ED75's Random Japanese Trip Photos

[Tony Galiani]

Already looking forward to your June posts - get up early, make some coffee, ignore the cats and sit down to start my day with an Alastair travel report!

Cheers,

Tony

[ED75-775]

Time to head out of Tokyo! In keeping with our tour around the city, we'll follow the same anticlockwise route. Let's start off with my first day trip out of Tokyo: to Ōme.

 

 

Obligatory station sign photo, just to prove I've been all the way out here... it's also fairly ornate compared to some of the other ones I've seen around Tokyo which tend to be very business-like.

 

 

My destination was some fifteen minutes away up a hill and through a garden...

 

 

...which apparently is home to a grove of sakura trees, although I'd come too late to observe them at their finest. And what do you know? The sign also reveals that we are very close to our destination: the Ōme Railway Park. These last two shots were in fact taken as I hiked back to the station in preparation to head to Yokohama for the first time.

 

As has already been referenced elsewhere on the forum, the Ōme Railway Park is closed until 2026 for renovation, so I hope that the photos that will follow give some idea of what to have expected when it was open. On retrospect it did feel a little tired and perhaps confused: was it a railway museum or a kiddy-ride park with trains? Perhaps we'll know when it reopens.

 

Alastair

Edited January 31 by ED75-775

[ED75-775]

During my first trip in 2019, the Ōme Railway Park would be my second point of contact with Japanese steam (somehow I would miss C11 292 at Shimbashi completely during that trip!) after my first trip to the Railway Museum in Omiya. Opened on 19 October 1962 in a corner of Nagayama Park in Ōme, the Railway Park was originally an open-air museum to commemorate ninety years of railways in Japan. At the time of my visit in May 2019, there were eleven pieces of rolling stock on display, mostly under protective roofs built in 2007; some had open access to their cabs while others had either limited or no access.

 

Rather than punt through everything in the collection, I'll share a few highlights from my collection. These shots are all from my iPod Touch, which at that time was my only camera following the demise of my old Canon at the Railway Museum the day before.

 

 

Down at the far end of the site under an overall roof, the museum displayed five locomotives dating from the earlier years of Japanese steam. While 2-4-0T No. 110 would be removed in just a few months time for reassembly and relocation to CIAL Sakuragicho, the other four locomotives are still there, although they haven't been moved up to fully occupy the track space left by 110. From left, we have JGR 110, partially obscured 5500 class 4-4-0 No. 5540, 8620 class 2-6-0 No. 8620, and 2120 class 0-6-2T No. 2221.

 

 

Speaking of 8620, here she is. It's one of several locomotives you can actually climb into the cab of - I know I did! At that time I wasn't aware of its historical significance as the first of 672 locomotives built over a fifteen-year period from 1914, or that it was Japan's first domestically-produced passenger steam locomotive. Fun fact, it's also the only 8620 in preservation with the S-shaped running board under the cab since sister 8630 received a later-series cab during overhaul at Tsuchizaki Workshops in 1972. A model of one of these earlier 8620s remains high on my wish list, although I think I will be waiting for a very, very long time...

 

 

Just behind it was 8620's freight counterpart, 9600 class 2-8-0 No. 9608, the oldest surviving 9600 class. These engines were Japan's first domestically-produced freight locomotives, with a total of 770 built over a thirteen-year period from 1913 onwards. There are forty-three of these engines in preservation across Japan; forty built for the JGR and three built for private operators. It's also the only 9600 on public display with the S-shaped running board, although the the Japan Railway Preservation Society's 'Yamada Collection' may have up to three more engines with this feature stored in Ebetsu. Once again, note the open cab access!

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

Moving now towards the other side of the park:

 

 

The only non-steam locomotive on site is electric locomotive ED16 1, one of a class of eighteen locomotives built in 1931, and now the only survivor of the type after two sister locomotives were scrapped in 2015 and 2022 respectively. This type operated over both the Chuo Line and Ōme Line in regular service, so it's only fitting that ED16 1 has found a home here in 1980. Its arrival though wasn't without controversy as it replaced the park's SuShi 28 dining carriage, which had been deteriorated beyond repair and been scrapped.

 

 

Slightly beyond, there's another cluster of four vehicles. From left, we have EMU car KuMoHa 40054, C11 class 2-6-4T tank locomotive C11 1, and just visible behind the C11, E10 class 2-10-4T heavy tank locomotive E10 2. While the C11 and the E10 have been resident at the Ōme Railway Park since January 1963, the KuMoHa is the most recent arrival, having been moved here in 2007 to replace C51 5 when it was relocated to the Railway Museum. We'll see the C51 in its new home in the near future.

