Modern Japanese Express Train

I was shooting pictures on the bridge at Uguisudani in Tokyo and snagged some nice shots of a yellow E653 set used for the Fresh Hitachi service on the JR Joban Line. The cool thing about the Joban Line is that it is dual voltage with 1500V DC in the Tokyo area and 20,000V AC 50Hz in Ibaraki and northward.

There is a dead section of track between Toride and Fujishiro stations where the train must “coast” and switch over to the alternate voltage source. Power is temporarily interrupted, very similar to an airplane at the gate when it disconnects from airport power and switches to self-powered mode.