Kyoto · UmekojiNo.299★Open in map →
Kyoto Railway Museum
One of Japan's largest railway museums: 54 vehicles from steam to Shinkansen, a 1914 roundhouse, and a ride behind a working steam locomotive — one stop from Kyoto Station.
The Kyoto Railway Museum opened in April 2016 in Umekoji Park, on the southwest edge of central Kyoto, and is one of the largest railway museums in Japan. Fifty-four vehicles are held here, tracing the country's rail history from nineteenth-century steam through the express trains of the postwar boom to the Shinkansen. The site was not built from nothing: it grew out of the Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum, which had kept working steam engines here since 1972, and it still uses that museum's fan-shaped roundhouse. Because the museum is run by JR West, much of what stands here is not roped-off scenery but machinery that is still maintained and, in the case of the steam locomotives, still fired and driven. The building sits directly beside the live Tokaido Shinkansen and JR lines, so real trains pass while you look at the retired ones.
Why it stays quiet
Kyoto is visited almost entirely for temples and gardens, so a hall of steam locomotives and Shinkansen rarely reaches a foreign visitor's plan — yet it is one stop from Kyoto Station, and it is the only place where you can ride behind a live steam engine and stand inside a 1914 roundhouse within the same hour.
Background & history
Umekoji has been a railway yard since 1914, when the roundhouse and turntable were built to service the steam locomotives working the lines into Kyoto; the roundhouse survives and is designated an Important Cultural Property. As steam disappeared from Japanese rails in the early 1970s the yard was converted into the Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum, opened in 1972 to keep a working fleet of engines. The present museum absorbed that site and reopened as the Kyoto Railway Museum on 29 April 2016. A second historic building stands at the exit: the former Nijo Station building of 1904, one of the oldest wooden station buildings in Japan, moved here and now used as the museum shop.
What to look for
- The roundhouse and turntable
- a 1914 fan-shaped engine shed, an Important Cultural Property, with steam locomotives parked around a working turntable
- 0 series Shinkansen, car No. 1
- the first car of the first bullet train, standing in the main hall alongside a 500 series and a C62 steam locomotive
- SL Steam-go
- a short ride in passenger carriages hauled by a live steam locomotive; separate ticket, fixed departure times
- Sky Terrace
- a rooftop deck looking down on the working Tokaido Shinkansen and JR lines below
- Railway diorama
- a large 1/80 scale model layout, run as timed shows through the day
How to enjoy it
Allow three hours; families easily spend the whole day. Check the SL Steam-go departure times the moment you enter — it runs to a fixed timetable and needs a separate ticket. The driving simulators are allocated by lottery on busy days, so apply early rather than at the end of your visit. Umekoji Park outside is free and the Kyoto Aquarium is next door, which makes a natural pairing on a wet day.
How to actually get there
- Kyoto Station → Umekoji-Kyotonishi Station (JR Sagano Line, 1 stop, ~3 min)
- Umekoji-Kyotonishi Station → museum entrance (walk, ~2 min)
- Main hall → roundhouse → SL Steam-go (check the departure times when you arrive)
- JR Sagano Line, 1 stop, then a 2-minute walk
- Kyoto Stn →(JR Sagano / San'in Line, 1 stop, ~3 min)→ Umekoji-Kyotonishi Stn → walk ~2 min to the entrance. Total about 10 min including the walk through Kyoto Station. Trains run several times an hour. You can also walk the whole way from the Kyoto Station central exit in about 20 minutes.
- One stop back to Kyoto Stn, or walk through Umekoji Park
- Take the JR Sagano Line one stop back to Kyoto Station, or walk east through Umekoji Park and along Shiokoji street to Kyoto Station in about 20 minutes. City buses also run from the Umekoji-koen / Kyoto Railway Museum-mae stop.
Before you go
- Cash
- Admission is 1,500 yen for adults, 1,300 yen for university and high school students, 500 yen for junior high and elementary students, and 200 yen for children aged 3 and over (as of 2026 — confirm on the official site). The SL Steam-go ride is charged separately. IC cards such as ICOCA and Suica work on the JR line.
- Closing days
- Closed every Wednesday and 30 December to 1 January. Wednesdays that fall on national holidays, and Wednesdays during the spring and summer school holidays, are open — check the calendar on the official site. Open 10:00 to 17:00, last entry 16:30.
- Another way
- A Kyoto City Bus from Kyoto Station to the Umekoji-koen / Kyoto Railway Museum-mae stop takes about 10 minutes and sets you down at the gate, which is easier with small children.
- After you get off
- From Umekoji-Kyotonishi Station, follow the signs south for about 2 minutes along the edge of the park to the museum entrance.