Friendship Day 2012 + New (likely) Preserved Shinkansen Cars [Hakata-Minami]

[200系]

On the 21th of October, Friendship Day 2012 was held at the Hakata-Minami Shinkansen works (JR West). YouTube contributor THJiPad provided the following footage:

 

 

My attention was immediately drawn by part 3, as it showed something I thought was long gone: a complete, and beautifully repainted 0系1000番台 car!

Turns out (if my information is correct) JR West/Hakata-Minami Shinkansen will preserve this car on property, similar to 21-86 at Hamamatsu Shinkansen works.

 

and as I like this stuff, A bit of history on the car in question:

 

Shinkansen 0系1000番台, 22形, 22-1047 left the factory at the 10th of January 1980, as one of the last 1000番台 build before production switched to the 2000番台 in 1981.

She was placed in formation K27 (a Kodama formation) replacing 22-44 (0番台, build on the 7th of may 1966), which was scrapped on the 25th of November 1979 as part of the life expired batches of 0系0番台 cars. Formation K27 was renumbered into K77 with 10 of it's cars being replaced by new 1000番台 cars, as well as the 35形 being replaced by a 37形.

In 1985 formation K77 was absolved (in this period J.N.R. was reforming the Kodama formations back to 12 cars) and 22-1047 (with most of the other cars from K77) became part of formation Sk10. After J.N.R. was split, she became part of JR West's 0系 fleet and served as part of Sk10 until 1989. In 1989 she was once again shifted to another formation, this time it would be formation R26 (6 cars, original R formations, not to be confused with the later (W)R formations) in which she would remain until she was placed into 4 car formation Q3 in 2000.

 

On the 22nd of December 2000 she was officially retired by JR West, a fate shared with the rest of the Q formations as well as a lot of fellow 0系 cars in that period (Tōkai retired their last Yk formation in 1999 and JR West had retired their last Nh formation as well as the last (W)Sk formations in 2000, some of the Sk cars where reformed into (W)R formations though), unlike her sisters though she was spared the torch (the entire Q3 formation did) and was employed by JR West as instructional (cleaning) formation, and was used in order to train staff with a real serviceable train. For this goal Q3 was kept fully operational, and moved regularly under her own power.

 

In January 2009 she was used for the final time, historic in retrospect as she would be the last 0系 formation to move under her own power. Q3 was replaced by 100系 formation P4 and she was tucked away out of sight, and was marked as "likely scrapped" on most Shinkansen websites. 22-1047's story didn't end there however, in 2011 there was a picture on a blog of 22-1047 tucked away, paint badly damaged, showing patched rust spots and without trucks. Apparently she was used as a stationary instruction frame poised to rust away.

 

Fortunately it didn't end this way, as can be seen, she has been beautifully restored, at least on the exterior, and likely has a long future ahead of her, the last complete example of her kind in Japan (1000番台 specific, there is a 1000番台 nose section preserved, as well as the 5000番台 (originally a 1000番台) left in Taiwan).

 

The other interesting thing in that video is the survival of a 322/323 of 300系 F9. whether this car will be preserved, or take 22-1047's place as instructional frame isn't known to me.

It is interesting though.

 

Some further material:

 

Q3 a few years ago:

 

 

Blog entries on Friendship Day 2012:

 

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/timoco1972

http://marineview.blog.fc2.com/blog-category-6.html

 

Enjoy!

[miyakoji]

Excellent post 200系, I'm always interested to read the details you provide.  So only 22-1047 has been preserved from that 4 car Q set?  It's really too bad they didn't keep it.  I suppose it will be impossible to ever have a 0 series excursion run like they do with the various restored steam locomotives and authentic old passenger cars.  Q3 looks rough there at Shin-Shimonoseki, even if it was a training set, I'm surprised they let it deteriorate that much.

[Sacto1985]

Even if they could preserve a fully-functional 0系 Shinkansen trainset, they might not be able to run it on the Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen lines because of the top speed of the 0系 (only 220 km/h) could clash with the 700/700A/N700A trainsets with their 300 km/h top speed.

[cteno4]

I want that 500 cart/train! Quite fun!

 

Jeff

[200系]

So only 22-1047 has been preserved from that 4 car Q set?

 

As far as I'm aware' date=' yes (unfortunately).

 

I suppose it will be impossible to ever have a 0 series excursion run like they do with the various restored steam locomotives and authentic old passenger cars

 

Theoretically, the Ōsaka Modern Transportation Museum has the possibility to field a working 0系0番台 formation with: 21-1 (N1/H1) - 16-1 (N1/H1) - 35-1 (N2/H2) - 22-1 (N1/H1) (21形-16形-35形-22形). I don't see them actually happening, but it would in theory be possible to restore this set to working order (the 0系, 200系 and 100系 (V formations only) are electrically divided in (non permanent) 2 car sets, so you'll need at least combine an odd and even car  together to get a working unit (eg. 21形-22形, 25形-26形, 25形-16形 etc)). Problem would be the ATC and mechanical components, seeing as those cars where retired in 1978 there's a good change they still have the older ATC system in place (ATC-1A) which is incompatible with the present ATC-1 incarnation (ATC-1D IIRC) let alone the ATC-NS (digital) system in use on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen.

 

I personally would love to see a 0系 in working order again, actually, scratch that, if that ever happens I'm on the first plane available!

However on the other hand I'm glad it isn't happening at the moment, the preserved 0系 cars are (mostly) safe and well kept where they are, and no matter how much it pains me to say, the era of the 0系 is now 'just' a chapter in Japanese history, a great one to be sure, but still part of history. I am wondering what will happen on the 50th anniversary of the 0系/Tōkaidō Shinkansen in two years time though, exiting times ahead!

 

Even if they could preserve a fully-functional 0系 Shinkansen trainset' date=' they might not be able to run it on the Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen lines because of the top speed of the 0系 (only 220 km/h) could clash with the 700/700A/N700A trainsets with their 300 km/h top speed.[/quote']

 

A friendly correction; the service speed of the 700系 is 285km/h, and that's on the Sanyō Shinkansen only, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen is 270km/h max for all series (the N700系/N700A系 have less restrictions on top speed though, a few curves (2400m radius) are I believe 255km/h max for the 700系 and older)

 

On top of that, less then a year ago JR West was still running 220km/h 100系 formations, so I think a single fan trip once in a while shouldn't cause too many issues speed wise, on the Sanyō Shinkansen at least.

 

Excellent post 200系' date=' I'm always interested to read the details you provide[/quote']

 

Thanks! it's much appreciated! It helps that I really enjoy this type of stuff, and if it is enjoyable to others all the better!

 

-Sander

[miyakoji]

On top of that, less then a year ago JR West was still running 220km/h 100系 formations, so I think a single fan trip once in a while shouldn't cause too many issues speed wise, on the Sanyō Shinkansen at least.

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.  These were in service until not long ago, certainly one run could be squeezed into the schedule.  I did not know about the transportation museum having those 4 cars.  I also hadn't thought of the 50th anniversary coming up.  I bet the rail magazines will have some serious retrospective features!

[Sacto1985]

I wonder has JR Central/West thought about assembling a short 0 Series trainset to duplicate the full middle 1980's Hikari run (Tokyo-Nagoya-Kyoto-Shin-Osaka-Himeji-Okayama-Hiroshima-Kokura-Hakata) to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Shinkansen in 2014. That fan trip would be sold out years in advance!