A stopover in Nagoya
Today we were leaving Osaka and heading to Shizuoka where we would pick up a rental car. As we would be passing through Nagoya we decided to stop and visit the SCMaglev and Railway Park.
We enjoyed another breakfast at our hotel before checking out and taking the subway to Shin-Osaka station. At Shin-Osaka Station we got a bullet train to Nagoya.
We enjoyed our shinkansen journey, taking in the scenery as we zoomed along. We arrived at Nagoya station just before 10:30am and found the lockers to store our luggage in. Quite inconveniently the lockers were located down a large set of stairs. Luckily we only had the one case and bag.
Getting there from Nagoya Station
After storing our luggage, we headed towards the platform for the Aonami line. This would take us to Kinjofuto station, close to the SCMaglev and Railway Park. We went to enter the automatic gates with our Suica cards but were denied. After stepping back we noticed a sign that had the cards with a cross on it, so I guess they aren’t accepted for this line.
We purchased tickets for the journey at the nearby machines and headed through to the platform. It was a 25 minute ride to Kinjofuto station and we were in an industrial kind of area. We realised that after buying our return train tickets we no longer had enough cash to cover the entrance fee for the museum. The only store in the area was a Daily convenience store. Tim went inside to see if our debit card would work in the ATM. When it didn’t we headed to the SCMaglev museum in the hopes they accepted cards.
SCMaglev and Railway Park
We entered and were pointed towards automatic ticket machines. As we had used cash to buy our return train tickets, we had credit left on our Suica cards, which we could use to purchase entrance tickets to the museum. By a weird coincidence we had the exact amount needed. We presented our tickets and entered the museum.
Trains of Japan
The entrance opened into a large room filled with several trains, representing different eras. We made our way along looking at each train, some of which could be entered. The range of displays includes steam locomotives, electric railcars, diesel railcars, passenger cars and sleeping cars. There are several series of Shinkansen and the multi-purpose inspection train, Dr.Yellow. At the far end of the room is the Maglev, a train run on a system of magnetic levitation.
This steam locomotive broke the world record speed of 129 kmh
Inside the steam locomotive
Other exhibits
As well as the trains, there are several exhibit rooms on this floor. One is a shinkansen train simulator that can be operated at an additional fee, we were able to enter and just watch someone else use it. There is a railway history room and a Maglev room that contains interactive displays to show how the system works. One room is named Greatest Railway Diorama room which is a large model train display. It was very impressive with models of all the main tourist sites around Japan, bullet trains, cars and little people.
Trying out the Maglev system.
Around the other side of the large showroom were some interactive displays on train systems. Fletcher liked pressing the button of the earthquake display. A model bullet train moves along the track and when the button is pressed it simulates an earthquake and shows the safety stopping of the bullet train.
In the outdoor area there are some older trains and a small cafe. We headed upstairs and by this stage Fletcher was worn out from exploring all the trains, I changed his nappy as the museum had great facilities and we ended our visit. We got the train back to Nagoya station, got our luggage and took a shinkansen to Shizuoka.
View from the train back to Nagoya station.
SCMaglev and Railway Park information
open hours: 10am – 5:30pm (last entry 30mins before closing) Closed: Tuesdays. Dec 28 – Jan 1.
admission Fee: Adult 1,000yen. School child 500yen. Child aged 3 and over 200yen.
Official Website: SCMaglev and Railway Park
