The JNR Class EF71 was a Japanese AC electric locomotive operated by the Japanese National Railways and its successor the East Japan Railway Company from September 1968 to August 1991.
History[]
The EF70 was developed specifically to haul trains up the steep Itaya Pass, with an average gradient of 33‰ and a maximum gradient of 38‰.
Performance tests were conducted in early 1968 with a ED78 locomotive, with full-scale operation commencing on 22 September 1968. The EF71s were stationed at Fukushima Depot and were mainly used to haul local trains, express trains and freight trains, most of these in tandem with an ED78. The EF71s were also used to haul the Akebono sleeper train from 1970 as well as the Tsubasa express service. These trains would most often be seen hauling the Akebono and Tsugaru services during their careers.
When the JNR was privatized and split into seven different companies, all EF71s came under the jurisdiction of the East Japan Railway Company, with the exception of EF71 1 which had been retired prior to JNR's privatization in 1987. With the reduction of sleeper train services the EF71s were slowly taken out of service; in their final months in service they pulled special trains as well as the occasional passenger train and freight train. After the last locomotives were taken out of service on 26 August 1991, 10 locomotives were stored in Fukushima Depot before they were towed sequentially to Fukushima Works for scrapping.
EF71 1 was the only locomotive to escape scrapping; it was stored at the Sendai Shinkansen Depot along with a number of other electric locomotives from 2002. Due to aging, EF71 1 was scrapped in December 2019.
Design[]
The EF71s featured large box-shaped bodies. In terms of appearance they were very similar to the ED75 and ED76 locomotives.
Minor changes were made to the locomotives over production, and more changes were made over successive refurbishments.
Specifications[]
The EF71s used a nose suspension drive as opposed to the Quill drive of more recent locomotives; the use of the nose suspension drive was due to maintenance problems involving the Quill drive, so all locomotives after the EF70 would use the nose suspension drive. This however came at the cost of keeping the rated rotation speed of the traction motors low. MT52A traction motors were used on the locomotives, controlled by a thyristor phase control system also used on the ED78 locomotives.
A security device was added to allow the trains to apply the emergency brakes if for some reason the regenerative brakes become unusable due to a malfunction, as well as an overspeed detection device.
Preservation[]
The following Class EF71 locomotives were preserved in the past but have since been scrapped:
| Number | Manufacturer | Equipment manufacturer | Date manufactured | Date retired | Last location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EF71 1 | Toshiba | Toshiba | 6 July 1968 | 7 February 1986 | Sendai General Shinkansen Depot, Sendai, Japan | Displayed outdoors; scrapped September 2019 with a number of other preserved locomotives |