New rolling stock for Yamanote Line- 235 series

[trainsforever8]

Well everybody! Look at what we have here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37jQohGMH-w

[trainsforever8]

I also found this picture on twitter http://svd.2chan.net/dat/r/src/1424183345790.jpg

[miyakoji]

It says 209 series to me. Maybe there will be some interesting variants.

[kvp]

They seem to have removed the green pattern from the front and this makes it look much nicer. (personally i would just paint it all green, including the white frame to make it look more like a 103 series) The train might or might not get a green band on the front in the future.

 

Btw. i would really like to know what is the reason that they made it look more like older trains, instead of the more rounded and modern look of the 233 series?

[The Next Station Is...]

I wonder if the green pattern on the front is a vinyl piece that just hasn't been fitted yet, or JR East had a change of heart.

 

I like the modern-retro look, like JR Kyushu's white trains with the black fronts. I like kvp's idea of painting it green, though I'd keep the white frame/black insert at the front for contrast and continuity from the E233.

[trainsforever8]

I think that it simply isn't complete, they will put the green frame in the front eventually. I was also asking myself the same thing, why did they make them look older instead of having like the E233 serie's rounded front? Perhaps because this shape is kind of "classic" and unique to Japanese trains?

[katoftw]

They seem to have removed the green pattern from the front and this makes it look much nicer. (personally i would just paint it all green, including the white frame to make it look more like a 103 series) The train might or might not get a green band on the front in the future.

 

Btw. i would really like to know what is the reason that they made it look more like older trains, instead of the more rounded and modern look of the 233 series?

Maybe it is in vogue currently.  The kiha 220-200s look like the old kiha 40s from way back.

 

I dont mind them making modern trains look like older trains.  I think it is a tribute to the older trains if they do so.

[HantuBlauLOL]

Got this from a FB group.

 

http://tetsudo-shimbun.com/article/topic/entry-347.html

 

Looks pretty good..

[katoftw]

Overall I'm not a fan.  I think the front and back look good.  But the sides without horizontal coloured stripes is boring.

[bikkuri bahn]

Looks like JR Kyushu stuff.  Hey, but it's different, which is a plus given the Y-L is pretty boring as it is.

[miyakoji]

A fair number of videos are appearing on YouTube, here's one of the more substantial ones:

 

[cteno4]

Interesting. The vertical stripes instead of lateral may be a benefit for passengers cueing up seeing clearly above the crowd.

 

The front is cute, reminds me of Kermit the frog!

 

Jeff

[Kabutoni]

I like it! The vertical stripes make sense as the Yamanote line is receiving full platform doors anyway, so a diagonal stripe below the window level wouldn't make much sense for passengers. The only flaw is that the front is a tad higher than the bodywork, but meh. It makes it cute. Also, what an awesome front display! Very nice graphic designs going on there!

[miyakoji]

Tetsudou News is carrying it: http://railf.jp/news/2015/03/24/090000.html .  I didn't count the cars, but the article says it's the full 11, including the reused E231 car in position 10, SAHA E235-4620, which used to be SAHA E231-4620.  Those were later additions to their original formations, weren't they?

[railsquid]

Tetsudou News is carrying it: http://railf.jp/news/2015/03/24/090000.html .  I didn't count the cars, but the article says it's the full 11, including the reused E231 car in position 10, SAHA E235-4620, which used to be SAHA E231-4620.  Those were later additions to their original formations, weren't they?

 

Yup, to replace the 6-door cars after platform doors were introduced. You can see a slight difference in roof profile.

[Sacto1985]

I wonder will they apply the same to the impending replacements for the 205's and 209's on the Musashino Line--unless the Musashino Line replacements will be more E233's.

[kvp]

Imho they could've left off the stickers from the front, but otherwise looks ok, although the platform door car looks pretty much off in the consist. The fronts do look like giant tablet computers especially with the stickers applied.

[Densha]

I don't really like it either, but oh well it's just like this for the Yamanote Line probably.

[miyakoji]

I don't really like it either, but oh well it's just like this for the Yamanote Line probably.

Yeah I was wondering this too. When I read about some of the equipment on the Musashino Line and such, I was pretty surprised about the age, and I started to agree with Sacto about the E235s maybe being what will ultimately replace those trains. But I hope we get some different exteriors :).

[Sacto1985]

Yeah I was wondering this too. When I read about some of the equipment on the Musashino Line and such, I was pretty surprised about the age, and I started to agree with Sacto about the E235s maybe being what will ultimately replace those trains. But I hope we get some different exteriors :).

 

That's why I because of the very specific requirements for operating on the Yamanote Line, especially now with all stations on that line getting platform doors--the E235 may be a train unique to that line. It's more likely the replacements for the 205's and 209's on the Musashino LIne will be an E233 variant, probably something that looks like the E233's now running on the Yokohama Line but in Musashino Line livery.

