400 Series Shinkansen

Pre-series set

The pre-series set, S4, was delivered in October 1990 and unveiled to the press on 26 October 1990. It was a six-car set, arranged as shown below, with all cars motored.

The unit featured three different types of bolsterless bogies: DT9028 on cars 1 and 3, DT9029 on cars 2 and 4, and DT9030 on cars 5 and 6. The Green car seats were fitted with seat-back television screens, a feature not adopted on subsequent production sets.

Cars 1 and 2 were built by Tokyu Car Corporation, cars 3 to 4 were built by Hitachi, and cars 5 to 6 were built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Cars 12 and 14 were equipped with pantographs.

Test running began on the Ōu Main Line between and on 14 November 1990. From 23 January 1991, testing was conducted in conjunction with a newly converted eight-car 200 series K set on the Tōhoku Shinkansen between and . On 26 March 1991, set S4 established a new Japanese speed record of 336 km/h on the Jōetsu Shinkansen in the Yuzawa Tunnel between and . On 19 September 1991, the train set a further record of 345 km/h on the same section of track.

Test running continued into 1992, with set S4 reaching Tokyo for the first time on 20 May 1992. The pre-series set was subsequently modified to production-standard specifications, becoming set L1 on 29 June 1992.

History

Introduction

The fleet of twelve six-car sets entered service on Tsubasa Shinkansen services from 1 July 1992. Owing to sustained demand, all sets were later lengthened to seven cars. This took place between November and December 1995, with the insertion of a new type 429 trailer car as car 15.

Withdrawal

Withdrawals began in December 2008, starting with set L1. The entire fleet was scheduled to be withdrawn by summer 2009 and replaced by E3-2000 series trains. However, one set, L3, remained in service until 18 April 2010, with the date chosen to mark 18 years of service. This final 400 series Shinkansen was coupled to an E4 series train during its last run.

Preservation

The first eleven sets to be withdrawn were all cut up at Sendai General Depot, but one car (Green car 411-3) of the last set to be withdrawn, L3, was stored at the former Fukushima depot before being moved to Omiya in Saitama Prefecture in December 2017 where it is preserved at the Railway Museum.

Formation

The production 400 series sets were configured as shown below following the addition of a trailer car (car 15) in late 1995.

File:JREast-411-3.jpg|411-3 (car 11) File:JREast-426-203.jpg|426-203 (car 12) File:JREast-425-3.jpg|425-3 (car 13) File:JREast-426-3.jpg|426-3 (car 14) File:JREast-429-3.jpg|429-3 (car 15) File:JREast-425-203.jpg|425-203 (car 16) File:JREast-422-3.jpg|422-3 (car 17)

Fleet details

Source:

Design

Exterior

The 400 series was originally painted medium silver-grey, with a darker roof and darkened areas around the cab windows and underframe. Between 1999 and 2001, the fleet was refurbished and repainted, adopting a revised livery featuring a higher area of dark bluish-grey on the lower body, rising to just below the side windows and separated from the silver-grey upper body by a green stripe. The dark grey treatment on the roof and around the cab windows was removed.

Compared with the purpose-built high-speed Shinkansen lines, the Yamagata Shinkansen route is constrained by its legacy infrastructure. While the track gauge was widened, the original loading gauge was retained, requiring the 400 series to be designed with a narrower cross-section, leading to the "mini-Shinkansen" designation. When stopping at stations on the purpose-built high-speed Shinkansen lines, a retractable step flips up from beneath the doors to bridge the platform gap.

Interior

As a result of the narrower cross section, ordinary-class cars were fitted with 2+2 abreast seating, compared with the 3+2 configuration used on most Shinkansen trains. Green cars featured 2+1 abreast seating, compared with the 2+2 layout typical of other Shinkansen services. On subsequent mini-Shinkansen rolling stock, Green cars also adopted 2+2 seating, matching standard-class layouts. Seat pitch was 1160 mm in Green class (car 11), 980 mm in reserved-seating cars (cars 12–15), and 910 mm in non-reserved cars (cars 16 and 17).

During the life-extension refurbishment programme carried out between 1999 and 2001, the interiors were also upgraded with new moquette seat coverings. Green cars received blue moquette, reserved-seating cars received red moquette, and non-reserved seating cars were fitted with turquoise moquette.

File:400 interior standard reserved 20020824.jpg|Refurbished standard-class reserved-seating car File:400 interior green 20020824.jpg|Refurbished Green car seating

References

References

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3. Yamanouchi. Shūichirō. JTB Can Books. (2002)
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7. (March 2011). JRR
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9. (September 2009). Tetsudō Daiya Jōhō. Kotsu Shimbun
10. (December 2006). JRR
11. (November 2011). Ikaros Publications Ltd.