Kyoto Railway Museum

About

The Kyoto Railway Museum combined the collections of the Museum of Transportation, which closed in 2014, and the Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum, which closed in 2015, and opened on April 29, 2016. It stands in Kankiji-cho, Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto, about a two-minute walk from JR Kyoto Station. At opening, its roughly 31,000-square-meter exhibition area made it Japan's largest railway museum, a rank it held until the Railway Museum in Saitama expanded in 2018. It preserves and displays fifty-three vehicles, the most of any museum in the country: twenty-three steam locomotives, five electric locomotives, two diesel locomotives, five electric multiple units, one diesel railcar, nine passenger cars, two freight cars, and six Shinkansen cars. Among its signature exhibits are a four-car set of the original 0 Series Shinkansen, the 500 Series that achieved Japan's first 300-km/h operation, the 100 Series, the first double-decker Shinkansen, and the C62-class steam locomotive nicknamed "Shirokuni," the largest ever built by Japanese National Railways. The museum opens 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with last entry at 4:30, and closes Wednesdays (except holidays and school breaks) and over the New Year (December 30 through January 1). Admission is 1,500 yen for adults, 1,300 yen for university and high school students, 500 yen for middle and elementary school students, and 200 yen for children three and older.