Eastern Pacific Railroad (Johnsonverse)

The Eastern Pacific Railroad (AAR Reporting Mark EP) is a railroad company operating all rail services in the Japanese Isles. Established in 1953 under the name United States Railway Administration (USRA) as a replacement Japanese National Railways, the railroad was initially nationalized by the United States government, before being privatized in 1955 as a subsidiary of Continental Rail, itself a subsidiary of Johnson Industries.

Founding
Following the Hattori Coup and the Treaty of San Francisco in 1952, the United States inherited 19,756.8 km (12,276.3 mi) of narrow gauge (1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)) railways in all 46 prefectures (now counties) of Japan. Japanese National Railways initially continued operating on a state-by-state basis, but this scattershot arrangement created problems with interstate services.

On March 1, 1953, JNR was nationalized and renamed the United States Railway Administration, a name previously used for a nationalized system in the mainland United States during World War I, and later used as the name for the state-owned corporation overseeing all American rail infrastructure established by the Sheldon Johnson administration in 2021. This arrangement was always meant to be temporary until a plan for privatizing the system could be decided upon.

All rolling stock in use by the USRA was carried over from JNR, the only change being the loss of any and all JNR markings. The decision was made very early on to abolish steam haulage, with a set date of 1960.

Another issue was the fact Japan's railway system used Cape gauge (3 ft 6 in) instead of standard gauge (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in). This meant that mainland-based rolling stock manufacturers such as EMD and ALCo had to make specialized models, the most-notable being the EMD G8 that soon became the standard diesel locomotive in the Japanese network (the G8 was also being built for other countries such as Australia, Brazil, Egypt, and Korea). Japan-based rolling stock manufacturers continued building rolling stock to their own designs.

Privatization
On January 1, 1955, the USRA was disbanded with the handover of Japanese rail operations to Johnson subsidiary Continental Rail. Rather than operate the network with their own name, Continental Rail elected to create a subsidiary called Eastern Pacific Railroad, the name being chosen as a sort of joke so that all four points of the compass could have their own "Pacific Railroad". Then-Johnson CEO Robert Johnson immediately drafted the "Japanese Railway Modernization Plan", which involved the following areas:


 * Converting the entire network to standard gauge
 * Electrification of trunk lines
 * Building new lines to areas without rail service
 * Construct new classification yards, with automated switching to streamline freight handling
 * Modernizing all signalling systems
 * Replacing grade crossing signals with American-made signals

Not mentioned in the plan was anything related to new rolling stock. This was because the existing rolling stock was expected to be converted to standard gauge, and then a new source for modernized rolling stock would be identified in 1965.

On November 1, 1958, the Kodama limited express service debuted. Services used 151 series trainsets, the last trains built to a Japanese design. This was the first EMU train service of the Japanese National Railways classified as a limited express, the highest (fastest) of train types on the national railway system. The train travelled between Tokyo Station and Osaka Station in six hours and 50 minutes and first enabled passengers to go and return between the two cities in one day. This is why the train was named Kodama, or echo.

Modernization
In 1964, the EP opened the Tokaido Shinkansen, the world's first modern high speed rail line. The previous year, the conversion to standard gauge across the entire network had been completed, and Continental Rail had taken control of the entire British railway network at the behest of the Labour Government. With the 1965 deadline for identifying a new source of rolling stock looming, the decision was made to replace all trains of Japanese design with those of British design. The first train to do so was the Osaka-Amanohashidate Hashidate, inaugurated on January 1, 1965, and run using new-build "Deltic" diesels hauling new-build Mark 1 coaches. Throughout the 1960s, Japanese-built rolling stock would be rapidly replaced by British-built rolling stock; this included a second run of certain locomotive classes such as the Class 08, 14, 17, 22, 23, 35, 37, 40, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 50, 52, 55, 76, 77, and 86. Any steam locomotives built to pre-nationalisation designs that didn't find homes at heritage lines in Britain were instead shipped to the Japanese Isles, where they gained a new lease on life.

The construction of new rolling stock extended to new coaches, wagons, and departmental stock, all to British designs.

In 1978, the last Japanese-built non-Shinkansen trains were replaced, these being the 151 series trainsets on the Kodama, which were replaced by the InterCity 125. The EMD G8 thereafter became the last non-British locomotives on the system, remaining in service until being replaced by the Class 60 in 1992. The Shinkansen trains themselves were replaced by the InterCity 225 in 1992; a proposal to use InterCity 250 trains was rejected after the power cars developed severe stress cracks in four months of service.

Present Day
The Eastern Pacific Railroad is considered the single-most profitable part of Johnson Industries, with the Central Region being the most profitable and highest throughput high-speed-rail operator, carrying 138 million high-speed-rail passengers in 2009, considerably more than American Airlines. EP recorded a total of 289 million high-speed-rail passengers in 2009.

EP has come to be known as a "retirement home" for rolling stock withdrawn from British Rail. Roughly 90% of non-preserved Mark 1 carriages Mark 1-derived multiple units still see daily service on the railroad. It is expected that, as the Hitatchi Intercity Express Trains (IETs) are rolled out on BR, InterCity 125 and 225 trainsets will make the pilgrimmage to the Japanese Isles and become the primary high-speed trains of the network.

Since their opening, many of the dedicated Shinkansen lines have been closed, and others cancelled, in favor of a blended system that is easier to maintain, as well as to centralize stations.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS