What other travelers are saying about Kyoto Railway Museum
I’d probably give it 4½ stars if I could. The Kyoto Railway Museum has an excellent collection of beautifully maintained locomotives and carriages, and it’s clearly designed with families in mind. Kids will love exploring the exhibits, and there’s plenty of space to walk around and take photos.
You can even walk underneath some of the trains and see how the mechanics work, which is quite impressive. However, I would have appreciated more background or technical information. While it’s easy to translate Japanese signs these days, there isn’t much depth beyond the visual displays.
Overall, it’s more a museum to experience than to study – a great place to admire trains rather than to learn about them in detail. Still, it’s very well presented, enjoyable for all ages, and two hours are just about the right amount of time to see everything.
The staff here kindly helped us find my son's lost card. Good english service. The museum worth a visit. Has a canteen with good view of rails and trains. Top level has a good view of whole city. We luckily saw the lixury tour train 山翡翠
This is worth going to. Having been to a few train museums this was one of the most comprehensive. You don’t have to understand all of the Japanese trains as the museums isn’t solely about the trains. They have exhibits about how you maintain railroads, how train crossings work and more. Very informative and interactive. They also have a great roof top area where you can see the high speed and regular trains.
Must visit, huge & awesome! Didn’t expect to spend 2 hrs as a solo traveler, but I did & enjoyed every minute of the experience…
If got kids, they will go crazy here, there’s a real size Thomas the choo choo Train, & they can even play the Shinkansen train controller at the 2nd Floor kids center. They can spend the whole day here…
If a history & engineering buff, or simply interested in tech, you can see under the train design, the Meiji period train station, & my favorite, a real coal burning steam engine demo!
& you can get on to the Emperor’s special train & go into the engine control room.
It’s a great museum!
Kyoto Railway Museum was excellent! So well designed and set up. It had so many interesting exhibits that were very entertaining for our kids.
There were so many different parts of trains that had interactive components to them that the family could ‘play’ with and understand how different trains work.
There were also many types of trains to see and history of the trains in Kyoto and Japan.
There were plenty of facilities and a model train show too!
Overall an excellent experience.
Yes, the museum offers a train driving simulator miming the experience of driving a train. Visitors can practice using the simulator and wear a train driver's cap.
Indeed, the museum features several interactive activities, including a working model train set that visitors can control as it runs around a diorama and the aforementioned train-driving simulator.
The museum showcases a vast range of Japan's railway history, from the earliest days of steam locomotion to the high-speed Shinkansen bullet trains. Notable exhibits include the first Shinkansen (the 0 series from 1964) and the 500 series, the fastest train in the world in 1996. There's also a working railroad crossing among the exhibits.
The museum has family-friendly amenities, including a nursery with changing baby tables. There are also lockers for baggage storage available on the first floor.
The museum is located west of Kyoto Station at the far end of Umekoji Park. It can be reached by a 20-minute walk from the north central exit of Kyoto Station or by taking buses 86 or 88 or rapid buses 103, 104, and 110 from Stand B3 in the bus terminal on the north side of Kyoto Station, which go directly to the Umekoji-koen/Kyoto Railway Museum-mae bus stop.
