Super Hikari/The Evolutionary Train

£4.80 in yen - Now that's what I call value [says the dude who can't get a pint for under £5 in London  ]

So yep I've scored the somewhat rare Plarail Super Hikari, but as ever I decided to do a bit of detective work on this one and see what interesting facts I could discover, and to say the least, I think this one might certainly have one of the more interesting stories behind it's very existence, and how it was a part of the evolution of the Shinkansen in the late 1980's, at the dawn of the new JR system.

So, this one's a time where TOMY [probably with the assistance of JR Central] used a bit of creative license to visualise how a complete set would have looked, because while the Plarail model is a complete 3-car set, the real deal was a single half-length mockup carriage.



So, what exactly was this even built for? Or indeed, what is it?

Records indicate this was called variously the 'Super Hikari Model', the SH-201 [the name printed on the Plarail model], and perhaps most confusingly the '300 Series Shinkansen' [this is important for later so bear this in mind].

Effectively, this was little more than a large rolling model of what a planned Shinkansen model that would have been deployed across all the then-existing [as of 1987] Shinkansen network. This was initiated by the JNR, although 1987 was the year the JNR was privatised into the JR system of today, meaning the project was transferred to JR Central who were likely to be the first JR region to deploy the units as operators of the heavily-used Tokaido Shinkansen, the original Shinkansen route from Tokyo-Osaka.



This model was designed to be faster, more comfortable and overall better than what it replaced, including the 100 Series Shinkansen [again, bear this in mind, it's important later]. The goal was to create a train that could compete in speed and comfort with domestic Japanese airlines which had begun to eat into the Shinkansen's market share.

As such, plans featured a luxurious interior with airline-style personal TV sets in every seat, plans for internal business suites and office facilities [this was a concept later successfully employed by the Swedish National Railways/SJ for their X2 sets of 1990 which had on-board fax machines as-new  ] as well as a comfort-cab for drivers with a large wrap-around windscreen for an unimpeded view. 



Similarly, the carriages were built to a 'super-decker' design with large panoramic windows, and artists impressions [see above] indicate that the interiors would have had a resemblance to the 'dome' coaches employed on many American railroads thanks to these windows.



Now for those of you looking at all these pictures, and thinking 'Hey, this shape looks... familiar?', congratulations - You're right! The design was quite literally a heavily modified version of the then relatively new 100 Series, which despite something of a family resemblance to the 0 Series of the 60's was actually introduced by the JNR in 1985, only 2 years before the Super Hikari design was commissioned!



This would raise the first major issue with the design, before the model was even displayed to gauge public and industry feedback - What they had built was a heavier, bulkier and slower version of the 100 Series that while certainly very futuristic looking and luxurious, offered no tangible benefits over anything that was running already on the JR network. 

This issue was in no small part because they re-used the basic design of the 100 Series and simply made the coaches larger [and as such heavier], which then made it likely that the planned motor system [presumed to be a somewhat more advanced version of that in the 100 Series] would not be able to move the train any faster than the 100 Series, and would maybe even be slower. This totally defeated the idea of a train that could be comparable to a plane in speed terms.

The next issues were more pressing. 

Drivers who sampled the cab were reported to have commented that the wide 'panoramic' windscreen was actually a risk factor for bird-strikes wherein vision could be obscured should one occur, or even the possibility of the large panel breaking on impact in a way that was less likely with the smaller seperated windscreens that came before.

Engineers also assessed the design, and concluded that the panoramic windows in the carriage removed a great deal of the structural integrity that would be nessecary for both normal operation and potential safety in the event of a collision, something that naturally could not be compromised on.

In summary, what had been built was quite literally a very pretty-looking, but ultimately useless design that was totally unfit for revenue service in it's then current design state. If anything, it was little more than a large tech-demonstrator that indicated ways that new technologies could be deployed on future trains, but would never have worked if it had been bought to production.

To make good on it's production and to show their innovation as a new successor to the JNR, JR Central displayed the unit at Tokyo Station and various trade and industry fairs, before being unceremoniously scrapped in 1989 after it's final fair showing - By this time, something much more likely to see service was in development.

1988 was the year that development on the real 300 Series Shinkansen was officially begun, using the 'Super Hikari'/'300 Series' as a basis. A basis of 'let's not design our train like that', it would seem, because as we all know, the real 300 Series looked nothing like the Super Hikari. 

The 300 Series shared very little in resemblance to it's forebears with it's 'wedge' shaped front as opposed to the aircraft-cone noses of the past, higher speed, bolsterless bogies for reduced weight, and use of distributed AC electrical systems for smoother operation. 



Some of the technologies considered for use in the Super Hikari would eventually see use in future models, but overall, it effectively existed for 2 years, then disappeared into the history books with no fanfare, while the real 300 Series became everything it was intended to be originally.

Indeed, it was intended that the 300 Series would inherit the 'Super Hikari' title from the prototype, which was to denote super-fast nonstop services operated with the new faster trains, while the other services such as the standard Hikari would remain operated by the incumbent 100 Series fleet with the intent that the 300 Series would allow enough 100 Series to be freed to replace remaining 0-Series units. 

However, this never happened, as the name was changed to 'Nozomi' before the debut of the service with the entry of the 300 Series, and Nozomi has subsequently remained the title of the fastest Tokaido Shinkansen services to this day.  

The 300 Series would then go on to spawn the 300X test train, which as of now is still the Japanese speed record holder and was the test-bed for a large selection of technologies implemented on Shinkansen right through to this very day.

So, why on earth did TOMY commission a model of what was practically a very large and expensive experiment that never even ran under it's own power? 

We may never know for sure, but that it had a futuristic design, and was being touted as the Shinkansen of the future was probably a large factor, as Plarail has got models of test-trains, prototypes and even their own unique futuristic designs within their ranks, and by all accounts this was perhaps the first time that an experimental train actually received a Plarail model of it's own as a promotional tool.



But, the fact there was an R/C version of the Super Hikari [incidentally using the same RC control system and controller that would be used on the later 300 Series R/C set] made in addition to the regular battery-operated version indicates that at the very least TOMY recognised the design was interesting and special enough to recieve that treatment, or perhaps that at the time, JR Central still believed that the Super Hikari might yet be the future of the Shinkansen and wanted to get ahead by having models in production before the proposed launch? 

We may never truly know, and it is this mystery that perhaps makes this model all the more alluring; What other Plarail model has such an unusual, perhaps even tragic backstory of being the Shinkansen that never was? 

In a way, it is perhaps most fitting that the Super Hikari now lives on as a Plarail model, allowing us collectors [including myself] to have the complete family tree of the 300 Series from the 100 Series through to the 300X, with the Super Hikari being the 'missing link' in the evolution that once joined them all together in real life, if only for 2 years of demonstrations.

[Super]

Interesting read P-Man. I love my Plarail Super Hikari, I was originally attracted to its style as it reminded me of 50's space age. Thanks for the info. 👍

You know I never looked at it that way, but you're right it does indeed have a bit of a retro space age vibe to it