381 Series "Kounotori" in Kyoto Station

[Dani]

Hello,

 

I saw this 381 Series "Kounotori" in Kyoto Station. It was "out of service" parked in track #30, and leaved just before the Haruka train (to Kansai Airport) arrived.

 

I thought this train was out of service and parked... or I am confused and this is not a 381 series...  :dontknow: 

 

Cheers,

Dani

 

 

Edited May 2, 2014 by Dani

[miyakoji]

It's a 381. I cannot keep track of what JR West has done here. I thought they were going to retire all of the 381s (in Kansai) when the 287s arrived, but this isn't what happened. They did retire all of the 183s, and they didn't order enough 287s to replace them, so I guess some 381s were kept and transferred to Fukuchiyama Depot from Hineno to make up the difference. But then I think there are still some at Hineno for Kuroshio services.

[Sacto1985]

I believe that JR West has kept around its fleet of 381's because there's enough spare parts to keep them going for quite some time. Given that 381's are used on the Yakumo express train between Okayama and Izumoshi and 381's formerly used on the Kuroshio service can be quickly brought back into service on an as-needed basis, don't expect JR West to send 381 trainsets to the scrapper anytime soon.

 

Speaking of the 381's, didn't the early-service 381's cause motion sickness problems on the Shinano train between Nagoya and Nagano? I remember reading that this train carried a lot of motion-sickness bags because the tilting motion had to be done initially almost manually. That problem went away once fully-computerized control of the tilting motion was incorporated later.