http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20081118TDY04301.htm
GJThe 0 Series Shinkansen, the original model that debuted with the opening of the Shinkansen network in 1964, will be retired from service in mid-December, having made a lasting impression on the imagination of the public and on the lives of the people who worked on them.
Regular operations of the 0 Series Shinkansen, which currently run daily on the West Japan Railway Co.'s Sanyo Shinkansen line between Osaka and Fukuoka, will conclude at the end of November...
"The thought of not seeing the trains run again makes me feel sad," says Kiyoshi Tamura, a vice chief at the JR West Hakata Shinkansen train yard in Nakagawamachi, Fukuoka Prefecture, who has been involved in the repair and design of Shinkansen trains since joining the firm--then Japanese National Railways--in 1978.
Tamura, 55, will retire next spring, just months after the 0 Series ferries its final passengers.
Unlike modern aluminum-constructed trains, the steel-constructed 0 Series models are prone to corrosion, with rainwater causing rust to form on the cars.
"Sometimes passengers have claimed that rainwater [leaking through holes] got into their bento boxes. The trains need frequent repair work, and strange noises occur if we don't take care of them," Tamura said.
Tamura's former duties also involved controlling the air pressure inside the cars. The Sanyo Shinkansen line, running between Shin-Osaka Station in Osaka and Hakata Station in Fukuoka, passes through a series of tunnels, and passengers can experience discomfort in their ears if the air pressure is not sufficiently maintained.
He said, "I had to stay alert for the slightest gaps in window seals and other places." To Tamura, the 0 Series was "a child that caused a lot of trouble."
On the day of the 0 Series' final run, however, Tamura will stand at his favorite viewing spot, a place he discovered in Yamaguchi Prefecture, so he will be able to forever recall the sight of the 0 Series speeding by.
One former Shinkansen worker who was initially less sentimental about the trains is Terunobu Utsunomiya, 58, now the acting director of the Kyushu Railway History Museum in Kitakyushu. He admits that, when he first worked on the 0 Series Shinkansen as a dining car staffer, he was not particularly fond of the trains.
"I felt that the 0 Series didn't capture the romance of travel and that it didn't have the relaxed atmosphere of other express trains," he said.
His feelings prompted him to resign from his post, but after the more modern 100 Series made its debut, Utsunomiya had a change of heart and developed an affection for the 0 Series...
