fall inside a hole

Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen (1990)

First written April 28, 2025

After the sharknose 100 series trains were introduced to the westerly Shinkansen line, new shark-nosed 200 series 2000-class front and rear cars began being built in 1987 to service the Tohoku-Joetsu line. Tomy released the sharknose Plarail 東北上越新幹線 Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen based on the 2-Speed Shinkansen tooling with single-level intermediate car on March 20th, 1990, having previously released the 0-series style Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen with Light first in 1981. This 1990 release was before new double-decker cars began being built for the trainsets in 1991.

This two-speed train coexisted with the Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen with Light until it was discontinued in the early 1990s, with the sharknose version staying on sale until 2000, lasting into the seventh generation box era. By this time the new power 0, 200, and 100 series train toolings had all been moved to Thailand so these trains were always produced in Thailand from their introduction.

The shade of green is slightly lighter than the older trains, and the train has the additional stripe under the larger green one like the 2-Speed Shinkansen. I like the old 0 series car more than the double-decker, so I like that they released this train before the green double-deckers entered service.

This Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen was produced in August 1997. I believe earlier releases would have had a white power switch... After being discontinued in 2000, a new version of the 200 Series Shinkansen was released as a Plarail Expo exclusive in 2005 with a double-decker intermediate car.

I really love the original 0 and 200 series Shinkansens, and the sharknosed 200 series may be my favorite after them, followed by the westerly blue 100 series sharknoses... The 1980s and early 1990s were a cool time for new Shinkansen trains.