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The heart of the Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum, an important cultural property |
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As you leave the Reference Materials Library, your attention is drawn to a large number of railway tracks and railway cars spread out in a fan-shaped pattern. This fan-shaped train shed is at the heart of the Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum, and it is where many of the steam locomotives are on display.
This fan-shaped train shed was constructed in 1914, and it is now the oldest ferro-concrete building in Japan. Inside, you can see the displays of railway cars close up, although due to the preservation and repair work being conducted on the railway cars, there are some areas that are out of bounds.
Connected to the fan-shaped train shed by the railroad sidings, there is a round revolving chassis platform, which is used to turn the steam locomotive engines. Because the front and back of steam locomotive engines are different, this is necessary in order to turn the steam locomotive engines around before running them back into the train shed. In order to decrease the number of junction fittings required and the area necessary to hold the steam locomotive engines, the train shed was built in a fan-shaped circle on the outside circumference of the round revolving chassis platform.
Between 3:40 and 4:10 PM, after its last run of the day, the "SL Steam" locomotive is put on the revolving chassis platform, turned around and run back into the fan-shaped train shed of the Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum. While there were several of these revolving chassis platforms built in Japan, this is the only one still in use every day, so it provides a rare view of old railway life. |
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| Fan-shaped train shed |
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| Revolving chassis platform |
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