Japanese Transportation Museum to close doors

I happened to visit this small, unassuming museum sometime in 2003 and it turned out to be quite a treat. Though the museum was obviously kind of old, I had no idea that it had been around as long as it had. The place had lots of mechanical dioramas showing how draw bridges and train tracks work, along with train simulators and all kinds of stuff that fuel the imagination of the youngins. The lobby's centerpieces were two steam locomotives (shown above), one with cutaways to show the guts of the engine. My favorite exhibit was a series of model ships of varying classes and sizes, including a mammoth tanker that was about eight feet long. There were also some old cars and model airplanes and stuff of that nature, but the heart of the museum was based on railroad artifacts. According to the article, some of that stuff will be absorbed by a new museum in Saitama. Still, it's always a little sad when a neat place like that closes shop.

You can check out a few pictures from the museum, as well as a brief description of the place here.