Hiro of the Rails

Hiro once lived on a railway in Japan, where he was famously known as the "Master of the Railway". He was eventually sent to Sodor and tormented by the Fat Controller like Thomas and his friends.

Observations:

Hiro should have stayed in Japan. A famous train known as the "Master of the Railway" would be given a place of prestige in a place like the Kyoto Railway Musuem, not simply left in a siding and "forgotten" for so long that a forest grew around him.

This museum is huge. It's also a huge magnet for train spotter geeks from all over the world since it houses over 50 engines of various types and eras in pristine condition.

The exhibit style of Japanese museums for science and technology tends to be pretty super detailed and interactive - they really took on to the Great Exhibition model of displays from the Victorian era and just never stopped.

This includes interactive exhibits of old train stations, to engine cabins you can sit in, a traffic control room, a working rail switch, a cutaway of a ticket machine you can see working - the even had a close up look at how power is transferred to engines via power lines... (?).

The also kept to theme with purchases - you use your transit card to buy the entry ticket and pay for food at the cafeteria. There are also two converted trams sitting outside in the park that also serve as a cafe for the riff raff though.

Outside is the roundhouse and sheds for the steam engines that enable you to get up and close and into the cabins of most of them. They also have their own regular steam train service that takes you on a quick tour around the block (so to speak). In typical Japanese train style, it operates frequently throughout the day, and well patronised by the locals.

You could write a book (and I'm sure many have) about the Meiji Restoration and how it firmly fixed railways into the national psyche of modern Japan, this museum is really just a homage to this fixation with the Master of the Railway.

Kaiju Collected:

I got to drive a train! (or at least sit in the drivers seat and move some dials)Read more