Ōu Main Line from Fukushima to Yonezawa

[Sacto1985]

YouTube user pokepika55 posted this interesting video of the Ōu Main Line from Fukushima to Yonezawa--essentially the 1435 mm gauge section that hosts the Yamagata Shinkansen at its most scenic mountain crossing point.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjOvymiisR8

 

Note the fact once in the mountains, many train stations are covered, most likely against the heavy snowfalls. What I find unusual about this video is I only saw an E3 Shinkansen trainset go the other way only once....

[bikkuri bahn]

What I find unusual about this video is I only saw an E3 Shinkansen trainset go the other way only once....

The shinkansen services essentially run on one hour headways on this stretch of track, thus you won't see many passing by your train.

[Jcarlton]

Heavy speed restrictions and grades.  The inverters for the   E3's must be amazingly flexible to handle the high toque low speed requirement of this section and the high speed low torque of the main line.

[Sacto1985]

Speaking of which, has JR East mentioned any plans to what will eventually replace the E3's on the Yamagata Shinkansen route, unless there are no current plans because the E3-2000 Series on this route were only delivered new a few years ago?

[bikkuri bahn]

No, no plans for replacement.  Think 20 year life cycle.  Also, the high speed capabilities of the E6 are not needed for the relatively short section of high speed running between Utsunomiya and Fukushima.  The E6 would be overspec.

[Sacto1985]

No, no plans for replacement.  Think 20 year life cycle.  Also, the high speed capabilities of the E6 are not needed for the relatively short section of high speed running between Utsunomiya and Fukushima.  The E6 would be overspec.

 

I still think because the E3-2000's were only delivered from late 2008 to 2010 new, they'll probably be running on the Yamagata Shinkansen run until at least 2022. It will be interesting to see if they will still be coupled to E2 trainsets between Tokyo and Fukushima by 2020 or will they run by themselves by 2020 as most E2 trainsets now on the Tohoku line are either retired or transferred to other lines.

[Ronny]

the line is 2 track each of 1435mm? what trainset run on the line?

[miyakoji]

the line is 2 track each of 1435mm? what trainset run on the line?

Some of the "mini" shinkansens run on this line, but also something fairly rare, 1435mm conventional trains.  The models are 701 series 5000 subseries and 719 series 5000 subseries.