[Live Broadcast?] Chase the Chocolate train!

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Kapinozuka
[Live Broadcast?] Chase the Chocolate train!
Good evening, Kapinotsuka here.

It's been 100years since the JR Yamanote line had been named [Yamanote Line], and people are talking about it this quite a bit. To celebrate this, there is a single E231 series train that is currently running with a chocolate colored wrapping.. Has anybody seen this?

There are roughly about 50 trains running on the Yamanote line, and only one of them is chocolate colored, so even those who use it everyday will find it hard to find. On top of that, it only runs during a limited period, until the 4th of Dec. Since the chocolate colored train, lets call it ChocoTrain, will stop running soon, Kapinotsuka went out last weekend to check it out.

Use the Keihin Tohoku line if you want to chase the ChocoTrain!

The only trains that runs Between Tabata – Tokyo – Tamachi is the Yamanote line and Keihin Tohoku line. And during the day time, the Keihin Tohoku line becomes a rapid, so I thought I will try my luck with this.
(*the photo is taken at Okachimachi station, which is a station bypassed by rapid trains.)

Photo taken of a stationary ChocoTrain at the Kanda station!


AHA! There it is, and its stationary!
Lets overtake it while its stopped!

Get some distance before reaching Tokyo


Ah the rapid train is good, its getting so far from the ChocoTrain quickly!
The Keihin Tohoku line will arrive in Tokyo before ChocoTrain does!

..
.. ..
huh? Keihin Tohoku line is stopping for time adjustment??

Gets caught up at Tokyo


I could only enjoy the superiority of overtaking the ChocoTrain for a short moment.
It caught up with the Keihin Tohoku line at Tokyo station.

The train next to us looks brown


Actually, the ChocoTrain is a wrapping train sponsored by a large snack manufacturer. There are messages and logos of the company printed on the chocolate colored train.

Found the Original Font

[Kuha E231-502] (the formal series code printed) is printed in a font from the Japan National Railway days! These days, the JR Eastern Japan uses a gothic font for the trains released after the series 209

Alright, let's hop back on the Keihin Tohoku line and overtake the ChocoTrain as far as we can!
Of course, if we continue this line, the limit will be Hamamatsu-cho or Tamamachi..

Caught at Hamamatsu-cho!


I got off the Keihin Tohoku line at Hamamatsu-cho, and quickly got to the opposite platform. I found a nice position with little distraction to take a photo!

The Giant Chocolate


Its not just one car that has the chocolate colored wrapping.. All 11 cars in the 11-car formation is chocolate colored! I think they stuck on a cutting sheet, but I just have to say it's quite extravagant.

Close-up of the front


Below the front glass is the writing [100th anniversary of being named Yamanote Line].
And the important point from B Train Shorty is the skirt (white protector part at the bottom) is there to strengthens it.

Oh btw we are still taking pre-orders for B Train Shortie.
-B Train Shorty Series E231 Yamanote Line Named 100th Anniversary Wrapping Train (2-Car Set) *1 Piece

-B Train Shorty Series E231 Yamanote Line Named 100th Anniversary Wrapping Train (2-Car Set) *10 Pieces Set

To finish it all, here is the image taken last at the Okachimachi station.

Chocolate colored Yamanote line


Yamanote line is normally light green. So there may be many of you who thought, "why brown?" As an explanation, its simply because this was to illustrate the Yamanote line 100 years ago. Back then, many Japanese trains were brown, without the idea of line color, and brown happened to be one of the colors of steam locomotives that didn't stand out too much when the body got dirty due to all the distant traveling. The JNR (currently JR) chose to name this brown [Grape color 2].

The normal Yamanote line


I thought I might as well take a pic of the normal Yamanote line as well. The line color for the Yamanote line is normally light green, and this is defined as [Yellow Green 2] by the JNR.

By the way, I'm not sure if it was used in the Yamanote line, but before the Grape color 2 was used, JNR had been using a darker color [Grape color 1].

Right, so the Series E231 Yamanote Line Named 100th Anniversary Wrapping Train will end its run soon. If you got to see it, may be something good will happen. If you got to ride it, even better. I hope you got to see the lucky ChocoTrain too.

*Just to note, its far less likely to encounter the ChocoTrain than the Macross F movie wrapping train, which has two running.

By Kapinotsuka, who uses film in this digital era.

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