rippled carbody exterior - heat or construction?

[miyakoji]

I noticed this photo on Ompuchaneru:

 

 

source: http://rail-uploader.khz-net.com/index.php?id=976703

 

Some posters in that thread appear to be saying that the heat makes the metal expand.  Others comment on JRE's 15-year lifespan cars that started with the 209s, and a few seem to be going back and forth about the quality of Kawasaki's products.  What say you, JNS members?  Or is this rolling stock in fact related to goya? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_melon

[bikkuri bahn]

The rolling stock from the 209 series onwards, as mentioned before, were designed to be more energy efficient, as well as easily recycled, rather than kept in service indefinitely like the older JNR designs from the late fifties through sixties.  I think lightness was emphasized over durability, so you see thinner materials being used on non-critical carbody sections.  A 113/115 series seems to be built like a tank, in comparison.

[The_Ghan]

It's kind of like a Mitsubishi!

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[David]

I never realized how low the windows in the E231/531/233 green cars sat in relation to the platform.

[spacecadet]

I never realized how low the windows in the E231/531/233 green cars sat in relation to the platform.

 

Yeah, they have to be because the cars are no taller than the single level cars.  So the lower level is loooooow...

 

I rode in an E531 green car for the first time a few weeks ago and I didn't go down there (because I didn't think I'd fit) but here is my photo of the exterior.  (I rode in the single level section on the end, which is normal height.)

 

Also this was after a week straight of temperatures that were the highest in 20 years, so I don't know if that car at the top's rippling is just heat expansion.  Unless people are saying it's 15 years worth of accumulated heat expansion and contraction, which I guess is possible.