 

 

And the E10 in all its glory! Unlike most of the locomotives here, there's restricted access to the cab - you can get in, but there's a glass screen in the cab behind the driver's and fireman's seats preventing access to the controls. It's one of two locomotives I recall having restricted access with the other being the 2120 class tank over the other side of the park.

These locomotives have an interesting history; built in 1948 as the last all-new steam locomotives for the Japanese National Railways, they were also the only right-hand drive locomotives in its fleet, being originally designed for bunker-first operation. While that was fine on a locomotive intended for use only as a helper/banker locomotive on the Itaya Pass section of the Ou Main Line, it wasn't so practical when the locomotives were transferred elsewhere - first to Hitoyoshi for use on the Yatake Pass section of the Hisatsu Line, and later to Kanazawa for use on the Kurikawa Pass section of the Hokuriku Main Line. All five were thus converted to run smokebox-first, but retained their unusual right-hand driving position; E10 2 was so modified in 1954 while based in Kanazawa, according to this database of Japanese locomotives.

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

And lastly before we move on: parked in the shadow of the main building is D51 452. This was the last steam locomotive to arrive at Ōme, doing so in December 1972. Its service history is a little murky, but from what the locomotive database suggests, it finished its working career somewhere in the Kansai area. Unlike any of the other locomotives or the 0 series Shinkansen car on site, the D51's cab is accessible from both sides.

 

 

As for the main building, I'm sorry to say that there wasn't much in there apart from a display of models, some photographs and information panels (all in Japanese) and a 'pay-per-use, have-a-go' H0 scale layout.

 

 

Having visited once in 2019 I'm glad I did so, but I am reserved as to whether I'd make the effort to trek all the way out to Ōme again. The park's main drawcards are of course its collection of locomotives, plus the fact you can get up close and personal with them. However, it was showing its age at the time of my visit, and the proliferation of kiddy rides, even if most of them were train-themed, rather confused the whole point of the place. To paraphrase myself from earlier, was it a railway museum, or a kiddy-ride park featuring trains?

 

In the meantime, for those wanting to experience the Ōme Railway Park as it was can do so through Google Maps Streetview, circa February 2017. The latest images, also from Streetview, suggest that the main building (shades of railway office rather than railway station) is staying at which point the changes might be to the displays inside. Hopefully as part of the renovation the last exposed locomotives and the 0 series shinkansen car are in line for new shelter roofs, and all of the equipment for a cosmetic restoration. We will have to wait and see!

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

From Ōme, we head south towards Yokohama. On my first trip in 2019 I did Yokohama as a double-header with Ōme; in 2023 and 2024 I did full days down there, mostly for train stuff. Or, as in the case of where we're heading next, tram stuff. Rather than start in Yokohama itself we're heading just south to Negishi on the Negishi Line. From here, it's about twenty minutes on foot to the Yokohama Municipal Streetcar Museum. I got put onto this by fellow member @Aleks in 2023 thanks to his thread on the forum about it, which I'll link here for anyone interested.

 

 

This isn't a great shot of the museum entrance - in fact, my focus wasn't even on that but the old overhead pole along the footpath to the entrance. There are a few artefacts along the walkway to the main door including a wheelset, just to remind you that you're visiting a tram museum, and entering a former depot site. The museum occupies a corner of the former Takitou tram depot; following closure of Yokohama's tramway network, part of the site was converted into a bus depot and is still used as such today. The museum was placed on a corner of the site and had apartments built above it, which you can see in the photo.

 

 

 

The museum itself, according to my Yokohama tramway album, dates back to August 1973 when the Municipal Transportation Bureau placed six passenger and one maintenance tram on display at Takitou - the same depot where much of Yokohama's retired trams were scrapped as the network ran down to its closure in 1972. All are statically displayed for obvious reasons but are extremely well restored and cared for. There's also a selection of ephemera and relics from the tramway days, plus an exhibition on the history of transport in Yokohama (mostly in Japanese) including a large display of O-scale trains and an N-scale display layout.

