This museum is in Omiya. From the JR Omiya Station it is the first stop on the New Shuttle people mover system. The entrance fee is very reasonable for this type of attraction. We have been to several railroad museums in other countries and this museum is on a par with them. The building is relatively new and well heated (we were here in February and it was cold and windy outside) and the exhibits are well organized. There are numerous locomotive and rolling stock exhibits. The title of the placard explaining each exhibit is in English, but the text is only in Japanese - need to use a translator to read the text. We purchased bento boxes from the vendor on the north side of the entrance to the museum. The prices were reasonable, but they quickly sold out of the children's bento boxes that are packaged in plastic bento boxes that resemble trains. The one we purchased was based on the first car of a Shinkansen. The museum was definitely worth the time and entrance fee and I would recommend it for families with children, but everyone would enjoy it.

Before planning my most recent trip to Tokyo, I had watched quite a number of programs on NHK World. One of my favorite programs, Japan Railway Journal, had an entire program on the Railway Museum in Saitima. I had been anxious to visit this fascinating museum ever since I first watched that program. The museum is about an hour train ride north of Tokyo Station, but well worth the time and effort. My first visit to Tokyo was in 1990 and I had my first experience riding the very unique trains and shinkansen (bullet train) in Japan. Ever since then I always looked forward to riding the trains in Japan! One of my favorite things to do is to get an ekiben (packaged bento lunch for traveling) and take a ride on a Shinkansen. At the museum you can purchase a variety of ekiben and sit inside one of the trains on display (outdoors) and enjoy your meal without the movement of a train you would normally experience! This apparently is a very popular place to have that experience. There is also a couple of more upscale restaurants. The View Restaurant on the 4th floor and the Nippon Shokudo on the 2nd floor. The Railway Museum was fascinating & enormous in size. I might recommend downloading the Museum’s app to your smart phone prior to visiting the museum. Most of the signage at the museum is, naturally, in Japanese and this app really helped give me a background on most all of the train cars on display. I believe there are around 40+ full-size train cars available to view and most all of them allow you to tour inside them. The second floor has an entire very long wall (75 yards long) of miniature trains which really show the evolution of trains in Japan—amazing. I think it’s a great museum for families interested in trains, as they have a play area on the ground floor devoted to children. There is a “kid’s” café with many choices of meals available & most served in dishes to resemble a train car. There is also a small shinkansen which the kids can ride outside in this same area. I think one of the most popular attractions is the train simulators. I believe there are 3 different simulators you can get in line for. Since my Japanese language is very rudimentary, I didn’t dare give it a try. I went on a weekday morning so there was virtually no waiting. In the center of the main floor display of “Rolling Stock” trains, there is a large steam locomotive train on display. At noon and 5pm, it’s a big production and the train is turned around on a really enormous turntable complete with large train whistles and a conductor directing the move. All things considered, if you have an interest in trains, it’s well worth the time to travel to the Tetsudo-Hakubutsukan station to see this museum. (The museum is a direct short walk from the train station and sits parallel to the station.) Lastly, there is an excellent museum shop, TRAINIART, which a huge variety of goods for gift giving and souvenirs!

There's a lot to see and a lot to like about this railway museum. The size of the collection was impressive and the interior design was modern and welcoming, and I really appreciated the lower brightness lighting. It also has models of historical locomotives and interactive displays. However, all interactive displays are Japanese language only. I ended up giving this museum only 4 out of 5 stars for really one reason. There is absolutely no English translated information on display here. I guess I can say that I saw a lot of trains, but didn't actually learn anything because I didn't spend the time to use Google translate on each locomotive signage. I don't have the opinion that places should be obligated to have translated material, but I was under the impression that this museum is either well-known or popular with tourists so I was disappointed. If you do go and translate the text, I'd imagine you could spend more than 3 hours there. There are two points that I didn't feel were knocks on the museum but wanted to point them out anyway for anyone visiting. First, the layout of the museum's rolling stock collection is really a DIY path setup. There's not a set path to follow so make sure you provide yourself time to walk the floor and see it all. The second thing is I recommend taking the "New Shuttle" up to the station. It's like a light rail you see at airports and not a shuttle bus as I first expected. It costs like 200 yen per person per direction. The museum is about 2km from Omiya station so it's needed to complete the last leg of your journey there. Lastly, I ate lunch at the Train Viewing restaurant at the southern end of the museum. I felt that the food was fairly priced and tasty. Expect to pay about 900 yen per person.

