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.
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
Roundhouse of the Kyoto Railway Museum
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
Nijo Station building
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
8620 steam locomotive 8630 on the Umekoji Locomotive turntableB20 10 in February 2006C11 64C61 2D50 140
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]
^ 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.
^ ab2016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.
Further reading
京都鉄道博物館のすべて [Complete Guide to the Kyoto Railway Museum] (in Japanese). Japan: JTB Publishing. 20 April 2016. ISBN978-4533110726.
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