The also known as the East-i, is a high-speed diagnostic train used on

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...

Shinkansen The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. It was initially built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond lon ...

lines. Entering service in 2001, it is based on the E3 series and carries out line inspections at a maximum speed of . It operates on the

Jōetsu Shinkansen The is a high-speed shinkansen railway line connecting Tokyo and Niigata, Japan, via the Tōhoku Shinkansen, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Despite its name, the line does not pass through the city of Jōetsu or the ...

, the

Tōhoku Shinkansen The is a Japanese high-speed Shinkansen rail line that runs through the more sparsely populated Tōhoku region of Japan's main island, Honshu. Operated by the East Japan Railway Company, it links Tokyo in the south to Aomori in the north, with ...

as well as its two

mini-shinkansen is the name given to the concept of converting narrow gauge railway lines to standard gauge for use by shinkansen train services in Japan. Unlike the high-speed Shinkansen lines, the mini-Shinkansen lines have a maximum speed of only . Two m ...

branch lines, the

Yamagata Shinkansen The is a Mini-shinkansen route in Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It provides service between Tokyo and Shinjō in Yamagata Prefecture over the tracks of the Tohoku Shinkansen and the Ōu Main Line. The term Yamagata ...

and Akita Shinkansen; the train also operates on the

Hokkaido Shinkansen The is a Japanese high-speed Shinkansen rail line that links up with the Tōhoku Shinkansen in northern Aomori Prefecture in Honshu and continues on into the interior of Hokkaido through the undersea Seikan Tunnel. Construction started in May ...

, owned by

JR Hokkaido The is one of the constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group), and is often referred to by its official abbreviation: . It operates intercity and local rail services in Hokkaido, Japan. The company introduced Kitaca, a smart c ...

, as well as sections of the

Hokuriku Shinkansen The Hokuriku Shinkansen () is a high-speed Shinkansen railway line connecting Tokyo with Tsuruga, Fukui, Tsuruga in the Hokuriku region of Japan. It is jointly operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and West Japan Railway Company (JR ...

owned by

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, ...

. Similar types of diagnostic trains called

Doctor Yellow is the nickname for a series of high-speed diagnostic trains that are used on Central Japan Railway Company, JR Central's Tokaido Shinkansen and West Japan Railway Company, JR West's San'yō Shinkansen lines. The trains have special equipment ...

operate on the

Tokaido Shinkansen The is a Japanese high-speed rail line that is part of the nationwide Shinkansen network. Along with the San'yō Shinkansen, it forms a continuous high-speed railway through the Taiheiyō Belt, also known as the Tokaido corridor. Opening in 19 ...

and San'yo Shinkansen.

Overview

The Class E926 is a non-revenue earning diagnostic train designed to replace the aging Class 925 inspection train. The Class 925, based on the 200 series, had a lower top speed than newly introduced trainsets at the time, such as the E3 series. Its loading gauge was also incompatible with the

, which used narrower trains. At the time, the mini-shinkansen relied on KuMoYa 743 series inspection railcars. In response to these needs, the Class E926 was introduced in 2001, with the Class 925 withdrawn that same year. The i in East i stands for intelligent, integrated, and inspection. Since the routes and times of operation of the East i train are not publicly disclosed, it is considered lucky by railway enthusiasts when the viewer sees it.

Formation

There are 7 East i series inspection train cars that were built. Cars 2 and 4 are equipped with a single arm

pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a Linkage (mechanical), mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a se ...

. Prior to the scrapping of car E926-13 in 2015, when the 6-car train was being maintained, a spare track inspection car was inserted into the pre-production

E2 series The is a Japanese high-speed Shinkansen train type operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) on the Tohoku Shinkansen high-speed lines in Japan since 1997. They are formed in 8- and 10-car sets. The 8-car sets were used on the Hokuriku ...

N21 set. File:E926_S51_East_i_E926-1.jpg, E926-1 (Car 1) File:E926_S51_East_i_E926-2.jpg, E926-2 (Car 2) File:E926_S51_East_i_E926-3.jpg, E926-3 (Car 3) File:E926_S51_East_i_E926-4.jpg, E926-4 (Car 4) File:E926_S51_East_i_E926-5.jpg, E926-5 (Car 5) File:E926-1.jpg, E926-6 (Car 6) File:JR_E2_N21_E926-13 omiya_20131112.jpg, E926-13 (The spare carriage that is inserted into an E2 series set when the 6-car set is being maintained) (Scrapped in 2015) File:JReastE2_N21_E926-13_Ueno_20131112.jpg, E2 series set N21 with the track inspection car in the background

References

{{JR East EMU Electric multiple units of Japan Shinkansen train series East Japan Railway Company Tokyu Car multiple units Train-related introductions in 2001 20 kV AC multiple units 25 kV AC multiple units Track recording trains