short and sweet - Series 500 at its best!

[alpineaustralia]

Bernard

This ones for you.

No matter how many times I watch this clip, I never get used to it. It is just awesome...

 

[Martijn Meerts]

You need a REALLY big layout to simulate that ;)

[Guest ___]

Bernard

This ones for you.

No matter how many times I watch this clip, I never get used to it. It is just awesome...

 

 

I only saw one on my last trip to Japan, and was on a Yamanote Line train when I saw it. I was devastated after spending an entire day at Tokyo without seeing one. The 500's are my fav. It saddens me even more that they're being cut down to eight car trains and being demoted in favor of the N700's.

 

BTW: We run a 16 car 500 train set on the JRM layout. It looks like it's half the length of the layout

[alpineaustralia]

If the Australian Govt had any brains, they would offer to buy them cheaply and welcome Australia into the 21st century of rail travel.

Would you beleive that the train service that links Australia's capital city (Canberra) with Australia's largest city (Sydney) travels at no more than  80km/hr (50mph) and takes 4.5 hours when driving at the speed limit takes only 3.5 hours!!

[Bernard]

Alpine - Thanks and how did you know that is my favorite train? (joking ;D)

As I said, when we had to go from Tokyo to Nagano in '98 our crews had to take the bus, almost an 8 hour trip. In the middle of the Olympics I had an emergency and had to go to Tokyo and back. I was booked on the Bullet train, 3 hours there, 3 hours back and the best ride I ever had, period. The train is going so fast and is smooth, you don't feel like you're moving.

What I don't understand is that with the modern trains, I find the Japanese prototypes by far the most interesting but most people model the "boxy looking" N. American trains.

[Guest ___]

Alpine - Thanks and how did you know that is my favorite train? (joking ;D)

As I said, when we had to go from Tokyo to Nagano in '98 our crews had to take the bus, almost an 8 hour trip. In the middle of the Olympics I had an emergency and had to go to Tokyo and back. I was booked on the Bullet train, 3 hours there, 3 hours back and the best ride I ever had, period. The train is going so fast and is smooth, you don't feel like you're moving.

What I don't understand is that with the modern trains, I find the Japanese prototypes by far the most interesting but most people model the "boxy looking" N. American trains.

 

The 500's were my fav as well. (I use the E655 becasue Bernard has a 500 icon :p )

[alpineaustralia]

By far and away it is the best looking train ever.

Having said that, my favourite shinkansen is actually the E4. To me it looks mean.

 

Funny you say what you say about the Nth American trains. For fear of looking like a complete traitor, I have started to also run Nth American diesels and I must say thay have a certain appeal about them -especially when you can put in a sound decoder aswell.

 

That has, in turn, led me back to the japanese electrics and hence my later posts regarding buying EF60s, EF65s and EF81s on Ebay.

[CaptOblivious]

What I don't understand is that with the modern trains, I find the Japanese prototypes by far the most interesting but most people model the "boxy looking" N. American trains.

 

Bernard! I'm surprised and ashamed! Us North Americans wouldn't know a boxy-looking train if it smacked us upside the head.

 

:P

[Guest ___]

I grew bored of N/A trains long ago. After a while they all start to look the same, especially the late second generation through the current generation.