If you're feeling adventurous there's also a tram driving simulator utilizing what looks like an original tram controller, which I had a couple of goes at and found out that just because I happen to be a volunteer tramway motorman at home, doesn't mean I'm actually all that great at driving trams anywhere else...! Explanation: if you attempt to drive past a stop because you're not paying attention, the simulator dumps the brakes and you stop. Suddenly. You can just see the simulator screen in the right image.

 

The museum doesn't take card payments so if you do go, make sure to take cash with you. At the time of my visit in 2023 they also had some of the Tomytec Yokohama 1150-series tram models and TM-TR01 chassis available for sale, but I didn't buy any as I didn't have enough cash on hand. It's not a bad little museum, although from my perspective it would have been great to have more signage explaining the exhibits and their history, preferably multilingual at that for any foreign enthusiasts who might find their way here. Is it worth a visit? I think it was. Whether I'd go back and do it again repeatedly, probably not. But an occasional visit? That's something I could do.

 

Alastair

[RS18U]

Thanks for the info on the Yokohama Trolley Museum.  If you haven't been the Tokyo Metro Museum under the Kasai Station is also worth a visit, and cheap.  Also has simulators but there was a lineup when I was there so didn't try them.

[ED75-775]

Heading back now to Negishi Station, which I have few photos of for the simple reason that I was too interested in the trains to be bothered! Apart from being a passenger station, Negishi is the starting point for the Kanagawa Rinkai Railway's Honmoku Line, a 5.6km-long branch line linking to various industries including the Eneos Negishi Refinery. Looking at the Japanese Wiki page for the Honmoku Line, the line is mostly used by container trains - and of course fuel trains to the refinery - and is still operated on the staff block system, which may seem antiquated but given the line only sees six train movements on any given day, it's probably not worthwhile KRT upgrading to a more modern system.

 

 

And speaking of fuel trains, Negishi's exchange sidings are a great place to snap photos of TaKi 1000 tankers either waiting to be exchanged to KRT, or handed back to JR Freight for distribution, all in various states of freshness or grubbiness. This wagon, TaKi 1000-833 happens to be one of those available in the Kato 10-1810 set.

 

 

I was lucky enough to see two fuel trains during my outbound stop at Negishi - one headed by EH200 17 and the other, shown here, headed by EF210 1; both left while I was at the Streetcar Museum. I did however observe an EF65-2000 heading south on the way back, likely to grab another rake of TaKi's, but I wasn't able to get a decent shot of it. Nor was I able to get a decent photo of a fuel train shunting near Negishi yard as I departed bound for Sakuragicho. In any case, Negishi isn't a bad spot to observe some freight action, and hey, it nicely breaks up the passenger monotony elsewhere.

 

Alastair

Edited February 5 by ED75-775

[ED75-775]

Speaking of the exchange sidings, here's a grab shot from the top of the station overbridge. Just visible in the background behind the expressway is the Eneos Negishi Refinery's loading tracks. If Google Maps and my one poor photo are to be believed, the refinery has its own off-center cab shunting locomotives and, as this video attests, they do occasionally run to Negishi exchange sidings to pick up or set out wagons. Despite a bit of applied Google-fu, I still can't find anything about them though!

 

 

This one's not the best shot, but it's not bad either. EH200 17 waits with its loaded fuel train. I've found these locomotives to be rather camera-shy during my travels with only a few sighted on any trips, and then only either in the Yokohama area or at Omiya. Meanwhile the EF210s are everywhere!

 

 

Alastair

[kuro68000]

Thanks Alastair. These photos brought some memories back for me. I remember when I first saw an expressway like that, and then an elevated shinkansen track... At first I thought "wow, this must be an important place to have invested so much into it", but it slowly dawned on me that Japan is just like that. Build the right thing, no messing about trying to save a few yen. Long term thinking.

 

Really enjoying these. Thanks again.

[ED75-775]

We now move further up the Negishi Line to Sakuragichō, or, as it was known on 14 October 1872, Yokohama. Before anyone reaches for the history books claiming date discrepancy, relax: Japan was using a different lunisolar calendar at the time, known as the Tenpō calendar, under which October 14 in the Gregorian calendar was September 12. Confusing? Check out the Wikipedia link for more details.

 

 

Apart from serving the Negishi Line, Sakuragichō also serves as a terminus for some services on the Yokohama and Keihin-Tōhoku Lines. Back in 2023 I caught this Yokohama Line train from Yokohama to Sakuragichō before changing here to a Negishi Line train. I won't deny that the two-tone green on the Yokohama Line E233-6000s looks smart, although as of yet I have no compelling reason to get one in N scale.

