Not much text here, mostly pictures.
(I've got streetcar photos, but not scanned. Write me i you're interested and I may put them in later.)
(I've got photos from this railway museum, but not scanned. Write me if you're interested and I may put them in later.)
It's quite common in Japanese museums that you purchase the ticket
in a machine outside. Since this is JR's museum, it's natural the
machine looks like a ticket machine in a railway station.
Inside there's both an ordinary model railway and models which show how things
work, like this with a mountain which lifts up to show the spiral tunnel inside.
There's also a movable model which shows how maglev works and one which
very pedagogically explains ATC and remote blocks. (It's actually two
models in the phtos, one which runs in a loop and either keeps or not
keeps the max speed and one inner which consists of one mainline and
two and three spurs at each end where the visitor can control the
turnouts and press a button to give a departure signal to the trains.
But most visitors are too young to understand.
Apart from the cut open locomotive there are whole locos and cars.
The car, ship and aircraft sections are
well done too.
Train simulator wwhere school classes can run local trains in Tokyo.
They don't know exactly how it works, but they've found the horn.
Listen to them "drive". (1,8MB).
The school children pull and push everything in reach.
These switches are fixed.
The second photo shows a motor bogie
with its electrical equipment. It can be run up to 70 km/h, quite
interesting to see how the switches work. There's also a full scale
turnout you can operate.
These three photos are taken outside the Transport Museum, it's just to the
right of the train in the first, the trains run over the track of the old
railway building. All photos are taken from the same spot, I've only turned.
The Akihabara railway station is to the right in the second photo en the left
in the third, but behind the buildings.
In the second photo you can see the conductor who's walked out
to control the sound equipment which tells when it's time to
close the doors. Next to the rear door is a set of foldable steps.
It's a bit difficult to photograph during rush hour, and I can
assure you it doesn't look like this around 1800 in Shinjuku.
Listen to a couple
of trains arriving and departing. (1,5MB).
I like it that you can walk through the whole trains, because then you
can go look out the front. (But I think it's mostly there to distribute
the passengers efficiently. Some coaches have foldable seats so they
only have standing room at certain times.)
Two photos from the same spot. Thirteen parallell tracks, without counting
the underground Shinkansen to the left.
Some photos of work in progress. He who stands to the right isn't alone,
there are several people with green-yellow flags who signal to the train
driver that it's OK to pass. I think they mostly watch out for their
collegues.
A couple of photos from the railway to "New Tokyo" built in the bay.
Tokyo's streetcar. Like in many other places it mostly runs separate
from road traffic, it's practically only here on this square it runs
on streets.
Back to the index for my trip to Japan
Document last updated 2000 Jan 10 by Urban 