Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum

Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum

Kyoto city
Established	October 10, 1972 (1972-10-10)
Location	Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan
Coordinates
Type	Railway museum
Owner	JR West
Public transit access	Umekoji Koen-mae, Kyoto City Bus Tambaguchi Station, JR West Sagano Line
Nearest car park	Umekoji Park
Website	www.mtm.or.jp/uslm/eng/

Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum (梅小路蒸気機関車館, Umekōji Jōkikikansha-kan) is a railway museum located in Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan. Opened in 1972, the locomotive depot houses 19 steam locomotives.

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

Facility

At the center of the museum is a 20-track roundhouse built in 1914. It was built surrounding a turntable, and houses and exhibits the preserved locomotives. The roundhouse is an Important Cultural Property designated by the government of Japan as the oldest reinforced-concrete car shed extant in Japan.

Additional historical artifacts are exhibited in a two-story wooden building adjacent to the roundhouse. This is the former station building of Nijō Station in Kyoto. The building was built in 1904 and was moved to the museum grounds in 1997.

Short "exhibition operation" excursions are conducted on dedicated track on the museum grounds. Steam trains hauled by either C62, C61, D51 or 8620 class locomotives operate three times a day, making a round-trip on the track in about 10 minutes. Visitors can ride the train for 200 yen (adult).

History

The museum was opened by Japanese National Railways (JNR) on October 10, 1972 commemorating the centennial of the railway in Japan. When JNR was divided into regional companies in 1987, the museum was inherited by JR West.

Exhibits

File:JNR-C61-2.jpg

C61 2

The following 19 locomotives are on display.

• JNR Class 1070 – No. 1080
• JNR Class 8620 – No. 8630
• JNR Class 9600 – No. 9633
• JNR Class B20 – No. B20 10
• JNR Class C11 – No. C11 64
• JNR Class C51 – No. C51 239
• JNR Class C53 – No. C53 45
• JNR Class C55 – No. C55 1
• JNR Class C56 – No. C56 160
• JNR Class C57 – No. C57 1
• JNR Class C58 – No. C58 1
• JNR Class C59 – No. C59 164
• JNR Class C61 – No. C61 2
• JNR Class C62 – Nos. C62 1 and C62 2
• JNR Class D50 – No. D50 140
• JNR Class D51 – Nos. D51 1 and D51 200
• JNR Class D52 – No. D52 468

Among these locomotives, No. 1080 of Class 1070 was added to the exhibits in 2009, donated by Nittetsu Mining.

Locomotives C56 160 and C57 1 are occasionally operated out of the museum, especially on the semi-regular service on the Yamaguchi Line.

Access

Umekōji-kōen-mae bus stop is located adjacent to the museum and served by frequent city bus routes (Routes 205, 208, 33) from Kyoto Station.

The nearest railway station is Tambaguchi Station on the Sagano Line (Sanin Main Line), about 15 minutes walk from the museum.

Expansion plan

On 19 December 2012, JR West officially announced its plans to open a new railway museum next to the Umekoji museum, which will be unified with the existing museum facilities. It was announced on 18 December 2013 that the consolidated facility will be known as the Kyoto Railway Museum (京都鉄道博物館, Kyōto Tetsudō Hakubutsukan). The museum expansion will include the addition of two new large exhibition halls built adjacent to the existing roundhouse, opening on 29 April 2016. The new building will be three stories high, with a total floor space of 18,800 square meters. The construction cost was announced to be 7.0 billion yen. The new museum will house approximately 50 railway vehicles, including 23 steam locomotives, six shinkansen vehicles, four electric locomotives, and four diesel locomotives. The new museum will also have driving simulators of both commuter lines and Shinkansen lines. The steam locomotive riding experience currently offered at the Umekoji museum will be retained, along with the addition of miniature train railroads.

Once the expansion is complete, the new museum will contain exhibit space covering 31,000 square meters. It will be the largest railway museum in Japan both in terms of floor space and the number of trains exhibited, 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.

Planned exhibits

The rolling stock that will be exhibited at the new museum is as follows.

Steam locomotives

Type	Number	Manufacturer	Year built	Exhibition area
JGR Class 7100	7105	H.K. Porter (USA)	1880	Roundhouse
JNR Class 1800	1801	Kitson (UK)	1881	Main hall
JNR Class 1070	1080	Dubs (UK)	1901	Roundhouse
JNR Class 230	233	Kisha Seizo	1903	Main hall
JNR 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
Class DD54	DD54 33	Mitsubishi	1971	Promenade
Class DD51	DD51 756	Hitachi	1972	Main hall

Electric locomotives

Type	Number	Manufacturer	Year built	Exhibition area
Class EF52	EF52 1	Hitachi	1928	Main hall
Class EF58	EF58 150	Tokyo Shibaura Denki	1958	Old Kyoto Station area
Class EF65	EF65 1	Kawasaki	1965	Old Kyoto Station area
Class EF81	EF81 103	Hitachi	1974	Old Kyoto Station area
Class EF66	EF66 35	Toyo Denki/Kawasaki	1974	Main hall

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
80 series	MoHa 80-1	Hitachi	1950	Promenade
86 series	KuHa 86-1	Hitachi	1950	Promenade
103 series	KuHa 103-1	Nippon Sharyo	1963	Promenade
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

External links

• Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum
• Kyoto Railway Museum (Japanese)