2010/03/06
- EF510 500 Hokutosei Color So awesome. This is the Blue Train Boiler of the 21st century. So, hi everyone, Kapinozuka here. Have you seen Kato's new product announcement poster for this month!? EF510 series 500 Hokutosei color is featured rather largely. The EF510 series 500 (here after referred to as EF510-500) is the new electric locomotive of JR East. For those who just thought 'There are plenty of info for new types, who cares', think again! To state what is so amazing about this particular train is that... It's the first electric locomotive for JR East to introduce. Yes, you may think that JR East has many locomotives already. It's been 20 years already since the JNR was split and becoming privatized. It was divided into 6 Passenger rail companies (Hokkaido Railway Company, JR East, JR Central, West Japan Railway Company, Shikoku Railway Company, Kyushu Railway Company) and 1 freight train company (Japan Freight Railway Company), but Within this 20 year period, it has only been Japan Freight Railway that has introduced new type locomotives. Starting with JR East, all the JR passenger railways has not produced a single new locomotive within the last 20 years. In other words, they have been managing with just the locomotives they had inherited from the JNR. With the operation of bullet trains, competitive airlines and highways being serviced, the current long distance trains are declining at the moment. This is especially true to the long distance passenger trains such as the Blue Train sleeper express, which is rapidly reducing in number. Therefore, they decided that there had not been much need to create new train to pull these declining locomotives, I'm would think. However, for the luxury trains, which people have difficulties getting onto due to the tickets being on high demand with high competition, such the [Hokutosei] and [Cassiopeia] etc. the sleeper express which are operating under JR East is starting to feel that "the trains from the JRN age is reaching it's limits", I would imagine. So, they got off their heavy bottom and made a decision to introduce new locomotive, which is the EF510-500 in the photo. This locomotive was originally A locomotive developed by Japan Freight Railway, The currently active EF510 series, known by the nickname of Red Thunder, had been modified for use by JR East. For those that only thought, "So the JR made a locomotive amongst themselves, ooh wow.", you still have a way to go. Currently, each JR company is individually developing trains. (this also caused the same series number cars to be crossed over to the other company etc.) In other words, by JR East taking in the locomotive from Japan Freight Railways, The greatness of EF510 developed by Japan Freight had been accepted by JR East, in regards to both technology and performance. The Japan Freight Railways EF510 series is currently active on the line called Nihon-Kai Jukaisen, the center of lines running on the coast of Japan, lugging freight. You could think of it as the Star locomotive of Japan, supporting the transport of freight. It may be reflecting its popularity, as in N-scale, each of Kato, Tomix and Micro Ace has produced the model of this series. - EF510 (Kato)  - EF510 series Electric Locomotive Red Thunder (production model) (Tomix)  - EF510-2 (Micro Ace)  These products were released earlier than it's actual debut. I can remember each of these companies putting their best into producing these models, and racing for their sale, like it was yesterday. So, EF510 series is a locomotive you can't miss, one could say. This EF510-500 series, announced by Kato for production in N-scale this time, is currently on trial run at the moment, in preparation for its debut. We don't know when the actual debut will be yet, But it seems that they are planning to introduce 15 by the end, and out of that, apparently 13 will be blue trains that will be called the 'Hokutosei Color'. We can at least be sure that it will be pulling the Sleeper Express [Hokutosei], I would think. Now, the remaining 2 trains will be pulling the [Cassiopeia], so it seems they will be colored silver. These are still at the planning stage, so there isn't an actual train made yet, but is something for us to look forward to. We are currently taking reservations for the Kato EF510 500 Hokutosei Color at the moment. So let's get this locomotive and run this Hokutosei on the 21st century of N-scale. By Kapinozuka. [Terminology] Boiler = common or popular name for locomotives. It originates from steam locomotives, as the steam from the water being boiled by coal powered them. |
 Customer Evaluation
This item scores 5.00. Tweet2 customers have submitted their Satisfaction Ratings. |
|
![Search for [Greenmax&Fujimi Tokyo Monorail]](http://www.1999.co.jp/images/hb/20110822monoe.jpg)
![Search for [Kintetsu Series 2610]](http://www.1999.co.jp/images/hb/20110725daiplae.jpg)
