Driving simulator of the EMU JR East E5 series is exhibited in the Railway Museum Subsequent to my last post, I am going to continue to show you a new exhibition in the Railway Museum.
On July 5th, 2018, an annex, namely South Building, was opened in the museum. South Building has many new exhibitions such as Shinkansen trains. Of course they are very interesting, but my recommendation is a driving simulator of the EMU Shinkansen E5 series on the 2nd floor. The visitors can enjoy its high speed driving experience using the simulator. Sitting on the driving seat in the mock-up of the E5 series, I saw not only kids but also elderly persons immersed in pleasure, as it provides a highly realistic Shinkansen operation simulation.
Incidentally, the E5 series is a JR East's Shinkansen train launched for speeding up of the Tohoku Shinkansen trains in 2011. Its maximum speed is 320 km/hour (198.8 miles/hour), which is the fastest in Japan. A total of 38 sets, 380 units were built by Kawasaki heavy Industries and Hitachi. JR Hokkaido's EMU H5 series is a sister train of the E5 series.
Generally speaking, development of high speed trains itself isn't so difficult, if appropriate accelerating and braking systems are equipped. The problem is the concern for the environment, specifically noise, because Japan is a densely populated country. A countermeasure for noise is essential for high speed train development. For that purpose, the head car of the E5 series has a 15 meter-long nose to reduce the tunnel boom.
EMU JR East E5 series (mock-up) is exhibited in the Railway Museum