After a few weeks of work, here's the first part of this years' first megapack, wich will be finally covering one of the last "major missing series" of JR East: the first "New Serieses Trains" - the original narrow-bodied 209 Series!
From left to right: original 901 Series prototype (1992-1994), Keihin-Tohoku Line 209 Series (1993-2010), Nambu Line 209 (-0) Series (1993-2015), Boso Area 209-2000/2100 Series (2009-Today), Nambu Line 209-2200 Series (2009-2015), Kawagoe & Hachiko Lines 209-3000 Series (1996-2019).
All six variants are already avaible on my website, divided into four packs: 901 and 209-0 Serieses, 209-2000/2100 Series, 209-2200 Series and 209-3000 Series.
Unlike the other JR Group companies, after the privatization of JNR, JR East decided not to immediately design new commuter and suburban trains design, and instead opted to continue production on some of the late JNR designs, mainly the 205 Series and the 211 Series, in order to "take time" to eventually develop a more advanced replacement for the 103 Series, wich despite the attempted mass-scale introduction of new series trains by the now-defunct national railways, was still the mainstay of almost all commuter lines in Tokyo, having been completely replaced only on the Chuo Line (by the 201 Series) and only partly on the Yamanote Line (by the 205 Series) by the time JNR got privatized.
The 103 Series was considerably heavy, as it had been manufactured out of carbon steel, and had a relatively high energy consumption compared to it's immediate successors. Furthemore, since it was concieved in the early 1960s, during the economic miracle and rapid urbanization and subsequent rapid constant increase in ridership of railway lines, it was designed to be as simple, cheap and quick to manufacture as possible, and was subsequently produced for 20 straight years, from 1963 to 1983 as JNR's standard commuter train.
Therefore, in its early years, JR East was facing some serious issues, as by the late 1980s most 103 Series sets were seriously ageing, and the series as a whole rapidly becoming more and more of an hurdle for the company.
Out of all JR East lines, the one with the most urgent need of rolling stock was the Keihin-Tohoku Line, wich depsite being one of the most important commuter lines, it was still operated almost entirely with 103 Series trains, along with a small fleet of relatively newer 205 Series trains ordered almost as an emergency mesaure piggybacking on a larger Yamanote Line order.
Therefore, in the early 1990s JR East started the first serious design workings for a 103 Series replacement. Another issue was the eventual long-term technological obsolescence, as JR East felt it couldn't keep up with the rapidly-developing electronics application in railway transport with trains that had a "traditional" lifespan of 30-50 years.
Furthemore, not only JR East had to replace 103 Series trains on the "core" urban lines, but also on numerous suburban and rural lines as well, something that would've taken a few decades, thus hypotetically, once all old trains had been replaced by new trains, it would've needed to start again, as the "new trains" that were introduced on the main lines by that time were now "old", and such circle would've repeated itself indefinitely.
In the end, JR East decided to break entirely with the tradition of JNR-derived designs, opting instead for a completely new rolling stock concept - "half the weight, half the cost, half the lifespan":
By using stainless steel bodyshells (as proven with the 205 Series) a train could be made to be "half the weigth" of a conventional carbon-steel one, wich meant less wear and tear, less maintainance needs for rolling stock and infrastructure wich would result in a cost reduction wich coupled with scale economies trough mass production meant the new trains would be nearly "half the cost" of equivalent ones, and thus larger amounts could be procured for the same price. Finally, "half the lifespan" meant that rather than spend all of it's 30 years of service life on one line, the new trains would spend half of that lifespan on major lines, then be refurbished and cascaded to lesser-used lines where they would spend the remaining half. This had the double effect of having the major lines always have the lastest up-to-date stock, and would've meant a relative saving in rolling stock purchase for the lesser-used lines, something that is always more-or-less regarded as a waste of money.
Breaking from the old JNR tradition of "in-house design" (for the vast majority of it's existance, JNR had designed it's rolling stock almost entirely on it's own, contracting the manufacturing to the various rolling stock builders, wich had little input in the design, something that was changed only with the very last JNR designs), JR East opted for the manufacturers to have ample flexibility in drawing up their proposals for a new commuter train design, limiting it's job only to giving out the necessary specs: the new 103 Series replacement was to be a 1500v mono-voltage commuter electric multiple unit with 20m-long cars with four doors per side, to be made out of stainless steel. Another important requirement was the traction system: the new trains were to use the then-brand new VVVF inverter control, coupled with regenerative braking, in lieu of the now long-obsolete resistor control or the slightly less modern chopper control.
In the early 1990s, three manufacturers proposed their designs, with two demonstrating theirs with a mock-up car: an "HX-1" prototype by Hitachi, more or less an updated version of the 205 Series and a "KX-1" prototype by Kawasaki, wich had completely smooth sides with an FRP front mask and was based on the company's previous experience with subway trains (primarily Tokyo's TRTA ones) and the late JNR and early JR suburban trains (such as the 211 and 311 Serieses).
A third proposal was also made by Nippon Sharyo, with an "NX-1" prototype, pictures of wich are rather elusive.
Out of three, Kawasaki's design was selected as the best, with the company being contracted, in collaboration with Tokyu Car Co. and JR East's Omiya Works to manufacture three 10-car prototype trains to be tested in revenue service.
Classified as the "901 Series", denoting the experimental nature of the fleet, the three 10-car sets, numbered A, B and C were delivered to Urawa depot in March 1992 for services on the Keihin-Tohoku Line.
Each of the three sets fetaured different technical solutions, with each train fetauring a different GTO-VVVF inverter (Fuji Electric, Toshiba and Mitsubishi Electric), window opening system, presence or less and style of hanging straps, FRP front mask thickness, door system, driving desks (set A and C had two-handle master controllers, one of wich derived from the one of the 205 Series and set B had a one-hand master controller derived from the one of JR Hokkaido's 721 Series) and so on...
Another notable fetaure of the 901 Series was that for the first time for a commuter train, external design was made one of the primary concerns, with the GK Design studio, led by famous designer Kenji Ekuan, being contracted to give the new trains a more modern and distinct look from the old 103 Series.
After a full year of testing, the definitive design for the new trains was finalized, and consisted in an amalgamation of the best solutions found in each trains (such as the MELCO inverter of Set C, the one-handle master controller of set B and the bodyshell manufacturing technique of set A). Finally, the full-production "New Series Trains", classified as the "209 Series" began to be manufactured en-masse in early 1993, with the first sets entering full service on the Keihin-Tohoku Line in March 1993. The new trains were immediately well recieved by both passengers and railwaymen alike: they were comfortable, quiet and smooth, a far cry from the old 103 Series. Shortly after, in 1994, the three 901 Sets were converted to mass-production standards, being reclassified as the 209-900 Series.
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