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Akita Shinkansen Opening Commemorative Set (1997)

Originally written May 24, 2024

The Akita Shinkansen Opening Commemorative Set (秋田新幹線開業記念セット) was released in 1997 to commemorate the opening of the Akita Shinkansen line linking Tokyo and Akita. Between Tokyo and Morioka Station the service operates as a joint train between Komachi and Yamabiko service trains on the Tohoku line which were first serviced by E3 and E2 series trains respectively. This set includes both E2 and E3 "mini shinkansens" with a connection joint piece to couple them together as well as a panel station and elevated loop of track.

The red round popout around the box says that this is a "Special Limited Set."

Set contents

Quantity	Item	Photo
2 pieces	E2 Hokuriku Shinkansen (power and tail car only)
2 pieces	E3 Akita Shinkansen Komachi (power and tail car only)
1	Connection joint
2	Elevated Straight Rail
8	Elevated Curve Rail
9	Bridge Girders
9	Single Overhead Wire
14 pieces	Panel Station

This set includes "mini" versions of the E2 Hokuriku and E3 Akita shinkansens that include only the power and tail cars. Both trains in my set were produced in June 1997.

The real neat part of this set is the connection piece - the version shown on the front of the box is a loose three-piece affair with a small ring, but the final version is a single static piece. The coupling clips into new tooling features in what was originally the 2-Speed Tsubasa chassis. This connection piece was later used in the Komachi & Tsubasa Three-Dimensional Loop Set but other than that this system was never widely implemented in sets - the required molding feature appears on trains that use the 400 series chassis produced after the tooling was updated in 1997 for this set but was not an advertised feature. I have made a 3D printable version of this connection drawbar which can be downloaded here.

The elevated rails in this set are the same radius as the Large Curve Rail and were first used in a Shinkansen anniversary set in 1983. These rails have integrated side barriers and are concave on both sides, with the pier supports having integrated "beans" to keep the rails in place and connected. This makes the supports pretty secure. The piers also have slots for inserting the single overhead wires included with the set. The side barriers have molded separation lines that mimic the individual sections the real things would be made of.

The panel station in this set is somewhat odd because it also forms the joint connection between the two concave connections on either end of the loop of elevated track. No track is connected to the bottom platform but this offers a nice expansion opportunity. There are four panel station signs, two each of two types - the style on the left shows the E3 series and reads 秋田新幹線開業記念 or Akita Shinkansen Opening Commemoration and the other shows the E2 and E3 noses and reads 東京-盛岡-秋田 or Tokyo-Morioka-Akita, with the Tokyo-Morioka portion of the line running with the combined trains and the Morioka-Akita portion being serviced by the E3 trains alone (until they began being replaced by E6 trains in 2012).

The complete station is nice if a little oddly shaped. For future panel station sets with concave track connections like this, a small insert piece was developed that clips into the panel station base near the concave connector and provides a convex one. One of these pieces can be seen on the Hokuriku Shinkansen Asama Opening Commemorative Set page.

It is neat that you get two trains in this set - its too bad that they are the two-unit mini trains, the set would be amazing with two long trains but that would certainly be more expensive... the overhead wires and wide elevated curves pretty much always look good.

Set name	Akita Shinkansen Opening Commemorative Set 秋田新幹線開業記念セット	Release period	1997
Train rating		Track rating
Accessory rating		Overall
Notes:		Price	4800 yen

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