Background and overview
Since 113-1000?series established the standard design for air-conditioned suburban electric multiple unit trains, 115 series also started to be equipped with an air conditioner in 1973 and was classified into -300 subseries having various improvements. 566 vehicles were built over the period from October 1973 until December 1977.
Car body
They have 2900mm wide body. Their body design incorporates lightweight
shaped steel and pressed forming beam to realize a lightweight body. Their
skin features cold-rolled steel, and their roof panel features hot-rolled
steel. The floor features lightweight painted vehicle floorboards for fireproof.
Their cab end is gangwayed, having a gangway door and curved surface windscreens
on the front. A destination roll sign is fitted above the gangway door.
Two headlights employing sealed beam light bulbs are fitted each side of
the gangway and two taillights are fitted below the headlights. They are
equipped with three 1300mm wide double-leaf automatic sliding doors. 1075mm
wide double-hung unit assembled side windows, both the upper and lower
sashes of which move up, and door case windows are fitted between the doors,
and 515mm and 1075mm wide double-hung unit assembled windows and a smaller
door case window are fitted at the end of the body. Door operating equipments,
TK8, allowing hand operation to prevent the passenger's room from being
cold in winter are fitted on the door header of the sliding doors. A destination
rollsign is prepared to fit on each side of the body. Class moha114-300
vehicles are equipped with 5 forced draught ventilators on their roof and
the others 6. They are also equipped with an air conditioner, AU75C, rated
at 42000kcal/h on the centre of the roof. Their livery is green with orange
wide band around side windows.
Bogies
Motored bogies are DT21B, and trailer bogies are TR62, employing swing hanger construction, coil springs as bolster spring, and pedestal type journal supporting system. The parallel cardan drive with hollow shaft is applied for the power transmission device. The gear ratio is 4.82. Motored bogies employ the double tread brake rigging and trailer bogies employ the disk brake rigging.
Traction unit and ancillary equipments
Eight series-wound brushed DC traction motors, MT54D, with a power output
of 120kW are controlled by the armature-resistance traction control system,
CS15F, fitted to powered intermediate vehicles, class moha115-300. CS15F
features holding breaking and free selectable speed control. Class moha114-300
vehicles are equipped with a motor generator, MH135-DM92, with a power
output of 160kVA and a motor driven air compressor, MH113A-C2000M, under
the floor. Class moha114-300 vehicles are also equipped with a current
pickup, PS16, on the roof. They adopt electromagnetic straight air brake
with the rheostatic brake.
Accommodation
They have mixture of longitudinal bench seating and transverse seating bays with 1420mm seating pitch. Longitudinal bench seating is located at beside doors. The backrest of transverse seating bay has a square shaped hand-grab, and straps are fitted above the longitudinal seating. The cab section of the driver's seat is extended compared to no air-conditioned 113-0 series. Class kuha111 vehicles are equipped with a Japanese style toilet floored with s stainless steel for anti-corrosion and having a chemical holding tank, located at the rear of the body.
Additional delivery
New variant vehicles, the powered end vehicle, class kumoha115, is involved for vehicles built from January 1975 for Chuo-East line in order make 3-car sets used on Fuji Kyuko railway. In addition, class moha114-300 vehicles employ a current pickup, PS23, designed for small cross section of tunnels, since a cross section of tunnels on the Chuo East line is small. Vehicles built for the Chuo East line are applied livery which is blue with cream wide band around side windows.
The cover fitted below seats and frames of the overhead luggage reck of the vehicles built from September 1977 were changed into stainless steel to eliminate painting.
Modification and refurbishment
JR East
Refurbishment Programme
The refurbishment programme was commenced for some vehicle received from JNR in order to extend their life. This programme includes introducing polyurethane resin-based roofing material, the replacement of body skin, introducing continuous welds to join the underframe and the body skin, removing all exterior painting for repainting, changing the floor material into the metal, and the replacement the sliding doors with ones made by stainless steel. In addition, this programme includes the entire replacement of interior decorative panels, seat fabric replacement, and the luggage racks replacement with new ones made by aluminum alloy and stainless steel.
Current pickup replacement
The current pickup of 115-300 series used on Chuo East line was replaced
with a single-arm current pickup, PS35A, in 1998.
Modification for reliability improvement
JR East modified 115-300 series vehicles to improve the reliability with the replacement of an existing reciprocation air compressor with a scroll compressor, MH3114-C1500EB and the replacement of the motor generator with an auxiliary power supply, SC58A, with a power output of 140kVA. The bearing of the bogies was changed into sealed roller bearing and classified them into DT21E for powered and TR62E for trailer.
JR West
Refurbishment programme N/refurbishment programme NA
In addition to special maintenance work focused on retaining the function
the vehicles, refurbishment programme N to improve outdated accommodation
was applied for 61 115-300 series vehicles over the period from September
1992 until September 1997. Some accommodation improvements were included
for these works. The fabric of seating was changed into red. Some parts
of the luggage rack were replaced with those made by stainless steel, and
the others were plated in silver coloured. The decorative end panels were
replaced with brown coloured, and the decorative wainscot panels were replaced
with peptone brown-coloured plates. Additional fluorescent lights were
fitted to improve the illuminance in the passenger room.
Work for speed improvement
-5000 subseries
JR West modified 115-300 series used on JR Kobe, JR Kyoto, Biwako and Hanwa line rapid services with some improvements in April 1992, including load-responding brake, improved brake lining and shoe, improved primary spring for the hunting prevention, and changing brake lever ratio in order to introduce 110km/h operation, and classified them into -5300 subseries.
-5800 subseries
JR modified 115-300 series with some improvements in May 1992 and November, including load-responding brake, improved brake shoe and lining, improved primary spring for the hunting prevention, and brake lever ratio changed from 2.56 to 4.19 of powered vehicles in order to introduce 110km/h operation, and classified them into -5800 subseries.
Operations
115-300 series entered revenue services on Tohoku, Takasaki, and Chuo-East lines. However, some of them were displaced with 211 series and surplus vehicles were relocated to Okayama and Shimonoseki depots to provide additional capacities and to displace superannuated 111 series.
At the splitting of JNR into privatized JR companies, JR East and JR West
received 115-300 series vehicles. Vehicles owned by JR East had been displaced
with 211 series, E231 series, and E129 series EMUs gradually. Eventually,
they had been withdrawn completely in 2015. At last, they had been withdrawn
completely in 2007. Vehicles owned by JR West had been displaced with 221
series, 223 series, and 227 series. Finally, 18 vehicles allocated at Okayama
depot are now used on local services. |
|
