It's fun for me to find rare trains on railway tracks as a trainspotter. It makes me happy even if I take a crowded commuter line during rush hours. Trainspotters are carefree people, aren't they?
I recently came across a test run scene of an extra rare train, EMU JR East E493 series, on the Musashino line. What's the E493 series? It's JR East's next generation work train for direct and alternate current railways. Its main mission is pulling deadhead trains on the lines, and shunting vehicles within depots. One set of the E493 series is composed of two motorcars, and has eight 190kW induction motors. It can pull up to a 10-car train such as the EMU E233 series on the Chuo Rapid line. The E493 series was commissioned in 2021. Only one set was built by Niigata Transys as a prototype. Mass production will start in 2023.
You may come up with a question... "Would existing locomotives be good enough for those missions?" Good question! According to JR East, having both electric cars (EMUs) and locomotives is ineffective and high cost. In fact, most of JR East's locomotives are very old, as they were succeeded from the ex-Japanese National Railways in 1987. It's very expensive to maintain them. The company decision was to replace their old locomotives by new electric cars.
I was happy to see the extra rare train. At the same time, I was a little sad, as JR East's electric locomotives will disappear in the near future.
