Class 1000 Shinkansen

Class 1000 Shinkansen was the designation given to a pair of experimental high-speed electric multiple units operated by the Japanese National Railways from June 1962 to August 1975. These two sets were used for high speed testing ahead of the Tōkaidō Shinkansen's opening by Japanese National Railways.
==History==
1001, the first car to be built, was delivered on 16 April 1962 from Kisha Seizō based in Tokyo, then transferred by road, and then rail, to Nippon Sharyo's factory based in Saitama; set A was unveiled to the press on 25 April 1962; set B was delivered at a later date.
High speed test-running commenced on 26 June 1962 on the 32 km "Kamonomiya model track" section between Odawara and Ayase. Both sets broke numerous speed records, both national and international; set B set a world speed record of 256 km/h (159 mph) on 30 March 1963. A third set, unofficially referred to as set C, was produced as a precursor to the Shinkansen sets, with cars numbered 1011 through 1016. When car numbering regulations came into effect, the car numbers for 1011 through 1016 were changed to 21-1, 26-1, 35-2, 16-1, 25-2 and 22-1 respectively. To prevent confusion, set C will be considered a standard production Shinkansen set in this article.
With trial service and test-running beginning on the actual Tōkaidō Shinkansen with the then-new Shinkansen sets, both the A and B sets were converted and reclassified to serve other purposes; set A was converted to the Class 941 Shinkansen "emergency relief train", while set B was converted to become the Class 922 "Doctor Yellow" track inspection train set T1. Both sets were also repainted, now sporting yellow bodies with blue stripes. Set C's cars would be incorporated as part of full-production Shinkansen set N1, with six new-build cars inserted between to make a twelve-car formation.
The Class 941 set remained out of service at Osaka Depot, while the Class 922 set was used until Class 922 set T2 was delivered in 1974. Both sets met their final fates at Hamamatsu Works, where new scrapping machinery was being tested to ensure that they would be working properly ahead of the first 360 Shinkansen cars being due for withdrawal.
Both set A and B were scrapped at Hamamatsu Works; however, pantographs from set A and B are on display at The Railway Museum in Saitama. N1 would later be renumbered to H1 in 1971 and retired in 1978; four cars from N1, 21-1, 22-1, 16-1 and 35-1, are on display at the Kyoto Railway Museum, with three of these cars originating from set C.
==Specifications==
The Class 1000s had rather unique features, some of which would be carried onto the production 0 Series sets, and some which would not. All cars were built out of welded steel and had rounded cab windows, with the exception of car 1006 of set B having angular cab windows which would carry onto the production 0 Series sets; car 1004, also from set B, had unusual elongated hexagonal side windows. The Class 1000s also had external sliding doors and a unique translucent nose section which could be illuminated from the inside with the use of fifteen 20 W fluorescent tubes. Both sets also sported number plates on each side of the end cars.
Two Class 1000 sets were built. Set A was 2 cars long and consisted of cars 1001 and 1002, while set B was 4 cars long and consisted of cars 1003 to 1006. Cars 1002, 1004 and 1006 all had auxiliary pantographs positioned next to the main pantographs. All six cars had a different seating configuration.
==Gallery==
0 Series 21-1 2021.jpg|Car 21-1 (ex-0 Series H1, ex-Class 1000 set C) in February 2021
Shinkansen Class 941 Profile.png|Class 941 Shinkansen "relief train"
==Trivia==
*0 Series training vehicle 22-1047 was mocked up to resemble set B for a television show.
==References==
*Wikipedia.org
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