 

 

The reason for mentioning the dating confusion above is quite simple: this was the southern terminus of Japan's first railway and bore the name Yokohama Station until August 1915 when a new Yokohama Station was opened near Takashimachō Station, at which point it received its current name.

 

 

Remember our little friend 110? Back in August 2019 - just a few months after I'd seen it at Ōme Railway Park - this little engine was removed from display and taken to Omiya General Vehicle Center for static restoration. The reason for this was that it was wanted at the new CIAL Sakuragichō Annex complex, on the site of part of the former Yokohama Station, where it had begun work in 1872.

Quite apart from this little Yorkshire Engine Company-built tank locomotive, there's quite a bit of rail ephemera and displays here, which we'll take a look at shortly.

 

Alastair

[Kingmeow]

We were there in your last photo back in October, to use the bathroom.  We thought it was some kind of a hotel but now I see it's a mall of some sorts (Googling the name you provided).

[ED75-775]

As mentioned in my last post, CIAL Sakuragichō Annex features a display of railway ephemera here to go with locomotive 110. Think of it as sort of a rail mini-museum - and best of all, it's free! It's a favourite stop, not least of which because there's a Starbucks on the floor above so it's a great spot to stop for a little while.

 

 

Next to 110 and its carriage, there's a walkway with displays on the first railway; handily, they're in both English and Japanese which makes it much easier to digest the contents of the displays.

 

 

At the very end under the escalators to Starbucks is this beautiful N-scale model of the Yokohama Station as it was in the 1870s. The nearest round-roof building with the three doorways in the back wall is the original engine shed with an engine just visible behind it on the turntable; to the left of that is the goods shed and behind that is of course the railway station itself. The buildings themselves are I'd say scratchbuilt but I am not sure whether some of the rolling stock may be proprietary models. Either way, it's gorgeous.

 

 

Just next to the Yokohama Station model (the case of which appears just to the right in this shot) is this smart little four-wheel coach. Believe it or not, this is actually a replica of one of the original carriages from 1872. Most of it looks indistinguishable from what could be a restored original, that's how good it is! But that's not what got me doing a double take when I saw it; some very similar, but slightly different, coaches were supplied to New Zealand in the 1870s by the Oldbury Carriage Company as the later New Zealand Railways D class. The resemblance was enough for some fellow New Zealand enthusiasts to pick this connection out when I showed them my photos much later after my trip.

 

 

Also displayed in this space, there's a semaphore signal - but again, it's a replica! A very good replica, in fact, as I couldn't tell that it was one. According to Japanese Wikipedia it's a distant signal - although it has a square end, which was quite common in England until 1872 when according to Wikipedia, railway companies started to add fishtail notches to their distant signals in order to better define them from other signals.

Being built and operated as a mirror of British practice at the time, it's understandable that Japan's early railways would have adopted the same conventions in railway signalling practice, including later on the switch from red arms and warning lights to yellow arms and warning lights on distant signals.

 

Hiding behind 110 there's also a small display with what I'm guessing to be H0-scale models of the original locomotive types used on the Tokyo-Yokohama railway in the 1870s, together with photos of them either in service or as they stand today as museum pieces

 

Alastair

Edited February 10 by ED75-775

[ED75-775]

A quick final look at CIAL Sakuragichō Annex before we move on again:

 

 

Remember how I mentioned there's a Starbucks here? Well, it's got a bit of a railway theme going on with multiple prints of images from the Meiji period depicting the Tokyo-Yokohama railway as it was back in the early days. Otherwise it's just a standard Starbucks, not a bad place to go if you need a drink and maybe something to eat.

 

 

Starbucks is set on a mezzanine-like level above the museum area, so you can gaze down on 110 and its coach from above. The square thing behind 110's funnel is the display with the model locomotives in it. The road in the background is National Route 16, an almost-loop highway that starts and finishes in Yokohama.

 

And now for a history deepdive: Japanese Government Railways 110 was in 1871 and entered service the following year as locomotive number 10. Deemed less than reliable, possibly due to incorrectly-set valves, it nonetheless lasted until 1924, mostly in construction and shunting work. Finally retired in 1924, it was sent to what is now Omiya General Rolling Stock Center for static display, where it was sectioned for use as an apprentice training aid. It was declared a railway monument in 1961, moved to Ōme Railway Park in 1962, and would stay there until 2019 when it went back to Omiya where it was cosmetically restored for display at Sakuragichō.

