so today we are in hamamatsuka and i got a  special one for you i'm taking you to a shinkansen  

bullet train factory today and i'm gonna take you  on a full tour so i've never done this before i've  

never gone inside of a train factory in fact  i've kind of always wanted to do this and now  

today we get to do it so i'm super super excited  for this but before i start if you guys want to  

see what i'm doing on the daily then check out my  instagram account if you guys want to help support  

channel check out my japan merch and if you have  any questions about japan or japan travels then  

check out my discord community let's get started  with this factory tour let me take you inside

so i'm here at the jr central hamamatsu workshop  aka train factory it's the one and only location  

in japan that conducts a complete overhaul  inspection that fully disassembles repairs and  

reassembles the dokaido shinkansen bullet trains  the most popular and busiest train line in japan  

it started as a repair shop in 1912 for steam  locomotives and over time as technology evolved  

so did the workshops servicing trains across the  ages from electronic locomotives electric trains  

and now shinkansen today there are a total of  about 1300 hard-working jr central staff and  

affiliated workers who come together at the  workshop to ensure that all of their shinkansen  

trains are operated at peak performance and  safety and what do you know i'm the first youtube  

content creator to ever visit this workshop  so we're going shinkansen long with this one  

alright so i made it inside but today i think i'm  gonna be wearing something a little bit different  

let's see what i'm to wear there you  go let's go inside of the factory now  

so i've got my helmet on and time to  find the trains hi can you show me inside

of wow the shinkansen workshop is so massive  

and why i want to call it a train  factory or even train maintenance plan  

to better capture its scale the entire property  is about 318 000 square meters just over 78 acres  

oh there's a shinkansen coming into the plant  right after the train arrives it goes through  

its first inspection and diagnostic which  determines what types of extra maintenance  

and service is required so i got into  this area let's see what's going on here  

after the initial inspection the train is  ushered into the maya sagyaba pre-maintenance  

area a shinkansen train usually consists of 16  carriage cars but coming into this area it's  

already been separated into four stripped down  carriage cars in order to maintain and service  

the shinkansen the workers must take it apart  section by section and then piece by piece  

as each must go through a strict and rigorous  inspection process this requires for each piece  

to be transported to various areas of the plant so  different teams can work on the different sections  

simultaneously hence the requirement for so  much space in fact the workers are divided  

into four teams body parts undercarriage and  inspection and each worker required to master  

a unique set of skills for their section  before being allowed to service the train  

oh they're disassembling the seats now it  seems like there's a lot for them to do  

in fact there's so much work that takes place in  the maya saguba that it requires about 60 workers  

to finish one carriage wow everything's gone  so i'm inside of the train right now and you  

can see that it's all taken apart it's pretty  awesome oh cool let's go see what's up here  

so i'm just above the train right now i  climbed the stairs and you can see it's  

a little bit dirty but by the time it gets out  of here it's going to be polished and cleaned up

once the four carriage cards have been  stripped they're individually separated  

and moved to the dismantling warehouse so i  think i've just arrived a little bit early but  

the train should be coming here and they're  gonna separate the body and the wheelbase  

in order to move the train carriages onto the  service tracks they're attached to powerful  

orange vehicles called train pullers which  can pull up to four carriages at one time  

oh and that's a traverser which moves the trains  from one warehouse to the next damn i don't know  

what it is though but for some reason watching  a shinkansen moving laterally is so mesmerizing

depending on the warehouse location the entire  moving process could take up to 15 minutes to  

save the lease is a massive effort to move these  train cars so it's always performed slowly and  

cautiously to ensure safety of all of the workers  the hamamatsu workshop factory works on up to 4  

shinkansen at one time in fact they inspect and  repair about 50 shinkansen 800 carriages each year

now that the carriage is safely secured  inside of the dismantling warehouse a new  

team of workers can start their tasks first  the entire train carriage is raised up via  

specifically designed lifts to allow for  safe undercarriage access these powerful  

machines can lift a train that weighs up  to 40 tons about two and a half meters high

let's go talk to that person hi what are you doing

once fully lifted the workers begin to separate  the train body from the undercarriage as well  

as the removal of underfloor equipment again  all these sections of the parts are destined  

for a separate warehouse in the plant and  what's truly amazing about this process is  

how much even with such a massive  scale transportation vehicle like  

a japanese bullet train is performed by worker  technical skill and hand each worker though is  

required to engage in a two and a half month  training program at the start of their career  

culminating into a strict in-house  test certification that must be passed  

plus any additional training and licenses  for jobs like a crane operator ultimately  

facilitating an efficient and safe working  environment damn look at that train puller  

go it guides the undercarriage into this orange  undercarriage traverser which automatically  

transports them into a neighboring  warehouse for inspection and maintenance

after the undercarriage has been detached the  workers focus on disassembling the electronics  

and other equipment under the carriage  this is a critical part in the process  

that workers must be diligent in taking  inventory of all the parts removed to  

ensure that not a single piece is misplaced  as an important piece of their workflow  

workers use specialized tablets to track each  individual part and information about each  

part so that it properly gets maintained  and reassembled in the correct location

at the same time smaller parts like bolts and  screws are generally replaced with new ones so  

