JR Freight Class EF510
Japanese electric locomotive type
The Class EF510 (EF510形) is a Bo-Bo-Bo wheel arrangement multi-voltage AC/DC electric locomotive type operated by JR Freight and East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in Japan since 2002. As of 1 April 2016, the fleet consists of 40 locomotives (24 EF510-0s and 16 EF510-500s), all based at Toyama Depot.
Design
The design used many components common with the Class EF210, and was intended to replace ageing Class EF81 locomotives on freight services operating along the Sea of Japan coastal routes.
Variants
EF510-0: Locomotives EF510-1 – built from 2001 for JR Freight
EF510-500: Locomotives EF510-501 – 515, built 2009–2010 originally for JR East
EF510-300: Locomotives EF510-301 onwards, built from 2021 for JR Freight
The class is subdivided into the original EF510-0 sub-class operated by JR Freight and fifteen EF510-500 sub-class locomotives ordered and originally operated on passenger services by JR East. As of 1 October 2013, there were 23 EF510-0 locomotives and 15 EF510-500 locomotives in service.
Class EF510-0
The first locomotive, EF510-1, was delivered in February 2002 and initially based at Shin-Tsurumi Depot before being transferred to Toyama Depot in 2002. The first full-production locomotive, EF510-2, was delivered in November 2003, and this and subsequent locomotives delivered featured "Red Thunder" bodyside branding.
Class EF510-500
The EF510-500 subclass consists of 15 locomotives originally operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East), which replaced its fleet of EF81 locomotives formerly used to haul Cassiopeia and Hokutosei overnight sleeping car trains from June 2010.
These were the first locomotives to be ordered by any of the JR passenger operating companies since privatization. The new locomotives cost around 400 million yen each.
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