 

While 110 looks complete again, don't be fooled - it is still very much sectioned. JR East's cosmetic restoration involved introducing new fibre-reinforced plastic sections to fill in the gaps in the locomotive's structure and to replace the missing safety valve bonnet, dome cover and funnel cap, which also doesn't have a hole for 'exhaust steam' to escape. Either way, it's been nicely done, and its return to Yokohama fulfilled a longstanding dream of railway enthusiast Shigenobu Usui who called for 110 to return to Yokohama for static display in 1961. For more information, go check out the locomotive's Japanese Wikipedia page - there's more there than I can cover and do justice.

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

A short walk from Sakuragichō Station is Minato Mirai 21 - Yokohama's central business district. Prior to 1983 this district was predominantly industrial and was home to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Yokohama shipyard, the Port of Yokohama, and a major JNR marshalling yard. Nowadays it's a bustling, predominantly commercial, district with a smattering of attractions throughout. Let's jump in with some photos from my 2024 trip:

 

 

One of the most recognizable sights in the waterfront area near Sakuragichō is the Sail Training Ship Nippon Maru, a four-masted training ship built by Kawasaki for the Tokyo Institute for Maritime Training in 1930. Retired in 1984 by her successor ship, the Nippon Maru was relocated to Yokohama and is now the centerpiece of the Nippon Maru Memorial Park. It also happens to be right next door to the Yokohama Port Museum. For more information on what to expect here, check out this archived brochure from 2017.

 

 

 

Also nearby is Kishamichi Promenade, an adaptive reuse of part of the former JNR Yokohama Rinko Line into a public walkway. This stretch of track was opened in 1911 linking new port facilities and Yokohama Port Station with Sakuragichō Station, and remained in continuous use up until 1986 when it fell into disuse. It was briefly brought back into operation in 1989 for the Yokohama Exposition of that year using paired Sanriku Railway 36-300 series railcars in place of the original plans for a steam locomotive, but was then permanently closed after the exposition ended and was converted into its current form in 1997. A further elevated stretch was converted into the Yamashita Rinko Line Promenade in 2002.

 

Above the Promenade is the Yokohama Air Cabin, a relatively new arrival to the area in 2021 that links Sakuragichō with the nearby Yokohama Cosmo World amusement park. As good a way as it might be to see the Minato Mirai area, I've never been tempted to spend the ¥1,000 to ride it.

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

While in Minato Mirai 21 around the Kishamichi Promenade area, there's still a few attractions you could visit if interested. One is the Yokohama World Porters shopping mall, at the eastern end of the promenade; another is the previously-mentioned Yokohama Cosmo World amusement park, home to the Cosmo Clock 21 Ferris wheel originally built for the 1989 Yokohama Exposition.

 

 

The wheel itself isn't just an amusement ride - it's also a clock, hosts a light show thanks to a lighting installation added in 2016, and it's also appeared in multiple TV series and movies. Back in my 2023 travelogue, I mentioned that it's appeared twice in the Precure All Stars movie franchise (and the Promenade also appeared once as well) and that this area was about as monster-prone in the same way that Tokyo Bay was Godzilla-attack-prone. Funnily enough, and I didn't know this until doing some quick research for this photo travelogue, Cosmo Clock 21 has appeared in a Godzilla movie, Godzilla vs. Mothra in 1992 when Godzilla brought it down in an attempt to kill Mothra.

 

 

Also located in the Minato Mirai 21 district, but heading back west towards the present-day Yokohama Station, this unusual sculptural installation. I'm not sure what its significance is, but it looked interesting when I saw it in 2019 so I snapped a photo of it.

 

Alastair

[RS18U]

That sculpture looks like my nightmare roller coaster 😮.  No sleep for me tonight!

[ED75-775]

Well, well, well - what do we have here?

 

 

I stumbled on these outdoor chairs in 2023. It turns out that they're connected to the building in the background: the Keikyu Museum. It wasn't open that day, or on my 2024 trip, but you can see quite a bit of it through the windows.

 

 

Having had a look at the museum's website, I think I can safely say this one's probably not one I would get much out of. It's a small corporate museum, co-located in the same building as the Keikyu headquarters, consisting of a handful of displays, a H0-scale layout, some simulators and one piece of rolling stock, restored Type 230 electric railcar DeHa 236. There's also a small shop there too.

