On July 10th, 2021, JR East celebrated the 100th anniversary of their Nakano Rail Yard on the Chuo local line. In commemoration of the anniversary, many events were held by JR East Tokyo Branch Office.
Let me quickly review JR East's Nakano Rail Yard. It started as a train depot in 1921. The function of the train depot was then moved to Mitaka in 1986 leaving several storage tracks in Nakano. As a result, the main task of this "rail yard" became operations of the Chuo local line. In other words, train drivers of the Chuo local line currently belong to this organization, "Nakano Rail Yard".
I recently found that the 100th anniversary memorial plate is displayed on a train, set B11 of the EMU E231 series. It's my big favorite. Please look at the following picture. You'll find that the numeral "100" on the plate is designed with a driver's console equipment. It includes that the numeral "1" is taken from a master controller. The numeral "0" is designed with a pressure gauge; while another "0" has a speedometer design. In my understanding, the status of the numeral "100" on the plate shows that the train is traveling at a speed of approximately 80 kilometers per hour, while not applying a brake. That's what the needles of the speedometer and pressure gauge say.
This witty and beautiful memorial plate was produced by a local design company named Design Kyuko. I take my hat off to the designer's creativity. Thank you so much.
