Japan

Finally, here's the last part of the "211 Series family" pack: the 6000 Series of JR Shikoku!

JR-Shikoku-6000-Series.png


It is already avaible on my website, here.

The 6000 Series was introduced by JR Shikoku in the mid-90s to replace the dilapdated 111 Series trains the company had bought, more or less at scrap price, from the JNR Settlement Corporation, the temporary entity that was tasked to phisically split the JNR into the JR Group companies and to sell off surplus assets (including rolling stock) in an attempt to somewheat quell the national railways' debt.

The 111 Series was built in the very early 1960s as the prototypes of the famous 113 Series, JNR's new standard mass-produced suburban train. However, by the mid-1980s most of them had severely aged and were withdrawn, with the few remaining sets being used as spare trains on various lines. At that time, their retirement (and eventual scrapping) was expected to come soon. However, unexpectedly, right after the privatization of JNR, five four-car sets were bought by JR Shikoku between 1987 and 1988, as said earlier, almost at scrap price, for rapid services between Okayama and Shikoku Island via the newly-opened and electrified Seto-Ooashi Line.

At the time, JR Shikoku did already have a sizeable fleet of electric multiple units, nineteen 121 Series 2-car sets, built specifically for services on Shikoku Island, however, these were unsuitable for "cross-strait" services due to their lack of toilets and the fact that they had been overall designed for rural local services.
And while there was in fact a dedicated fleet of trains for cross-strait services, the newly-built 213 Series, these were dedicated to "Marine Liner" rapid services, wich depsite being the most notable trains running on the Seto-Ooashi Line, they aren't the only ones, as the line also carries sizeable local services between Okayama and Takamatsu or Kotohira (besides limited express services, of course), wich were (and are) still very much important as a relief as ridership on "Marine Liner" trains had surpassed all forecasts, and overcrowding was common. Overall, a fleet of suitable electric multiple units was urgently needed, hence the purchase of 111 Series trains.

By the mid-1990s however the 111 Series sets' deterioration had been a serious issue and therefore a replacement was needed.
This replacement came to be in 1995 in the form of the 6000 Series. Derived from the very successful 211 Series family, the 6000 Series was a much fancier version of the former.
Generally speaking, from the 211 Series the 6000 Series inherited the bodyshell design, the front FRP mask and part of the technical equipment, including the bogeys, pantographs and driving desks. The rest of the train however was radically changed, starting from the window and door arrangment, wich was based on the 311 Series, JR Central's successor to the 211 Series. This new arrangment saw only the central door keep it's "original" placement, as the adjacent passenger compartments were extended, "pushing" the passenger doors further away, at the expense of the compartments on the ends of the car, wich were considerably shortened. With the enlarged central compartments, new windows were fitted, derived from the large ones of the 213 Series.

The cab area of the 6000 Series' cab cars was also expanded, towards the centre of the car, at the expense of the first passenger door, wich was considerably shortened (about 2/3 of it's original lenght) and subsequently changed to a single-leaf type.
As an additional precaution against accidental current discharges from the overhead catenary in thight areas (such as tunnels), the roof of the cars were painted with an electrically-insulating urethane-based paint.

Most of the technical components that the 6000 Series hadn't inherited from the 211 Series were however shared with other JR Shikoku electric multiple units, as a matter of containing manufacturing and maintainance costs. This also included their GTO-VVVF inverters and three-phase AC motors (making the 6000 Series the first, and only inverter-controlled train in the 211 Series family), wich were shared with the 8000 Series limited express trains.

Regarding formations, the 6000 Series was designed to be formed in 3-car sets in a 1M2T arrangment, in other words, a KuMoHa power car fitted with two pantographs and the necessary traction equipment (with both bogeys fitted with traction motors) pulling or pushing the two remaining trailer cars. The 6000 Series was also designed to be operable in multiple units with the KuHa 7100 cab cars of JR Shikoku's 7000 Series, an unique "fully-independent electric railcar + unpowered cab car" combination introduced in 1990 to supplement the 121 Series on local services. In other words, the KuHa 7100 cab car would be attached to a 6000 Series formation when higher-capcaity trains are needed, forming a 4-car set in a 1M3T arrangment.

