JR West to open Japan's largest railway museum in spring 2016

[bikkuri bahn]

It will located adjacent/incorporated with the Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum/Roundhouse, in Kyoto.  Including the current collection of steam locomotives, around 50 pieces of rolling stock will be on display in an approx. 31000 sq. meter facility.  There is a direct connection with operating lines, so temporary exhibitions of in-service rolling stock will be featured, in a setting simulating a maintenance facility, with visitors able to view from catwalks the roofs/catenary of stock. Inside the museum, some permanent display rolling stock will be elevated so visitors can walk underneath to view the underside equipment/bogies etc.

 

JR West images:

http://www.westjr.co.jp/press/article/items/121219_06_museum.pdf

 

movie:

http://www.westjr.co.jp/company/ir/movie/tetsudohakumovie.html

 

TV news report:

http://www.mbs.jp/news/kansaiflash_GE121219175900641552.shtml

 

*unfortunately it seems the talk of private railways also contributing rolling stock will not come to fruition.

[Densha]

I'm not sure if I should be happy after seeing that picture of the 500 series Shinkansen in the museum.

[200系]

Thanks for the information Bikkuri Bahn, certainly a place to visit in the future.

 

Seems like an interesting mix of features from both JR East's Saitama museum, and JR Tōkai's in Nagoya. Good to see them incorporating it with the existing Kyōto museum as well (another museum I'd always wanted to visit), should help to increase visitor numbers as well.

 

I am intrigued by some the equipment shown in the press release. I assume a part of the collection comes from the old Ōsaka Modern Transportation museum, so I guess that museum will close at some point in the future? The "4-car" 0系 train most certainly comes from the old museum, and it's nice to see those 4 cars (21-1, 16-1, 35-1 and 22-1) combined into a single formation again, even if it isn't a historically 100% correct one (21-1,16-1 and 22-1 (pre-production cars) where part of 12 car formation N1 (extended to 16 cars in 1970, re-designated to H1 in 1972 when separate Hikari and Kodama formations where formed, as a result of the opening of the first section of Sanyō Shinkansen, and resulting longer runs. While 35-1 was a part of formation N2, the first full production formation, hence the inclusion of a 35形 which the pre-production test formation lacked at first (formation was complete when entering passenger service in 1964), after 1972 formation H2 (16 cars)), sorry for a bit of a detour. If you look at the last page of the PDF, you can also see what looks like a 0系 style car at the edge of the building. I'm wondering if this is another 0系 car, which would seem odd to me as besides the cars mentioned JR West doesn't have more on property (unless it would be 0系1000番台 22-1047, though as far as I know that one would be preserved on property), so I'm wondering if JR West perhaps has a 100系 car on property to be preserved somewhere? (The video does show a few 100系 scenes, though that might nor mean anything.)

 

What I'm intrigued about, is the inclusion of the 500系 car. It could be one of the surviving cars of formation W1 (retired in 2010), though info on this formation is hard to come by at least some of it's cars where scrapped this year (March), though apparently there was still a lot left in May this year. Could also be a car from the current V formations.

 

W1 formation this year:

 

 

I'm not sure if I should be happy after seeing that picture of the 500 series Shinkansen in the museum.

 

Do take note though that in 2016 even the youngest, 1998 delivered, 500系 formations will be 18 years old, so more or less at retirement age.

And with the influx of N700系1000番台 (N700A) cars for JR Tōkai, there should be enough 700系 formation to transfer to JR West (happened before with 100系 G formations and is currently happening with early 700系 formations), which in turn can replace the eight 500系 V formations  (either in 8 or 16 car formations). Will be sad to see them go (though for me, the 500系 kind off died when the last 16 car W formation was retired/reformed).

[Mr Frosty]

That does look rather good.

[cteno4]

Nice, something to shoot for for a future Japan trip!

 

Thanks

 

Jeff

[Ochanomizu]

One of the most pleasant things about the Kyoto museum is that you can watch maintenance and restoration take place right before your eyes.  I am saddened by the news of the expansion actually and fear that the nostalgic feel of the roundhouse will be lost.  It seems that JRWest has embraced the Americanism that bigger is better.

[miyakoji]

This is just an artist's rendering (same as in the video), but if at least the footprint of the new buildings is represented accurately, it appears that this construction will be behind and next to the roundhouse, from the Tokaido Line perspective.  I agree that it would be a shame to lose the existing building's atmosphere.  Some of the attractions, the walkway under rolling stock and the connection to the operating line so they can put contemporary cars on display, look awesome.  I'm glad they're giving us a 3+ year heads-up on this

 

http://railf.jp/news/2012/12/20/110000.html

[cteno4]

another article

 

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201301020005

 

jeff