2002 build dates.

https://raillab.jp/series/130/cars/list?pageid=3

[railsquid]

5 hours ago, Kiha66 said:

According to jp wiki, in general e235 sets have new saro 235/234 green cars.  This site gives listings of the status of all e235 cars, it seems most are new builds but some have 2002 build dates.

https://raillab.jp/series/130/cars/list?pageid=3

 

I wonder if that's a simple typo (2002-07 vs 2020-07); would make sense as the car preceding SaRo E234-1002 is listed as 2020-06, and the individual entry for SaRo E234-1002 does not list any preceding E217 number, while the E235-4600 listings list the number from their time in E231 sets (e.g. E235-4652).