Two 6000 Series sets were manufactured in 1995 by Nippon Sharyo and were delivered to JR Shikoku in 1996, entering in service on the 26th of April, running both "cross-strait" services between Shikoku and Okayama and "Shikoku-only" services between Takamatsu and Kotohira, including "Sunport" rapid services to Takamatsu as well as local ones.

However, just two 3-car sets were enough only to replace two of the five 111 Series sets, and as the company eventually ran short of money, instead of continuing production of 6000 Series trains, JR Shikoku opted for a cheaper alternative to replace the remaining 111 Series sets, purchasing three 113 Series 4-car sets second-hand from JR East and having them extensively repaired and refurbished in a fashion similar to JR West's "N40" program.
JR Shikoku's three 113 Series sets began services in 2000, and togherer with the two 6000 Series, they finally managed to replace the 111 Series sets by 2001.
With the arrival of the 113 Series however, starting from 2000 the two 6000 Series were relegated to Shikoku island-only services (both rapid and local ones). This changed in 2016 with the retirement of the first 113 Series sets from Seto-Ooashi Line duties and saw the return of JR Shikoku's 6000 Series to Okayama after two decades. This however changed again in 2019, with the 6000 Series being relegated again to Shikoku-only services.

As of now both of the two 6000 Series sets are still in service; they can be commonly found running local and rapid services on the Yosan Line between Takamatsu and Iyo-Saijo and on the electrified portion of the Dosan Line, between Tadotsu and Kotohira. 6000 Series trains found in the latter section are usually on rapid and local services between Kotohira and Takamatsu and vice-versa. Due to their relatively young-age and "up-to-dateness", there are no replacement plans for the 6000 Series yet, and, who knows, we might even be seeing these trains returning on services to Okayama in the future...



Trivia:
While the 6000 Series were excellent trains under almost all wiewpoints, one downside however was that due to their low motor/trailer ratio (1M2T or even 1M3T when running with a KuHa 7100 attached), these trains quickly gained a reputation for a lacklustre accelleration and braking performance. In the past there have been reports of services ran by 6000 Series sets that were delayed by a few minutes due to heavy rains, causing an almost constant wheelslip when accellerating out of a station, a situation worsened if a KuHa 7100 car was attached to the formation.



jr-shikoku-6000-series
jr-shikoku-6000-series
 
And here's a little "bonus" train from the "211 Series family" pack: JR West's Super Saloon Yumeji!

JR-West-211-Series-Super-Saloon-Yumeji.png


It's already avaible at my website here.

This lone 3-car set was built in 1988 for services on the Seto-Ooashi Line, via the newly-opened Great Seto Bridge. It is basically a self-propelled version of the KuRo 212 panoramic cab cars for Marine Liner trains, built at the same time and with the same design. Unlike the KuRo 212 cars, wich were intended to be an attractive "addition" to the otherwise conventional 213 Series trains, the Super Saloon Yumeji was intended to be tourist-charter train hybrid, taking full advantage of the panoramic wiews offered by the Seto strait crossing.

The Super Saloon Yumeji was manufactured by Kinki Sharyo and consisted in two powered cab cars (one of wich was fitted with a pantograph) of a design nearly identical to the KuRo 212 cars (also manufactured by Kinki Sharyo) sandwitching a power car built to the same design. However, unlike the KuRo 212 cars, wich were limited to "warm areas", the Super Saloon Yumeji was designed to be able to run all over JR West's DC-electrified network and therefore was fitted with snow-resistant equipment and had a maximium speed of 120 Km/h (whereas the KuRo 212s, as trailers for the 213 Series, had a maximium speed of 110 Km/h).

Upon it's entrance in service in 1988, the Super Saloon Yumeji was classified as a 211 Series train by JR West. This might seem odd, however it has an explanation: given that the Super Saloon Yumeji was intended to be a "stand-alone" set, it was decided to classify it as part of the 211 Series instead of the 213 Series to avoid confusion between the two. However the Super Saloon Yumeji shared the entirety of it's techical components with the 213 Series (and by extension also the "proper" 211 Series as well), with the two trains being mutually compatible.

