Newly opened in April of this year (2016), Kyoto Railway Museum boasts an incredible range of different trains for you to learn about and interact with. The museum has 3 floors of exhibitions for you to see and take part in, including dioramas, train-driving simulations, and interactive exhibits. Make a visit to the museum for a fun filled day full of learning about trains, their history, and how they work.
Kyoto Railway Museum opened with the concept of being a place where people can both rest and learn, and can discover, touch, and experience the history of trains in Japan for themselves. The museum is located in Umekoji Park, and is a 20 minute walk from Kyoto Station, or 10 minutes by city bus. Tickets cost ¥1200 for adults, ¥1000 for students, ¥500 for junior high and elementary students, and ¥200 for children 3 years and older.
The museum is pretty large, boasting 3 floors of exhibitions and a locomotive steam train exhibition on the grounds outside. There are also many different types of trains at the entrance and ground floor, making the museum a place you can easily spend the majority of your day at. Indeed, the day that I went I managed to spend the morning and afternoon there, and then I went to the autumn illumination at Suzaku No Niwa gardens afterwards for a great full day out.
As soon as you enter the museum, there are already many trains lined up to greet you. Most of these can't be entered, but you can look inside the windows to get a feel of what olden day trains were like. The first floor of the museum has many exhibitions ranging from how train carriages are linked together, different types of rail tracks, the work that goes into maintaining the tracks and trains, and other exhibitions outlining the history of some railways in the Kansai region.
The second floor has more dioramas and interactive exhibitions. The main moving diorama is inside a room that sits 250 people at a time. You need to line up to get tickets to get into the diorama at the designated time. The tickets don't cost anything - they are included with your admission fee. With the simulation exhibition, you need to enter a lottery to get a ticket, so make sure to try get these tickets early on in the day!
The third floor has fewer exhibitions, but it has the sky observatory deck where you can enjoy some great views over Kyoto City, and also watch trains zoom past. Outside the museum is a large area with steam trains, and you can pay an extra fee to ride on an authentic steam train too!