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

If nightmare roller coaster sculptures aren't your thing, how about dream cars? Yokohama is home to Nissan Motor Corporation, and their Nissan Gallery combined showroom and museum. It's an interesting place to wander around and have a look through.

 

 

Like your cars fast? Sometimes there's a racing vehicle on display, as there was on my 2024 visit. I suspect this one may be a Formula E car, although I'm not hot enough on car knowledge to be able to call it. Maybe someone else might be able to confirm or deny.

 

 

Leaping back from 2024 to 2023, this is the 'showroom' side of things with a couple of newer Nissans on display. The (English-speaking) staff here are happy to let people climb into some of the vehicles on display, fenced off ones excluded, and for serious customers you can even test drive a vehicle around a predefined route through the streets of Yokohama. I've been too nervous to take them up on that 'climb in' invitation, and personally I'm happy with just taking photographs. There are also occasional stands or displays featuring examples of technology incorporated into the vehicles which is great for those who have an interest in motor technology. Plus, in 2024 there was a new free-to-try traction-control simulator where you get to try out driving with and without Nissan's own traction control software - and it's got an inbuilt camera so you can choose to get a photo of yourself on it as a freebie memento!

 

 

The 'museum' side of things is spread over two parts of the space; on one side you've got a display of restored classics and on the other side you've got a timeline and some concept models. As a bonus to the non-Japanese-speaking guests, all of the information placards in the 'museum' space are multilingual Japanese and English. And once you've finished looking around all the automotive displays, there's also an onsite gift shop for all your Nissan licensed merchandise and an onsite Starbucks too if you find yourself needing a drink.

 

If visiting Nissan HQ puts you in the mood to visit one of the company's factories, Nissan does have tours available of its Yokohama plant near Shin-Koyasu Station (reservation required), as well as a smaller, and free onsite museum in the original Nissan head office building. There's a dedicated web page for both if you're interested.

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

Just a little down from the Nissan Gallery, we come to what will likely to members of this forum be a real highlight: the Hara Model Railway Museum. Opened in 2012, the museum features part of the collection of Japanese railway enthusiast Nobutaro Hara (1919-2014). Run by developers Mitsui Fudosan, the museum displays one thousand models from Hara's collection of more than 6,000 pieces of rolling stock, plus reference materials and railway ephemera.

I've only visited it once, in 2019, at which point you could buy tickets directly from the museum counter; nowadays you need to buy tickets from either the 'eplus' ticket sales service or at a FamilyMart multi-copy machine, which according to FamilyMart's own tourist page, does provide an English option. Entry prices vary; for adults a weekday entry will cost you ¥1,200, whereas going on a weekend will cost you ¥1,300. They're also closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so avoid going on those days if you don't want to be disappointed. Alright, time for some highlights!

 

 

Entering into the first display space, the museum showcases a selection of models that had special significance to Hara. All bar one of the trains in this case were handbuilt by Hara during his youth; the only one not to is the little electric train at the rear of the case, which was a childhood toy he owned, and was famously playing with on the day of the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923.

 

 

Another famous model housed in this space is the Aru Ressha: Hara's model of the five J. G. Brill-built coaches purchased by the Kyushu Railway in 1908. The original train didn't arrive until post-nationalization of the Japanese railway network, and so the five coaches were reassigned and utilized elsewhere. This particular model was produced for Hara by craftsman Matsumoto Kazuhito in the 1960s using information provided by railway enthusiast Toru Yuguchi. As the model itself was never painted, the brass colour of the coaches would be copied by Eiji Mitooka when he designed the modern Aru Ressha for JR Kyushu in conjunction with the Hara Museum.

 

 

The second display space houses more models as well as a selection of Hara's reference books. This was one of the display cases located along the wall, housing a mixture of international railway and tramway/streetcar models.

 

Alastair

[miyakoji]

Thanks Alastair, more great pics.  Do you have any of the building at Ome Rail Park?  The one that was obviously a pure 1970+/- JNR regional admin building?  As you may know, the Rail Park is undergoing renovation, and based on some Google streetview images it appears that building is already gone.

 

Edit: I just re-read your last post about Ome and went back to streetview.  Some images from April 2024 still show the building, maybe I was looking at the wrong location previously.

Edited February 17 by miyakoji

[ED75-775]

The walkway through from the second display space houses more models in showcases. Some of them are dedicated to a specific model-making company, in this case Märklin and their famous Swiss Federal Railways 'Crocodile' locomotives. These two specimens are in 1 Gauge, 1/32 scale.

