JR Shikoku gets efWING bogies

[miyakoji]

I saw this on Railfan News a few days ago, but YouTube was lacking decent footage (and still is, really).  I'll post clearer videos as soon as some appear.

 

This is the 7200 series, a refurbed and renumbered 121 series.  Updates were done at Tadotsu; the Kawasaki efWing trucks and VVVF drive seem to be the two big changes, but it also has new skirts, LED destination boards, and red and green striping.

 

http://railf.jp/news/2016/02/03/160000.html

http://railf.jp/news/2016/02/06/203000.html

 

[katoftw]

What line do these run on?

[SuRoNeFu 25-501]

Oh god, another "magically-proven" modified train has born in Japan... 

[kvp]

The EF wings are actually very simple composite leaf spring based bogies. The classic metal leaf spring variant was used in the past for running on very bad tracks, which this arrangement is perfect as it allows travelling on non planar (sunken) railheads with partially self aligning axles. A very simple and cheap upgrade for lower speed reliable and comfortable running on partially maintained tracks. I have some doubt about the long time reliability of the composite springs, but they are relatively cheap to replace. This kind of axle mounting does require either a hollow shaft or a flexible cardan drive on the powered bogies, which is also good both for the tracks and the ride comfort.

[Densha]

I don't get why JR Shikoku gave these trains a red-white-green striping instead of the JRS's light blue company colour. They just don't seem to be able to set any standard. Oh well...

[miyakoji]

When these entered service with the March 23 1987 schedule revision (8 days before the end of JNR!), they had red stripes.  Also, in 2011 JR Shikoku converted 2 formations to one-man operation and returned to red striping.  But yeah, the blue seems fine and if they'd been able to get the bogies with blue accents instead of green, that would have looked cool.  Apparently 3 sets have been converted so far.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/121_series

[Densha]

JR Shikoku doesn't appear to have been using the standardized light blue during their early years. The KiHa 32's, for example, were initially even painted in three different liveries: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9B%BD%E9%89%84%E3%82%AD%E3%83%8F32%E5%BD%A2%E6%B0%97%E5%8B%95%E8%BB%8A

 

During the 90s most JR Shikoku trains were aluminium with light blue stripes, but the old 113s were all repainted in different liveries and lately all new trains seem to be getting different liveries. The newer batches of the 1000 series, the 1500 series, the N2000 series, the new 8000 series livery and the 8600 series all have far from standardized liveries.

[miyakoji]

A third formation has been updated: http://railf.jp/news/2016/05/07/204000.html .  Youtubers need to step it up :), still no good footage as far as I can find

[bikkuri bahn]

It was announced, after successful tests of the efWING bogies that 38 cars of the 121 series (19x2 car sets), will be rebuilt to 7200 series standard, and equipped with KHI efWING bogies. These rebuilds will begin operations in June.

http://trafficnews.jp/post/51622/

 

Leaving Takamatsu Station on a test run:

Edited May 19, 2016 by bikkuri bahn