Hello, Kapinozuka here.
Having
connection with the Tohoku Shinkansen, I just had to buy this train set!
• JNR Series 185-200 ’Shinkansen Relay’ Best Renewal (7-Car Set)
The Shinkansen Relay car? What’s that?
To explain to those that wondered the above,
it was in 1982 that the first section of the Tohoku Shinkansen, Omiya Station to Morioka Station area had begun their service.
And along with this, the Relay Train from Ueno Station to Omiya Station area began operation to take passengers that will be using the Tohoku Shinkansen from Tokyo city center to Omiya Station.
The trains that were selected for this was the Series 185 Nos.200.
You could think of this as a Series 185 that was used for the Limited Express Odoriko, customized for cold areas.
Plus, there was the even a female cabin crew that were called the "Relay Girl", making this train very rare.
So in actuality, it was basically something of an extension of the bullet train.
But what were the uniforms of the Relay Girls like?
Please, Tomytec, please add them to the
Tetsudou Musume series!
Now, let’s get back to the
JNR Series 185-200 ’Shinkansen Relay’ Best Renewal (7-Car Set) introduced earlier.
This is a product titled with "Best Renewal", an item that Micro Ace put made dramatic changes compared to existing product.
They seem to originally be N-Scale product that was designed by the former Micro Ace in the 1980s. The grooves of the window, roll sign, duct etc. for the body were deep, and is a model characteristic that were common back then.
However, it they had still grasped the key characteristics of the series 185, and sure was a design that were thought highly of.
Now, if you flip the body of the existing Series 185, there is a logo of Micro Ace that differs to the present logo.
And for some reason, the motor was equipped to the Saro185, which was the Green Car, creating a chaotic situation where the model had motor equipped to the car that doesn’t have power unit in reality.
The equipment under the flooring were filled with machinery,
suitable for an accompanying car, however the windows were blacked out to disable view of the interior, and fully using the space for the motor.
Naturally, room lights could not be attached.
And the regarding the parts that has changed in the Best Renewal Version...
Firstly,
the headlight unit has been changed from the light bulbs to LED, enabling you to enjoy a bright, white headlight. Now, this itself isn’t too much work, but Micro Ace had fully remade the
lower part of the car starting with the floorboard, while keeping the body.
The new floorboard has structured to allow attachment of body mount type coupler. By this, you will be able to swap the default Arnold Coupler with the Micro Coupler, or the Body mount contactable TN
Coupler by Tomix etc. Also, you can swap the dummy coupler of the leader car to one that functions as a coupler, enabling you to join two sets of 7-car formations to reproduce the 14-car full formations that are sometimes seen operating
as well.
Plus,
the motored car had been changed from the Saro185 to the middle car with pantograph, the Moha185, so the interior of the Green Car has also been reproduced. The power unit has also been changed
to the type with low center of gravity that is common these days, so that it isn’t seen through the window. This has allowed all the cars in the formation to be equipped with interior lighting as well.
Even the motored car can be equipped with room lights?
That’s WONDERFUL!
So I also bought the room lights as well. The items I’ve prepared are the following:
• G0004 Room Light Wide Width White Color LED (6 pieces)
• G0001 Room Light Wide Width Lamp Color LED (2 pieces)
As we need to prepare lights for 7 cars, I had to get a 6 piece set and a 2 piece set.
There is a reason for having prepared lights with different colors, but we’ll leave that for later.
*Note that some products have the bogie, floor board, and the body screwed on, so make sure you check beforehand.
*Keep in mind that customization of the body and attachment of room light etc. are done under your own responsibility, thus the dealers, nor the manufacturers will take responsibilities if you fail.
Attach to the ceiling as shown above.
When you flip over the body, there is a bump that matches the position of the circular holes of the room light, so you just insert it there. And the prisms of on the other side of the spring can be snapped off to adjust the length. If
the light unit and interior parts etc. of the leader car gets in the way, you can adjust the length of the room light accordingly.
Once that’s done, close the body while making sure the two springs goes into the two holes on the interior part.
The room light gains power by having the spring touch the metal plate in the interior.
Looking at the interior of the normal car.
Here is the interior part. Take a close look at the mold of the seats.
Even the white cover part for the headrest had been reproduced with paint.
This may be minor detail, but the effect when seen through the window is tremendous.
Looking at the interior part of the new mold(?) Saro185 (Green Car)
Let’s take a look at the interior of this Best Renewal Ver. Saro185 that is believed to have been reproduced from scratch as well. The interior parts for the normal car seen previously were formed with brown plastic, but the parts
for the Green Car have been formed with orangey red plastic. The white cover for the seats has also been reproduced here too. This may be obvious, but you can see that the spacing of the seats are wider than that of the normal cars.
Once each the lights are set on each car, let’s test the lights by putting it on the rail and switch the power on.
The following images are Animated GIF to demonstrate the effect of room lights.
Lighting the room light of the leader car.
You can see the blue-white light illuminating the car interior.
The effect of the white LED to replicate the fluorescent lamp really looks amazing.
Lighting the room light of the Green Car.
I tried the light-bulb color room light for Saro185 (Green Car).
I haven’t been on the Green Car of the series 185, but I thought it would be good to create a different atmosphere for the Green Car, as they are of higher class to the normal cars, hence the light-bulb color lights.
The color choice of the lights is up to your taste, of course.
What do you think?
Even just lighting the interior really creates great atmosphere, right?
These are option parts that would be just perfect for night trains.
The room lights of Micro Ace have been highly rated even from the beginning of their sales.
As you can see, the light spreads across the interior evenly.
The positioning of the LED and the design of Prism really harmonize well together.
And being friendlier for the wallet than other companies is another attraction as well.
Oh yeah, I remember learning about the reflection and refraction of lights during science class at grade school, the good old days.
From the front. The photo was taken without changing the ISO settings, so the shutter was left open for quite a while.
The headlights and head mark were already made to light up from the beginning.
Seems like the color of lights differs too, they really don’t leave out the details at all!
By the way, the roll sign at the sides this model makes it light up by guiding the room light.
It could be to prevent the light being too strong, but the window part for the side roll signs were painted white from the back.
The supervisor at Micro Ace must have thought of
the fans that wanted to enjoy the illumination,
going out of the way to produce this.
Now, there are 8 patterns of the Micro Ace Room Lights, with different length of spring, shades of color, and power intake, so be sure to select the one most suitable for your needs.
Since it’s almost Christmas, the illuminations of the city are very pretty lately.
How about enjoying the art of lights by equipping your model train with room lights?
Even the same train can feel completely different with them.
*Remember, disassembling of cars and attaching the room lights are to be done under your own responsibility.
Right then, see you next time.
By Kapinozuka (it requires another set to recreate the full formation, but my wallet doesn’t seem very healthy...)
The Tohoku Shinkansen began operation between the Ueno Station and Omiya Station in 1985.
The Shinkansen Relay Car ended its roll over roughly 3 years.
The Series 185 Nos.200 started being used as its original intention later, as the limited express train.
They are familiarized for the trains of Takasaki Line, such as the "Kusatsu", "Minakami", and "Tanigawa" etc.