 

 

Moving on from the manufacturer-specific displays, we have even more trains on display, this time a mixture of consists and individual vehicles. Not my best shot again, but included to show what's there.

 

 

And then finally we head through into the biggest display space, where the first thing you'll see are these controllers. Whether they're electric railway or tramway, I've no idea, but I thought they looked cool so I snapped a quick shot. They're some of the bigger pieces of railway memorabilia you'll see on site here; while there's not a huge amount as such on display, these pieces remind us that Hara-san was more than just interested in model trains, he was interested in trains as a whole.

 

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

The 'biggest' draw at the Hara Museum is their giant 1 Gauge layout. Although I can't post my panorama shot of the public display side, here's a few shots showing just small parts of it.

 

 

 

And of course no self-respecting model railway would be without a decent space to display all those expensive locomotives! This twelve-track roundhouse has a decidedly European feel about it.

 

 

The layout runs daily whenever the museum is open, and for a small fee extra you can even drive one of the trains on the layout using simulated driving controls off at one end.

 

For fans of a certain Really Useful Engine, the Hara Museum has its own attraction. While I'm not sure if it's still the case, the Museum has on loan a number of models from the filming of Thomas & Friends. Some were provided direct from Hit Entertainment's storage unit in Southampton, while others were sent over from Nitrogen Studios in Canada where they had been used as references for the CGI models of the characters used from 2009 onwards. As the models are still in their final, screen-used state, the museum doesn't run more than a few at a time, and when they do run it's to a strict timetable. The idea here is to try and minimize wear and tear on the models, some of which date back to the 1980s.

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

Finishing up at the Hara Model Railway Museum, the last space features a layout depicting the Sakuragichō area over different periods of its life. I don't recall whether or not it was running - my memories say no, but the trains in the right-hand photo are speed blurred so maybe it was? Shrug.

 

 

 

And there's also a display case featuring different scale models to illustrate the different scales of model trains, using the Swiss Federal Railways Ce 6/8 'Crocodile' locomotive. Very appropriately, the H0 scale 'Crocodile' is a Märklin one, the famous 3015 version. First offered in 1947 as the CCS 800, it received its iconic catalog number in 1957 and would remain in production up until 1975, although the original tooling has since been reused for some anniversary models.

Fun fact: the Märklin CCS 800/3015 was initially only available in the later green colour scheme; they wouldn't produce a H0 scale 'Crocodile' in the original brown livery until 1996 when they produced the 30159 (analog) and 36159 (Digital) models utilizing the original 3015 tooling for Insider Club members.

 

 

Much as I love the older Märklin tin-plate H0 stuff, a 3015 is not high on the wish list, despite these locomotives unofficially being Märklin's heraldic locomotive. One of the later versions however might be fun to have. One day though!

 

And with that, we now exit the Hara Model Railway Museum and set off for our next destination. Stay tuned!

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

We now head across the Hamamirai Walk bridge over the Katabira River to our next destination: Yokohama Sky Building. Time for another grab shot, this time featuring the bus parking area at the foot of the building.

 

 

Sky Building is home to Marui City Yokohama, an eight-floor shopping mall mostly dedicated to women's products, but, on the fifth floor of the south building, you'll find the Popondetta Marui City store. It's your typical Popondetta setup with a rental layout and a selection of new and second-hand items; what makes this one different though is that their rental layout is only one level. There are a few like this, but it's untypical of the ones I've visited so far. There's also a really nice Shinto shrine complex tucked into one corner of the layout, which is really nice. One for the modelling ideas file!

 

 

 

I've had a few bargains here since my first visit in 2023, so I'm likely to make a stop here on my 2025 trip. So far it's the only shop I have made a point of visiting in Yokohama, as in 2023 it got rather wet by day's end and in 2024 I'd completely forgotten about @paolo's video showing that there are two other train stores in the area of Yokohama Station: IMON Yokohama in Pal Nerd Street (yes, that's actually the name!) on the south side of Yokohama Station, and Hobby Land Pochi Yokohama-ten which according to Paolo is just five minutes away from IMON.

 

For those wanting a glimpse of what to expect, here's Paolo's video from his Train Store Tour of Yokohama. Big thanks to him for doing this!

 

 

Alastair

 

 

Edited February 27 by ED75-775
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