Background and overview
JR East owned 62 electric locomotives hauling not only overnight sleeping car trains but also freight trains and non-revenue services as of 2010. These locomotives were getting superannuated at that time. When the failure occurs, locomotive hauled trains have less redundancy than EMU trains and had a big issue to improve the transportation stability. Because the average age of class EF81 multi-voltage AC/DC electric locomotive used on "Cassiopeia" and "Hokuto-sei (means Big Dipper)" is 34 years, JR East introduced new multi-voltage AC/DC electric locomotives, class EF510-500, based on class EF510-0 developed by JR Freight and having long period of working, and delivered one in 2009.
Car body
Its body features double ended boxcab style constructed by steel. Their bosy skin features weatherproof high-tension steel sheet for anti-corrosion improvement. The both ends are no gangwayed, feature dogleg streamline shape, and have two rectangle shaped headlights above its windscreens and a pair of rectangle shaped headlights and tail lights in left and right below its windscreens. The disconnecting switch, circuit breaker, and main fuse are fitted inside their body in order to protect them against salt damage and heavy snow. So, only two single arm current pickups, FPS5, and a protection switch are fitted on its roof. An aisle is fitted on one side of the machine room located at the centre of the body and switched to the opposite side at middle of the body to realize easy maintenance and easy access to the cab. For these reasons, skylight windows are fitted on the left-side and louver windows on the right-side facing body side. Three traction systems and an ancillary power supply are fitted at the centre of the machine room, an electric blower to cool traction systems toward the front, a traction transformer and an AC/DC changer toward the rear, and each electric blower to cool a traction resistor unit for rheostatic brake at the both end of the machine room. ATS-S pickups were relocated between reservoir tanks and the centre bogie to fit train identification pickups to travel through Kuroiso station. Airtightness of the cabs are reinforced and an air conditioner is also fitted to cool the cab. Their body is painted in blue with a gold narrow band and a skirting with shooting star symbol.
Bogies
Bogies are FD7N for outer and FD8A for centre. Their bogies feature bolster-less secondary air suspension, axle arm type journal box supporting system, and the Z link traction device with low centre pivot. These bogies adopt the yaw dampers to ensure smooth ride characteristics even at 110km/h. An air suspension cover is fitted for antifreezing. Their brake rigging is single tread brake device having brake shoe made of sintered alloy. FD8A also employs parking brake device. Their drive unit features single reduction axle-hung. A roller bearing is employed for motor suspension bearing of the nose suspended motor in order to improve meshing precision, provide maintenance free, and prevent galling. The gear ratio is 5.125.
Traction unit and ancillary equipments
They are equipped with 3 traction systems, FMPU16A, which consist of a pair of a 3-level converter employing Insulated Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) and a 2-level Variable-frequency drive (VFD) employing IGBT and control 6 AC induction motors, FMT4A, with power output of 565kW on axle basis featuring improved power factor, higher harmonic wave reduction, and fields-oriented control to realize quick response of traction motor torque control while wheel slip. Their ancillary power unit is FAPU6 which consists of a rectifier powered from tertiary winding of the traction transformer and an inverter featuring Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), and supplies 3-phase 440VAC. In addition, for single-phase 100VAC and 100VDC loads, it supplies step-down three-phase 440VAC or step-down and rectified three-phase 440VAC. In case of the auxiliary power supply unit failure, one VFD unit for No.1 traction motor can switch to supply electricity as the backup auxiliary power supply unit to achieve higher redundancy. Their traction transformer featuring shell and forced oil cooling is FTM4 with a power output of 3,490kVA. They are also equipped with two motor driven air compressors, FTC2000-FMH3105 between bogies and two single air current pickups, FPS5B, applying spring lift, pneumatic drop, and pneumatic unlock mechanism corresponding to AC electrification on their roof. Its independent brake which makes brake applications on the head-of-train locomotive employs the electric commanding brake with the rheostatic brake. On the other hand, Automatic brake which provides service and emergency braking control for the entire train is controlled by the pressure reduction of the brake pipe depending on the notch command signal. Dynamic braking is enabled over 30km/h. If the regenerative brake is not sufficient, additional brake is provided by pneumatic friction brake. Because of this, they are equipped with a traction power resistor unit rated for sufficient value for hauling 1300-tonne at 10‰ grade.
Additional delivery
Additional 14 vehicles were built in 2010. Two of the fourteen vehicles (EF510-509 and EF510-510) were painted in a dedicated livery of silver with blue, purple, red, orange, and yellow stripes, to match E26 series intercity sleeper coaches used on "Cassiopeia" service.
Modification
After EF510-500 locomotives were sold and transferred to JR Freight, JR Freight removed ATS-P pickups. The shooting star symbol splashed on the bodyside and 5 coloured stripes of EF510-509 and EF510-510 were also removed.
Operations
They entered intercity overnight sleeping car train services, "Cassiopeia" in June 2010 and subsequently "Hokuto-Sei" services after they underwent extensive testing to confirm a designed performance and the operation training programme was provided from December 2009. Furthermore, they entered Johban line freight duties in December 2010. However, Joban Line freight duties operated by JR East EF510-500 locomotives were replaced with Class EH500 locomotives owned by JR Freight and EF510-501 to 508 and 511 became surplus to requirements. These nine locomotives were subsequently transferred to JR Freight. In addition, EF510-512 to 515 became surplus caused by the discontinuance of "Hokuto-Sei" services and were transferred to JR Freight over the period from 2015 until 2016. Finally, EF510-509 and -510 became surplus caused by the discontinuance of "Cassiopeia" services and were transferred to JR Freight in 2016. All EF510-500 locomotives transferred to JR Freight are now used on freight duties along with EF510-0 locomotives. |
|
| Technical Data |
| Items |
Data |
| Supply
Voltage |
1,500VDC,
20,000V 50/60Hz AC |
| Service
speed |
110km/h |
| Max power |
3,390kW |
| Length |
19,800mm |
| Width |
2,887mm |
| Total
mass |
100.8t |
| Axles location |
B0-B0-B0 |
| Bogie |
FD7N (End), FD8A (Intermediate) |
| Current
collector |
FPS5B |
| Traction
motor |
FMT4A~6 |
| Traction system |
FMPU16A |
| Designed
by |
JR East |
|
|