While the set was intended for tourist and charter services, due to the overcrowding problem on Marine Liner services it wasnt uncommon to see the Super Saloon Yumeji set being "dismembered" and mixed into a 213 Series formation. Thanks also to the fact that the Super Saloon Yumeji and the 213 Series shared the entirety of their technical equimpents, it wasn't also uncommon to see the set's KuMoRo 212 non-pantograph cab car being used interchangeably with the KuRo 212 cab cars "proper" of Marine Liner trains. Sometimes even the whole Super Saloon Yumeji was also used to run Marine Liner services, of course due to the limited capacity, during off-peak hours.

With the retirement of the 213 Series from Marine Liner services in 2003, the Super Saloon Yumeji also stopped running those services, now being used exclusively for it's intended charter train purpose, being used, among other things, regularily on New Years' Day on special services between Okayama and Kotohira. However, the usage of the set declined thruought the years, and in 2010 JR West decided to retire it. The Super Saloon Yumeji made it's final run on the 7th of March 2010.

Unfortunately, one month after it's retirement, the whole set was packed and sent to JR West's Suita workshops to be scrapped.

Trivia #1:
While the Super Saloon Yumeji is classifed as a 211 Series set as a "whole", only the KuMoRo 211 (the cab car with pantograph) and MoRo 210 (the intermediate car) are also officially classified into the 211 Series - the third car, KuMoRo 212 is actually classifed as part of the 213 Series.

Trivia #2:
On the 10th of April 1988 the Super Saloon Yumeji officially inaugurated the Seto-Ooashi Line, carrying the then-crown prince Akihito and crown princess Michiko (later emperor and emperess, and current emperor and emperess emeritus).

Trivia #3:
The cab cars of the Super Saloon Yumeji were fitted with Karaoke machines for usage on charter trips.
 
Wow. That Yumeji would be a perfect sightseeing consist for the Hisatsu Line (Kuma River) I'm building right now, except it's an EMU not a DMU. Bummer.

Bill
 
Verry great rolling stock. Verry usefull for the Seto-Ohashi Line. Anyways, I made a little repaint pack of the JR-Shikoku 121 Series. I've used Socimi's 701 Series as base. This repaint was made pretty quick, so don't expect anything high-quality. It's actually made as static model for the Seto-Ohashi Line. But I thought I'd share it anyways. (With Socimi's permission)

The JR-Shikoku 7200 Series, wich is a modern version of the 121 Series, will follow.

Download here



Let me know if there are any missing dependencies!
 
Question. How do you fix a broken depency? I tried to install Alexmarias Red express train and it totally wrecked most of my Jr trains and put them in the red. The cuprit was a broken dependency called red_corona. It's red in all the trains that used it. Is there anyway it can be fixed or replaced? Also I can't drive the JR steam locos cause the Cab view depenancy is corrupted. I tried to download it again and it's still corrupted. Kinda sucks. Please help.
 
If you post the KUID of the red corona, maybe we can help you find it. You could substitute another red corona, but you would have to do each asset separately unless you cloned a red corona and gave it the KUID of the missing one. If you post the errors with the cab (interior?) asset, maybe we can help resolve the errors. Or, you might want to ask in the JR forum down in the Third party partners forums.
 
Faulty: corona_red kuid2:38427:21010:2 This is the kuid that all the messed up trains had when I installed the Red Express train. Sadly I'm in the process of deleting all those trains and I'll try to redownload them. IF that doesn't work then I' have to run the old keimi trains then. :east they still work.
 
Railshuttle, I have that asset and it shows as modified. It will show that for external downloads, so I don't know if I had to fix it. If you post the errors, I may be able to help fix what is wrong.
 
Make sure it is not open for edit (If it is, right click and select "revert to original"). Then right click the asset and select "View Errors and Warnings". Copy and paste to this thread so we can have a look.
 
Error: Tag 'asset-filename' in the container 'texture' is obsolete.
This is what showed up when I clicked on the red corona kluid itself.
IF it was recently modified. It screwed up all the trains using it in TRANIZ 12. Before that, they were all working.
 
