Shinkansen 300 Series passing through Maibara Station, April 2002

The 300 Series Shinkansen high-speed trainsets for Japan's Shinkansen dedicated high-speed railways were introduced in 1992 on the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen lines for use on the fastest Nozomi services, being capable of 270 km/h (168 mph). As more were delivered (66 trains by 1998) they replaced earlier units on Hikari service and allowed the thus displaced 100 Series units to finally in turn displace 0 Series units on almost all services. Shinkansen 300 Series passing through Maibara Station, April 2002 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... This article is about trains in rail transport. ... Shinkansen 0 Series at Fukuyama Station, April 2002 Shinkansen 500 Series at Kyoto Station, April 2002 300 (Left) and 700 Series Shinkansen at Tokyo Station The Shinkansen (新幹線) is a network of high speed rail lines in Japan on which the famous Bullet Trains run. ... 1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Tōkaidō Shinkansen (東海道新幹線) is the original Shinkansen line that opened in 1964 between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka. ... Sanyō Shinkansen (山陽新幹線; Sanyō Shinkansen) is a line of Shinkansen high speed rail, connecting Shin-Osaka with Hakata Station in Fukuoka, and it is operated by West Japan Railway Company. ... Shinkansen 500 Series at Kyoto Station, April 2002 Inaugurated on March 14, 1992, Nozomi is the fastest train service running on the Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen. ... 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... Shinkansen 300 Series passing through Maibara Station, April 2002 Hikari is one of the train services running on the Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen. ... The 100 Series Shinkansen were the second generation Shinkansen design, produced between 1984 and 1991 for the Tokaido Shinkansen and Sanyo Shinkansen lines; the earliest units have now been withdrawn from service, and the series has been retired from the Tokaido Shinkansen line in September 2003. ... Shinkansen 0 Series at Fukuyama Station, April 2002 The 0 Series Shinkansen were the first trainsets built to run on Japans new high speed rail network, and are therefore still the image of the Shinkansen in the minds of most non-Japanese because of all the publicity they received...

The styling of these units is something of a 'curved wedge' at the front, replacing the aircraft-style nosecones of previous Shinkansen trains. The furthest forward point is the very bottom of the pilot. They are painted brilliant white with a medium-thick blue stripe beneath the windows. In railroading, the pilot is the device mounted at the front of a locomotive to deflect obstacles from the track that might otherwise derail the train. ...

They are only found in sixteen-car sets and have no restaurant cars, though they did originally feature two refreshment counters (later removed).

Technically, they are notable for being the first Shinkansen sets to employ three-phase AC traction motors instead of direct current units. Traction motor typically refers to those motors that are used to power the driving wheels of a railroad locomotive, electrical multi-unit train (such as a subway or light rail vehicle train), or a tram. ...