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Plarail Sleeper Express Cassiopeia
First written August 27, 2024The Cassiopeia was a special limited express train between Ueno and Sapporo Station that operated between 1999 and 2016 when it was discontinued after the Hokkaido Shinkansen opened. The journey took over 16 hours and was an overnight sleeper train that changed locomotives several times as it traversed different lines.
Cassiopeia (2000-2002)
First released in Summer 2000, the Cassiopeia featured a recolored EF-65 tooling to match the design of EF-81 locomotives that pulled the train for the first leg of the journey under JR East.
S-41 Sleeper Express Cassiopeia (2003-2010)
On July 31st, 2003 the Cassiopeia was released with a similar EF-81 locomotive as S-41 Sleeper Express Cassiopeia. When the EF-81s were taken off the service in 2010, this train went out of production and was replaced with the EF510 version shown below.
S-41 Sleeper Express Cassiopeia (2010-)
On December 9th, 2010 an updated EF-510 hauled Cassiopeia was released in a ninth generation box as S-41 Sleeper Express Cassiopeia S-41 寝台特急カシオペア. The box shown above is a 2012 print run example that was produced in Vietnam, as some Plarail began to be in the 2010s.
These trains have an EF-510 in Cassiopeia silver with head mark and other Cassiopeia livery. The included cars are the same toolings as older versions, just updated for modern production in Vietnam.
Although the box was printed in 2012, the EF510 inside was produced in early July 2013. The train has Cassiopeia head and tail marks.
The real unit EF510-509 did pull the Cassiopeia service.
Like many other modern releases, the pack includes a little cardboard card with some information about the train. About the Cassiopea it says: This is JR's first all-two-story new sleeper passenger car that runs between Ueno and Sapporo. In order to provide a more comfortable and attractive sleeper train journey, it was developed as an all-private sleeper train based on the concept of "sleeper train with a comfortable space." Since June 2010, the EF510 electric locomotive has been towing the train between Ueno and Aomori.