before we continue on i want to give a quick shout  out to the sponsor for this video squarespace if  

you all don't already know squarespace is the  number one way to build your online presence  

in fact i use squarespace for my website tokyo  zebra here are just some of the reasons why i  

love using squarespace so much whether  you're starting your passion project or  

building a business squarespace has all the  tools to get it done while also looking ultra  

sleek and professional at the same time they  support numerous portfolios and gallery designs  

which you can customize and even password  protect so the right people see your work  

use its fully integrated blogging tools and  commenting features such as threaded comments  

replies and likes to help engage your community  and my personal favorite built-in analytics to  

see how your visits unique visitors and page views  trend over time go to squarespace.com today for  

your free trial when you're ready to launch go to  squarespace.com paulo from tokyo and get 10 off  

your first domain or website cool let's continue  on while the body is transported to the cleaning  

warehouse let's follow the undercarriage to  see what happens to it in the next building

this place literally is just blowing me away it  is a so so massive there's just so much space  

but i guess it makes sense when you're dealing  with so many trains that come through here

this is amazing you can see just behind  me they're taking the wheels off the base  

the undercarriage daisy in japanese is composed of  the frame chassis wheels axles and motors in order  

for the undercarriage to be fully inspected each  part must be disassembled to separately undergo  

its own exhaustive testing as the components  are separated they're sent to diagnostics  

and parts like the axles are inspected via  ultrasonic sensors magnetic particles and  

fiber scope to ensure it's free from defects while  wheels are turned and re-profiled with an accuracy  

of a tenth of a millimeter even the smallest of  components such as the bearings are inspected

oh wow that giant orange crane  is used for lifting up the frame  

alright let's see what's going on here oh this is  their undercarriage operation inspection room once  

all of the undercarriage components pass their  individual inspections they're reassembled to  

make a complete undercarriage which then undergoes  a running test at speeds of 300 kilometers per  

hour or about 186 miles per hour the same top  speed that shinkansen said would operate on  

their fastest stretch on the sanyo line hi can  i ask you some questions hi what are you doing

once the automated test has run its course and  the undercarriage receives a passing result it  

must then undergo a manual inspection  in order to move on to the next stage

and this is where all of the disassembled  equipment and parts are cleaned and repaired  

ah this is kind of interesting let's  see what's behind that door over there

hey guys what are you doing

this room is where the pantograph gets inspected  and maintained you know the top part of the train  

that connects to the electrical power lines  interestingly all of the components used for  

equipment inspection and repair are prepared  in advance and a component such as bolts and  

packaging are preset in a fixed position in  dedicated trays in total there are about 450  

different component kit trays to help manage parts  and about 300 unique trays are used in one day  

look at this even every single tool has their spot

so i'm right in front of the lead shinkansen  train and it's gonna be polished right now

after the body is thoroughly cleaned and repaired  it's transferred to the toso warehouse body paint

so this giant transparently walled area is where  the shinkansen body gets polished the shinkansen  

is so massive that animated robot arms are  used to ensure that the paint is applied evenly  

and just before this the lead car of  the shinkansen receives a specialized  

automated polishing treatment in this specific  area due to its unique aerodynamic shape the  

polishing creates a more adhesive surface for  the paint application the other carriages are  

moved to a separate area that's more equipped  for standard sidewalls and roof polishing

and here it looks like the body and  the wheelbase has been reattached  

this is the geese above warehouse aka assembly  area here the newly painted body undercarriage  

and undercarriage equipment are reassembled  also any components previously removed from  

the carriage interior are reinstalled  to create one functioning train guard

once all of the work is complete it's  moved to the final departure warehouse

by the way each train must pass four levels of  periodic inspection with each level becoming more  

and more exhaustive so inspections are performed  every 48 hours then every 60 000 kilometers about  

45 days after that every 600 000 kilometers about  18 months and finally at 1.2 million kilometers or  

every 36 months which again is the most detailed  inspection as it's a complete teardown repair  

and rebuild taking about 14 days to fully complete  and the very inspection that i'm showing you today  

the traversal requires two  trained workers for operation  

one on each end to ensure safety today  there are a total of three workers as one  

of them is a trainee being instructed  on how to safely operate the vehicle  

so this is where the individual carriages are  finally joined to form one fully functioning  

and operational 16 car shinkansen bullet train

the recoupling process is performed  slowly and carefully as the workers  

make small adjustments by hand to  ensure a safe and secure connection

after the train is reconnected workers reaffix the  connecting panels and electrical cables between  

the carriages and from here the shinkansen  must still undergo an additional 1400 test  

in 117 different categories to ensure it's  working properly and safe for passengers to ride

so they're doing their final  inspections right now at the  

factory and after that the train is going to leave

as part of the final test that shinkansen  performs a test run and operates between  

hamamatsu and nagoya to further ensure a  safe and comfortable ride for passengers  

the final test includes items such  as acceleration deceleration stopping  

vibration in the cabin and cabin air  pressure in tunnels only after fully  

passing all of these tests is the shinkansen  bullet train reintroduced into operation

so that's how a shinkansen factory is made in  japan if you guys like this video help me out  

and hit that like button if you guys want  to see more videos like this or anything  

related to japan hit that subscribe button and  above and i'll catch you guys in the next one