In his 1972 book “Steam Locomotives of Japan” legendary Japanese rail photographer Naotaka Hirota wrote of the plan to gather steam locomotives together at the Umekoji Locomotive depot in Kyoto for the purpose of retaining an operating fleet of preserved examples of Japanese Steam.
It was some 35 years after reading this that I realized my ambition to visit the Umekoji SL Museum when in October 2009 I walked through the former Nijo station bulding that was the entrance to the museum, itself a designated cultural asset of Kyoto City, and into the roundhouse ….or fan shaped locomotive shed as it’s sometimes described in Japan.
I could feel the smile growing on my face as I began to explore, a genuine working depot where at least one Locomotive is in steam every day, and the aroma of that place took me right back to the 1970s and the final days of steam in my home state of New South Wales here in Australia. The beautifully restored station building is now the gift shop and exit of the somewhat larger Kyoto Railway Museum that now dominates the site, but the Umekoji Roundhouse is still a major part of the award winning museum, where the sounds of steam whistles still ring out every day.
The first locomotive that caught my attention was the one I had come to see, Hudson C62 2 with its distinctive Tsubame motifs, it was outside in the sunshine with class leader C62 1, neither in steam that day but none the less impressive. Also on display and attracting attention was a newly restored Dubbs 1901 UK built 4-4-2 tank Loco 1080, recently retreived from a shed where it had been stored since retirement in 1979, it had been in service with Japan National Railways until 1938 and worked the rest of its life in private ownership with Nittetsu Mining.
Other Locomotives on display showed a broad cross section of Japanese steam power from the diminutive B2010 and unique 3 cylinder C53 to the elegant C55 pacific, freight haulers like the D52 and 9600 and the hardworking C11 class tank loco that until the last days of steam connected communities on branchlines far from the bustling cities of Tokyo and Osaka. Mikado D51 200, a member of the most numerous class of Japanese steam Locomotives with 1,115 built was the Loco in steam on this my first visit and was attracting plenty of attention from an admiring audience, proving that one live steam loco is worth more than many silent examples…… class leader D51 1 is also resident at Umekoji though no longer operational.
As you would expect from a Japanese museum everything was neat and clean and inside the Nijo station building numerous displays showcased other aspects of the railways operations including an N Scale diorama of the museum site and a large range of railway memorabilia and souvenirs…..of course I came away with a couple of items to remember the day.
It was to be another nine years before I made my way back to Umekoji and what is now the expansive Kyoto Museum, and it’s all thanks to that book I bought in 1975.
