OSAKA -- Central Japan Railway (JR Tokai) officials Friday conducted their final monthly inspection of the Tokaido Shinkansen Line's "zero-series" bullet train before its retirement from service at the end of the month.
At a tram depot in Settsu, Osaka Prefecture, officials carefully checked the brakes and pantographs of the train -- one of the last original model bullet trains still in service -- as it waited to make its last run between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka on Sept. 18.
Yoshihiro Kodama, chief of the depot, said, "We would like to thank the zero-series train, the prototype shinkansen, for fostering us," at a memorial ceremony held before the inspection.
The zero series debuted at the opening of the Shinkansen Tokaido Line between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka in 1964.
The train's round nose has been considered a symbol of the nation's postwar economic prosperity.
Although the train will retire from the Tokaido Shinkansen Line, another one will continue running between Osaka and Hakata on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line until 2006, according to West Japan Railway.