Background and overview
In 1975, Japanese National Railways (JNR) developed two-car diesel multiple
unit (DMU) train, kiha66 series in order to deliver for rapid services
in north Kyushu region, before the start of the operations on the Sanyo
Shinkansen between Okayama and Hakata. The standard formation of kiha66
series is 2-car formation by a kiha66 single-ended vehicle and a kiha67
single-ended vehicle.
Car body
They have 20806mm long and 2930mm wide body. Their body design incorporates lightweight shaped steel and pressed forming beam to realize a light weight body. Their bosy skin features weatherproof high-tension steel sheet. The original design was closely based on the class kiha65 DMU, with the primary difference being cabs that were 150 mm higher for the safety against crossing accident. They are painted in a coat of vermilion surrounding the windows with cream colour. They incorporate pairs of double-hung unit assembled side windows and 2 double-leaf semi-automatic doors on each side of the vehicles. Their doors have a step. Door operating equipments, TK106, are fitted above the doorways. Destination indicator screens are fitted on the side of the body. An air conditioner, AU75CM rated at 37,000kcal/h, is fitted on the centre of their roof. forced ventilators are fitted on the both side of the air conditioner.
Bogies
Their bogies are DT32H/TR69K adopting air suspension bogies. Motored bogies,
DT43, adopt 2-axle drive.
Traction unit and ancillary equipments
Their prime mover, DML30HSH, has some noticeable differences over earlier kiha65's prime mover, DML30HSD. Their cylinder head is changed into indivisual from monolock covering 3 cylinders. Engine cooling device is a hydrostatic fan fitted on the roof, to ensure stable cooling performance. A hydraulic transmission gears unit, DW9, featuring the filling and emptying of the hydrodynamic circuit differ from DW4 of earlier kiha181 series in switching between shift stage and lockup stage by hand.
The brake system is the automatic electromagnetic (CLE) air brake.
Accommodation
Passenger accommodation is mixture of longitudinal bench seating and switchable transverse seating, W15N, with 910mm seating pitch. Class kiha66 is equipped with a Japanese style toilet.
Modification
After splitting the former JNR into the new privatized JR companies, JR
Kyushu stated to replace their superannuated and bad fuel consumption prime
mover, DML30HSH, with new high performance and low fuel consumption prime
mover, DMF13HZA with a power output of 420PS from 1993. As a result, an
engine cooling radiator was fitted under the floor with omitting hydrostatic
fan fitted on the roof. A hydraulic transmission was changed into DW14H
featuring two-staged direct coupled range. Motored bogies of Kiha66/67-10
were changed into same new bogies, which is also classified into DT43,
and they were renumbered into kiha66/67-110.
Operations
Kiha66 series vehicles were delivered to Nougata depot in 1975 and used on the "Handa" and "Hita" express services and rapid services of Chikuho and Sasaguri lines.
After the Chikuho and Sasaguri line were electrified in 2001, kiha66 series
were relocated to Nagasaki depot. Though they had beenused on the rapid
and rural services of Nagasaki and Ohmura lines, they were gradually replaced
with YC1 series DMU and completely withdrawn in 2021. |
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