HB-E300 series

The HB-E300 series is a charter-only hybrid diesel-electric multiple unit operated by the East Japan Railway Company since October 2010.
==History==
The HB-E300 series was the first full-production Hybrid train manufactured for JR East since the prototype KiHa E200 series cars. Starting from these cars, JR East will use the "HB" prefix for hybrid multiple units; the first cars to adopt the official prefix would be the HB-E210 series cars introduced in 2015.
The HB-E300 series cars are only used on a variety of Joyful Train services and are not intended for regular service. The first set, the Resort Furusato, was introduced into service on 2 October 2010, with the remaining sets following shortly after. The sets mostly replaced older KiHa 48 series cars in use on these services. The Resort Furusato is used in Nagano, the Aoike and Buna in Akita, the Resort Asunaro in Aomori and the Kairi in Niigata; only the two Resort Asunaro sets feature fleet numbers, AH1 and AH2. All other sets do not have fleet numbers, so they will be referred to by name throughout this article.
Both Resort Asunaro sets were withdrawn from service on 20 August 2023, ahead of their expected rebuilds to the Hinabi and Satono sets expected to enter service in fiscal winter 2023 and spring 2024 respectively; AH1 was rebuilt to the Hinabi set in September 2023; it entered service on 23 December 2023. AH2 was rebuilt into the Satono set in December 2023; it entered service on 6 April 2024.
==Design==
The HB-E300 series use a modern streamlined design with a large frontal windshield which allows passengers to see the tracks ahead. The trains feature different liveries for each set, the specifics of which will be shown in the gallery below.
===Liveries===
HB-E300 Resort Furusato 2021.jpg|Resort Furusato
HB-E300 Aoike 2011.jpg|Resort Shirakami: Aoike
HB-E300 Buna 2020.jpg|Resort Shirakami: Buna; livery designed by Ken Okuyama
HB-E300 Resort Asunaro 2017.jpg|Resort Asunaro
HB-E300 Kairi 2021.jpg|Kairi
==Specifications==
Construction is of lightweight stainless steel. The train is largely based on the KiHa E200 series which run on the Koumi Line. Most of the sets feature a twin headlight design featuring one large sealed beam and one small high-intensity discharge headlight; the Kairi set features vertical rectangular LED headlights. Cameras are also equipped on some of the cars. The cabs have also been strengthened to prevent side collisions.
The trains are powered by DMF15HZB-G prime movers which produce 443 hp (331 kW); each car is equipped with one of these prime movers plus two banks of Hitachi MB-1 15.2 kWh lithium-ion batteries, with one bank for redundancy. Being a hybrid train, the train also uses Hitachi IGBT inverters which produce a hissing sound. At standstill, stored energy from the batteries is used to power auxiliary equipment on the train, such as air conditioning and lights. On moving from standstill, energy stored from the same batteries drives the traction motors via the onboard inverter; at this stage, the engine does not function. The engine will only cut in when the train needs further acceleration or if it is scaling a gradient for added power.
==See also==
*Wikipedia.org
Category:Diesel trainsets
Category:Hybrid locomotives
Category:JR Group trains
Category:J-TREC locomotives
Category:Niigata Transys locomotives
Category:Tokyu Car locomotives