The story with the Shinkansen label....
EF63s were built specifically as helper locomotives and worked in pairs to push trains over Usui Pass. On the return trip, the EF63’s massive braking system (each axle had its own dynamic brake) would be used to control trains coming back down the pass. In 1997, a Shinkansen line was opened nearby and routed through a tunnel that eliminated the grueling grade at Usui Pass. Service over the pass was discontinued on the regular 3ft 6in gauge line past Yokokawa, thus ending the need for the EF63s based there.
The brown paint scheme came along fairly late in the career of the EF63 and was done as a commemorative “retro” color way, even though they’d originally been delivered in the familiar blue color.
Yeah, I’m a *BIT* of an EF63 geek!
EF63s were built specifically as helper locomotives and worked in pairs to push trains over Usui Pass. On the return trip, the EF63’s massive braking system (each axle had its own dynamic brake) would be used to control trains coming back down the pass. In 1997, a Shinkansen line was opened nearby and routed through a tunnel that eliminated the grueling grade at Usui Pass. Service over the pass was discontinued on the regular 3ft 6in gauge line past Yokokawa, thus ending the need for the EF63s based there.
The brown paint scheme came along fairly late in the career of the EF63 and was done as a commemorative “retro” color way, even though they’d originally been delivered in the familiar blue color.
Yeah, I’m a *BIT* of an EF63 geek!
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