We celebrated the 150th anniversary of Japanese railways on October 14th. Following the historical station and steam locomotive, I'm going to show you a special-colored train celebrating the 150th anniversary.
On October 1st, JR East launched a special train on the Yamanote line. The standard trains on the line have silver-colored bodies with light green-colored faces and doors. On the other hand, this special train has jet black bodies. It's named "the black Yamanote line" by JR East. Set 15 of the EMU E235 series is commissioned as "the black Yamanote line". Why is it black? Because it was taken from the color of Japan's first steam locomotive, unit 1 of the Class 150.
I've seen the green and brown-colored special trains on the Yamanote line so far, but never seen the black-colored one. It's very unique. I thought that Japanese passengers might hate the black-colored trains, because black is associated with funerals; however, "the black Yamanote line" is unexpectedly popular among passengers. Many rail-fans currently flock to the stations on the Yamanote line to take photos of this special train. I was being stereotypical. Do you have any black-colored passenger trains in your country?
For your information, the Yamanote line is known as Japan's busiest railway. It's looped through several sub-center areas of Tokyo. The route length is 34 kilometers. The track is double. Each train runs in the same direction throughout the day; clockwise or counterclockwise. The EMU E235 series is the sole model on the line.