[trainsforever8]

I gotta say, it's not THAT bad, but I feel like 'color space' is being wasted on the wagons. I think that the dark grey space that's between the windows would look good in black.

EDIT: I believe that this is an emergency brake testing video, you can hear the engine sound as well as the air compressor better, it's not bad 

Edited March 26, 2015 by trainsforever8

[Guest keio6000]

So two things:

 

1.  people complimenting the stripe above the door as a line recognition aid vs just a 'body' stripe should have another look at the e231s.  they have a full length stripe at "door top" level PLUS a stripe on the waist.  where the E231s don't have color is on the doors themselves, since that's bloody useless as the doors are occluded when open.   The new design keeps the colors on the door.  As a rough guess, the new design has i'd venture about 15% of the 'recognition aid' surface area of the E231s when sitting at a platform and approached from stairs/escalator.  Sorry, it's a terrible design from a UI standpoint.

 

2.  Aesthetically, I don't like the end design where the green does this weird non-smooth blend into black, but I have a theory as to why it is so.  Now, this theory may be just speculative nonsense, but here goes - I think it's an optical illusion (or an optical mesmerizer).   The eyes don't focus on it immediately.  While the eyes look at it subconsciously to try to figure out what to make of it, the body freezes.   The idea might be to get people on the platform to subconsciously slow down when a train is pulling in to a platform.  Working against this theory is the scale issue - the optical illusion may not be visbile from far away.  In that case, it's just an ugly design.

 

 

unfortunately, the conclusion that i continue to come to is that this train was designed to maximize advertising space on the side. which is sad.

 

If i did the design, i would consider one thing: I would consider instead of flat fronts to have "seemingly frangible" fronts.  What do I mean by this?   Of course, a train travelling at any speed that hits somebody will kill a person.   However, if the train is designed to look as if there is a chance that if the driver pulls the emergency just right and the front is shaped just so, that a potential suicide might think that there's a chance that he'll get badly injured instead of dead, this may direct him to other alternatives, includnig a re-think.   Many suicides want to be "just away" from society - getting injured and getting attention from being injured is the last thing they want at that moment.   This is a no brainer to me.  It's not like the flat fronts are aerodynamically efficient anyway.

 

but i'm sure i'll warm to it.

Edited March 26, 2015 by keio6000

[katoftw]

nothing to do with platform walls/doors this new design.  the E231 has a second green stripe on the side near the roof line.  so even with platform walls/doors, this stripe can still be seen.

 

i think the biggest problem to people warming to the E235 is the iconic status of the E231.

Edited March 26, 2015 by katoftw

[HantuBlauLOL]

There's always a pro and contra for a change.

[kvp]

The small green stripes above the doors are probably meant to maximize the above platform door ad space. The doors are painted because putting ads on them are costly and peeling stickers can get caught in the mech. The front color ramp was probably meant to be smooth, but you can't do that cheaply with a two color vinyl sticker, so this spotty pattern was choosen as an alternative. (mostly used in a smaller scale around glued window/door glasses to blend the glued area into the side) It's also cheaper and faster to recolor a train this way when it's transferred to another line. The biggest design error imho was the top of the front cover. Older trains had a front cover that was following the roofline of the train, so they looked train like (even older ones, like the 101/103-s didn't have any cover at all). This new train has a front end design that doesn't match the form of the train and the bottom of it is just barely hacked to match the sides, but the top is too low at the corners and too high in the middle. It looks just like this when the wrong front cover is put on a mobile phone and the owner doesn't notice it because it stays on. This is might be acceptable for a joyful train, but looks horrible on a commuter set.

 

 

Of course, a train travelling at any speed that hits somebody will kill a person. 

This is not entirely true. For example if i was hit by a bdt control car instead of a btx then instead of getting thrown out of the loading gauge thanks to the rounded front design on the bxt, a bdt with just the front bogie below the buffers would have probably went right over me. Of course i was just partially in the loading gauge and at track level and didn't notice the train coming behind me and i was hit at station approach speed, not full line speed. For another example, some new trams of the same family were supplied with cow catchers (pedestrian safety equipment) to one transit company but the other didn't buy this option. The equipped trams hit someone (usually drunken cyclists) on a montly basis without a single death so far. The other company has a few deaths every year (usually cyclists and in one case someone was pushed under the tram from the platform and the tram was going only at walking speed on fully paved tracks, so even two vertical iron bars welded before the front wheels could have saved her)

 

For japanese trains, adding cow catchers or wheel protection bars around the front bogies would help getting any objects on the tracks out of the loading gauge and that increases the survival chances. Safety ditches between the tracks also help getting anyone falling or jumping in front of an arriving train get safely under the rail head level. Combining the two helps a lot and decreses delays as the victims can usually be carried off alive and much faster. These features have nothing to do with front end design and some of the older jnr trains were equipped with these while modern, more streamlined ones are not.