I came here with my 6 year old son in early Feb for a visit on a weekday. A very interesting museum with plenty of trains to see. Many of the carriages were open for visitors to go inside and see the interior, plus quite a few activities to keep the children entertained. Wasn't so busy on a weekday, but potentially could be very crowded on weekends. Well worth the effort of visiting if you're into trains.

One of the qualities for which Japan is renowned all across the world is the efficiency of its trains, in particular the so-called “Shinkansen” (bullet train). Well, this museum tells the history of Japanese railways showing many trains from different ages. It’s very interesting for children too!

Great place. no crowd. view of Japan's past, present, and future transportation system. also a chance to operate different types of trains via their simulators. optimum spatial arrangements. and complete with dining facilities at the upper floors. must see for the train fans, and if you're not, you will be after a visit to this place. highly recommended

THE MUSEUM: The Railway Museum is the successor museum to the old Transportation Museum that used to be located in Akihabara, Tokyo (now closed). The museum has many many trains and displays covering the history of Japanese railways to the present. Present are some of the first locomotives used in Japan, Imperial coaches used by the Emperor and imperial family throughout history, the 0 series Shinkansen, and many many more trains. There are also many hands on things for young and older folks alike, though many items like the train simulator are in Japanese, it doesn't take much to figure out how to operate them. There's even a mini train ride where you can operate a miniature train that goes on a track around the museum. Of course like all places, there's a gift shop and restaurants/cafeteria in the museum as well. The museum has a provided English guide map and pamphlet that explains in general what all the attractions are. The cool thing about the displays is that if you have a mobile phone that can read bar-codes, you can put your phone over the bar-code on the display and you can get very detailed English information about the particular display/train. This is also possible for Korean and Chinese language. Because of it's distance north of Tokyo, I only recommend this museum to those who are really interested in railways, Japanese transportation history. Longer term residents with families might also enjoy this museum as well. If you are a short-term visitor to Tokyo, this museum might be a little out of the way north to get to, but if you are interested and have the time, by all means visit. GETTING THERE: The Railway Museum is located north of Tokyo in Saitama. It takes about 45minutes by train from Shinjuku to Omiya station on the Saikyo Line or Shonan Shinjuku Line where you change to a small people mover to the museum train stop, it takes about 55minutes if you are coming in from Tokyo Station. The one way fare from Shinjuku Station to Omiya Station is 450yen and from Omiya Station to the Museum Stop is 180yen. Note if you are using a Japan Rail Pass, the JR pass is valid on JR lines to Omiya Station. You still need to pay 180 yen from Omiya station to the museum. ADMISSION: The admission price for adults is 1000yen. For elementary through high school students it is 500yen For kids younger it is 200yen The ticketing system is designed to work with your Suica / Pasmo prepaid card (if you have one), if you do not have one, you can purchase a temporary card at the machines. You use your card to enter the museum (like how you enter a train station).

The train museum is quite a way out of central Tokyo but we really enjoyed the trip. We have a three year old who is very excited by trains - their highlight of the trip to Japan was going on a proper Bullet train. At the museum we could sit in the driving sit of an old one. It is well laid out with a splattering of English signs to explain what the exhibits are. At the centre is a huge hall with a wide variety of trains and carriages. The museum is pretty cheap to enter 1000 yen for adults. The picnic trains were a good idea - they were also immaculately clean. There are signs outside saying no food and drink but inside there are plenty of places that have signs saying food is ok.

This museum is for train lover. They display a lot trains from time to time, and in real size. One of them is turning like turntable, at 12 pm and 3 pm, please make sure you watch it. They also have several trains driving simulator, from modern train to coal train. So your child (and you) can learn how to be a train operator. They have mini shinkansen and mini operating train. For mini operating train, you should register on the main entrance and pay some money to get in the ride. This location is a bit of far from Tokyo, almost 1 hour by train. This museum can JR Shonan Shinjuku line / JR Keihin Tohoku line > stop at Omiya station > exit south > take Ina Line (New Shuttle Platform) > stop at Tetsudo-Hakubutsukan station.

I'm a 63-year-old solo American woman traveler, and I loved this museum. It's really beautifully designed, laid out, and if you download the app ahead of time, you can learn everything about every single train in this museum. Plus there are side exhibits that I enjoyed, such as one that showed every single eki-ben meal! And one that had all of the songs that you hear played at each train station. Only one caveat: If you don't like crowds, don't go on a weekend because it will be crowded. Also you should go when school is in session, because there were a lot of schoolchildren when I went.