Kyoto Railway Museum

Kyoto Railway Museum
京都鉄道博物館
	The museum entrance in October 2016
	Location of the museum Kyoto Railway Museum (Japan)
Former name	Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum
Established	October 10, 1972 (as Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum); April 29, 2016 (as Kyoto Railway Museum);
Location	Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan
Coordinates	34°59′14″N 135°44′33″E / 34.98722°N 135.74250°E
Type	Railway museum
Owner	JR West
Public transit access	Umekōji-Kyōtonishi Station, JR West Sagano Line
Nearest car park	Umekoji Park
Website	www.kyotorailwaymuseum.jp/en/

The Kyoto Railway Museum (京都鉄道博物館, Kyōto Tetsudō Hakubutsukan) (formerly the Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum (梅小路蒸気機関車館, Umekōji Jōkikikansha-kan) until 2016) is a railway museum in Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The original Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum opened in 1972, but was expanded and modernized in 2016, becoming the Kyoto Railway Museum.

The museum is owned by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) and is operated by Transportation Culture Promotion Foundation.

Exhibition zones

The museum is divided into the following exhibition areas, including the 20-track roundhouse built in 1914.

Promenade
Main Hall
Twilight Plaza
Roundhouse
Former Nijō Station

The Promenade area in May 2016

Main Hall

This is a three-storey building completed in April 2016.^[1]

Exhibits in the main hall in May 2016
The Main Hall viewed from the second floor in May 2016

Roundhouse

The 1914 roundhouse was built surrounding a turntable. It is an Important Cultural Property designated by the government of Japan as the oldest reinforced-concrete car shed extant in Japan.^[2]

The roundhouse in May 2016

Former Nijo Station

This two-storey structure was formerly part of Nijō Station in Kyoto until March 1996, and was subsequently moved to the Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum where if formed the entrance building, housing the museum shop.^[1]

The former Nijo Station building in February 2006

Exhibits

As of April 2016^[update] a total of 53 rolling stock items are on display at the museum.^[3]^[1]

Steam locomotives

Type	Number	Manufacturer	Year built	Exhibition area
JGR Class 7100	7105	HK Porter (USA)	1880	Roundhouse
JGR Class 1800	1801	Kitson & Company (UK)	1881	Main hall
JGR Class 1070	1080	Dübs & Company (UK)	1901	Roundhouse
JGR Class 230	233	Kisha Seizo	1903	Main hall
JGR Class 8620	8630	Kisha Seizo	1914	Roundhouse
JNR Class 9600	9633	Kawasaki	1914	Roundhouse
JNR Class D50	D50 140	Hitachi	1926	Roundhouse
JNR Class C51	C51 239	Kisha Seizo	1927	Roundhouse
JNR Class C53	C53 45	Kisha Seizo	1928	Roundhouse
JNR Class C11	C11 64	Kawasaki	1935	Roundhouse
JNR Class C55	C55 1	Kawasaki	1935	Roundhouse
JNR Class D51	D51 1	Kawasaki	1936	Roundhouse
JNR Class C57	C57 1	Kawasaki	1937	Roundhouse
JNR Class D51	D51 200	JNR Hamamatsu	1938	Roundhouse
JNR Class C58	C58 1	Kisha Seizo	1938	Roundhouse
JNR Class C56	C56 160	Kawasaki	1939	Roundhouse
JNR Class B20	B20 10	Tateyama	1946	Roundhouse
JNR Class D52	D52 468	Mitsubishi	1946	Roundhouse
JNR Class C59	C59 164	Hitachi	1946	Roundhouse
JNR Class C62	C62 1	Hitachi	1948	Roundhouse
JNR Class C62	C62 2	Hitachi	1948	Roundhouse
JNR Class C61	C61 2	Mitsubishi	1948	Roundhouse
JNR Class C62	C62 26	Kawasaki	1948	Promenade

Diesel locomotives

Type	Number	Manufacturer	Year built	Exhibition area	Remarks
Class DD54	DD54 33	Mitsubishi	1971	Promenade
Class DD51	DD51 756	Hitachi	1972	Main hall
Class DE10	DE10 1156	Hitachi	1972	Promenade
Class 912	912-63			Main hall	Front end only

Electric locomotives

Type	Number	Manufacturer	Year built	Exhibition area	Remarks
Class EF52	EF52 1	Hitachi	1928	Main Hall	Brown livery
Class EF58	EF58 150	Tokyo Shibaura Denki	1958	Twilight Plaza	Blue livery
Class EF65	EF65 1	Kawasaki	1965	Twilight Plaza	Blue livery
Class EF81	EF81 103	Hitachi	1974	Twilight Plaza	Twilight Express green livery
Class EF66	EF66 35	Toyo Denki/Kawasaki	1974	Main Hall	Blue livery

Shinkansen

Type	Number	Manufacturer	Year built	Exhibition area
0 series	21-1	Nippon Sharyo	1964	Promenade
0 series	16-1	Nippon Sharyo	1964	Promenade
0 series	35-1	Nippon Sharyo	1964	Promenade
0 series	22-1	Nippon Sharyo	1964	Promenade
100 series	122-5003	Hitachi	1989	Main Hall
500 series	521-1	Kawasaki Heavy Industries	1996	Main Hall

