On March 8th, I travelled on "Wakashio" limited express operated by 255 Series.
One of the distinctive features of 255 Series is the side windows that are 70cm/27.6in high (for the Be-01 and Be-02 formations manufactured in 1993) or 76cm/30in high (for the Be-03 to Be-05 formations manufactured in 1994), which provide a great view of the sea in the Boso region (Uchibo Line faces Tokyo Bay, while Sotobo Line faces the Pacific Ocean).
The train names "View Sazanami" and "View Wakashio" were discontinued in 2005, and the trains were unified under the names "Sazanami" and "Wakashio".
255 Series is scheduled to be retired in 2024, so this may be my last travel on 255 Series. As of the March 2023 timetable revision, 255 Series operates on three round trips.
The train I boarded on this occasion was the "Wakashio 3", which departed from Tokyo Station at 9:01 AM. The train was operated by the Be-04 formation, which has 76cm-high windows.
The Saro 255 is a green car (second-class seat carriage) of the 255 Series and is connected to the 4th car (the 6th car counting from the direction of Awa-Kamogawa). The transparent partition in the middle of the passenger cabin is a remnant of the border between smoking and non-smoking sections. Since 2007, all Shinkansen and limited express trains in the JR East area have been non-smoking, but before that, smoking carriages and non-smoking carriages coexisted. As the Saro 255 was the only green car in 255 Series, half of the seats were designated as a smoking section and the other half as a non-smoking section.
Because of a cloudy day, the sea was not visible along the Sotobo Line. The only section where the sea could be seen from the train window was from the area around Onjuku Station towards the end of the trip.