It sounds like maybe there is a missing close quote or something. In mine, asset-filename and texture are two separate tags:

kuid <kuid2:38427:21010:2>


obsolete-table
{
}
category-class "JC"
category-region "BE"
category-era "1950s;1960s;1970s"
trainz-build 3.7
kind "texture"
asset-filename "corona_red"
username "corona_red"
author "Adelin Dumont"
organisation
contact-email "adelin.dumont@skynet.be"
contact-website
license
texture "corona_red.texture"


thumbnails
{

I think in my copy I had to use Images2TGA to convert the .texture file into .tga and .texture.txt files. but the name in the config.txt stays the same as above.
 
I'm still using trainz 12, I haven't installed the new one yet as I'm still working on my route on trainz12. I wonder if the older version is still around somewhere. I can over write the current one and that should fix the problem.
 
Taking advantage of the 211 Series versatile bodyshell, i've been able to make three more serieses not directly correlated to the 211 series family!

Here's the first of the three - my absolute favourite JR Central train: the 311 Series!

311-1536x887.png


It's already avaible at my website here.

The 311 Series was introduced in 1989 as the first new suburban train design of the newly-formed JR Central. These new trains were specifically intended to be used on newly-introduced rapid services on the Tokaido Line from Nagoya to Hamamatsu, Toyohashi, Ogaki and Maibara.
Derived directly from the standard 211 Series design of the defunct national railways, the 311 Series was a much enhanced and improved version of it’s predecessor, and as such shared both the basic bodyshell concept with an FRP front mask, wich however had been redesigned to give the trains a more modern look, and many technical components as well, such as the bogeys and traction motors. The bodyshell overall design was actually identical to the one of the 211 Series, however it had been extensively “re-arranged” with the central passenger compartments (between the central and external doors) having been expanded at the expense of the “end-of-car” ones (pushing the external doors further apart from the central ones in the process).
Due to their nature as trains intended for rapid services, the maximium speed of the 311 Series was also increased, topping at 120Km/h, making it one of the first non-limited express 120Km/h-capable narrow gauge trains in Japan.
Finally, the exterior livery was also changed compared to the 211 Series, with JR Central dropping the iconic “Shonan” green and orange colors in favour of a solid orange side band, with the tonality being the same as JR Central’s logo.
Fifteen 4-car sets, a total of 60 cars, were built by several different manufacturers between 1989 and 1991: Nippon Sharyo built one set, Hitachi built two, Kinki Sharyo built four and Kawasaki Heavy industries built the remaining eight.

The first five 311 Series trains, sets G1 to G5, began services with the timtetable revision of July 1989, being assigned to Special Rapid workings on the Tokaido Mainline, and were later also introduced on Chuo Line rapid services as well.
In 1999, with the introduction of the first 313 Series trains on the Tokaido Line, some 311 Series sets were cascaded to work services further eastwards to Shizuoka to replace the 113 Series sets still in service there. With the introduction of more and more 311 Series sets, the 311 Series was cascaded to lesser rapid and local services on both the Tokaido and Chuo Lines.
Between June 2006 and July 2008, the pantographs of all fifteen sets were changed from the original square type to the same single-arm type
With the 311 Series withdrawal from Chuo Line services in 2015, surplus sets were transferred to Nagoya-bound rapid service works on the newly-electrified Taketoyo Line.
As of today, all fifteen 311 Series sets are still in service, assigned at Ogaki depot, and can be found running local and rapid services on the Tokaido Line and rapid services on the Taketoyo Line. However, depsite the trains being still perfectly adequate and in good shape, JR Central already has plans to replace the 311 Series (togheter with the 211 and 213 Serieses) with the brand-new 315 Series, wich is to be introduced between late 2021 and 2025.

Trivia #1
The 311 Series was designed to be operated on all the electrified lines under JR Central’s control, including the steep and difficult Minobu Line. Plans were also made to use the 311 Series on direct trough-services with the Aichi Loop Railway, with the trains’ roller-blind destination indicators all predisposed for the addition of new destinations. However, such plans never came to fruition. The unused spaces in the 311 Series’ rollerblinds were finally “filled-in” when the trains began services on the Taketoyo Line in 2015.

Trivia#2
The 311 Series was the first JR Group non-limited-express train to be fitted with in-car payphones. However, due to their declining usage, they were all removed in March 2007.
 
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