EMUs

Type	Number	Manufacturer	Year built	Exhibition area	Remarks
80 series	KuHa 86001	Hitachi	1950	Promenade	Orange/green Shonan livery
80 series	MoHa 80001	Hitachi	1950	Promenade	Orange/green Shonan livery
103 series	KuHa 103-1	Nippon Sharyo	1963	Promenade	Vermillion orange livery
581 series	KuHaNe 581-35	Hitachi	1968	Main Hall
489 series	KuHa 489-1	Tokyu Car	1971	Main Hall

DMUs

Type	Number	Manufacturer	Year built	Exhibition area
KiHa 81 series	KiHa 81-3	Kinki Sharyo	1960	Main Hall

Coaches

Type	Number	Manufacturer	Year built	Exhibition area	Remarks
SuShi 28	SuShi 28 301	Nippon Sharyo	1933	Promenade	Brown livery
MaRoNeFu 59	MaRoNeFu 59 1	Kisha Seizo	1955	Main Hall	Brown livery
OHa 46	OHa 46 13	Nippon Sharyo	1933	Promenade	Brown livery
20 series	Nashi 20 24	Nippon Sharyo	1970	Promenade	Blue livery
24 series	ORoNe 24 4	Hitachi	1972	Twilight Plaza	Blue livery
50 series	OHaFu 50 68	Niigata Engineering [ja] (also known as Niigata Tekko)	1977	Roundhouse	Red livery
24 series	Sushi 24-1		1988	Twilight Plaza	Twilight Express livery
24 series	SuRoNeFu 25-501		1989	Twilight Plaza	Twilight Express livery
24 series	OHa 25-551		1989	Main Hall	Twilight Express livery
24 series	KaNi 24-12		1975	Main Hall	Twilight Express livery

Freight wagons

Type	Number	Manufacturer	Year built	Exhibition area	Remarks
WaMu 3500	WaMu 7055	Nippon Sharyo	1917	Main Hall	Black livery
Yo 5000	Yo 5008	Kawasaki Sharyo	1959	Main Hall	Light green livery

History

As early as 1967 plans were being made to make the round-house at Umekoji depot, Kyoto into a live museum where good-order examples of Japanese steam locomotives could be displayed and also steamed and run. The Opening-eve ceremony was held on October 9th 1972 from 1:00 p.m. At the beginning, JNR president Mr. Isozaki planted a memorial young black pine tree. The opening ceremony was conducted in front of the Symbol-Zone. The ceremony invited the Kyoto prefectural governor, Kyoto city mayor, and successive Umekoji depot directors, and one hundred and thirty other celebrities as well as eighty JNR members. After the JNR president's congratulatory speech, the naming ceremony was done. It was named "The Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum (Umekoji Jyoki Kikansha Kan)." The dedicated monument embodied the driving wheel from a C57 88 (Retired at 1st May 1972). There is an original English epitaph on the monument, as follows;

May the glory of steam locomotives over the past century be remembered and their gallant sight preserved here forever.
10 October 1972 Japan National Railways.

At the end of the ceremony, a special ceremonial train was run by the C62 2. The museum was opened by Japanese National Railways (JNR) on October 10, 1972 commemorating the centennial of the railway in Japan.^[4] When JNR was divided into regional companies in 1987, the museum was inherited by JR West.

Expansion plans

On 19 December 2012, JR West officially announced its plans to modernize and expand the Umekoji museum.^[5] It was announced on 18 December 2013 that the enlarged museum would be renamed the Kyoto Railway Museum.^[6] The construction cost was 7.0 billion yen.^[7]^[5]

Once the expansion was complete, the new museum exhibit space covered 31,000 square meters, becoming the largest railway museum in Japan both in terms of floor space and the number of trains exhibited, and surpassing JR East's Railway Museum in Saitama and JR Central's SCMaglev and Railway Park in Nagoya.

The expansion became necessary due to the aging facilities of the Modern Transportation Museum in Osaka. The Modern Transportation Museum closed on 6 April 2014, and the exhibits housed there were subsequently moved to the new railway museum in Kyoto.^[8]

Access

The museum is approximately 3 minutes on foot from Umekōji-Kyōtonishi Station.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c 京都鉄道博物館 [Kyoto Railway Museum]. Japan Railfan Magazine (in Japanese). Vol. 56, no. 662. Japan: Koyusha Co., Ltd. June 2016. pp. 26–77.
^ Official website of the museum Archived 2009-09-01 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on August 29, 2009. (in Japanese)
^ 京都鉄道博物館の概要 [Overview of the Kyoto Railway Museum]. Tetsudō Daiya Jōhō Magazine (in Japanese). Vol. 45, no. 385. Japan: Kōtsū Shimbun. May 2016. pp. 12–34.
^ Japan Railfan Magazine October 1993 issue, p. 20
^ ^a ^b 2016年(平成28年)春、京都･梅小路エリアに新たな鉄道博物館が開業します [New railway museum to open in Kyoto/Umekoji area in spring 2016]. Press release (in Japanese). West Japan Railway Company. 19 December 2012. Archived from the original on 19 January 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
^ 鉄道博物館の名称が決まりました [Railway museum name fixed]. Press release (in Japanese). Japan: West Japan Railway Company. 18 December 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
^ 京都・梅小路エリアに新たな鉄道博物館 [New railway museum for Umekoji, Kyoto]. Japan Railfan Magazine Online (in Japanese). Japan: Koyusha Co., Ltd. 20 December 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
^ 52年分の感謝と共に、交通科学博物館の営業を終了します [Modern Transportation Museum to close after 52 years]. Press release (in Japanese). West Japan Railway Company. 24 July 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2013.