After successful first year, Kyoto Railway Museum faces challenge

[bill937ca]

An article from The Asahi Shimbun on the first year of the Kyoto Railway Museum.

 

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201705290007.html

 

I find the reference to "people with specialized knowledge of railways are referred to as “railway idols.” as curious.  My understanding is that a railway idol would be a Japanese idol like Yukino Saito who specializes in being an mc for railway events not a railfan.

 

I like the idea of turning on the lights in restored cars in the museum.  Give them a warm glow.

Edited May 29, 2017 by bill937ca

[cteno4]

Potential bill for you to be an idol then!

 

Jeff

[bill937ca]

Potential bill for you to be an idol then!

 

Jeff

 

Yeah. More potential for me to be a railway old fart!   :icon_biggrin:  

Edited May 29, 2017 by bill937ca

[bill937ca]

Maybe they meant Nori tetsu.  Railway idiots.  hahaha           

[bikkuri bahn]

I find the reference to "people with specialized knowledge of railways are referred to as “railway idols.” as curious.

 

I suspected a mis-translation, but a check of the original Japanese article [...鉄道の専門知識を持つ「鉄道アイドル」も活躍中だ...] showed basically the same, though the sentence structure refers to them as "those with specialized knowledge being active" rather than "referred to as".  Essentially, the reporter doesn't know what he's talking about in this specific instance.

Edited May 30, 2017 by bikkuri bahn

[yakumo381]

The special effects they propose seem promising but I hope they do not go for the "dumbing down" solution that museums in the UK have resorted to so as to try to attract a greater number and wider range of people.

 

The UK government some time back decided that certain museums would be "free" entry to all, ie. the museums have to work within a tax payer funded budget, the size of which depends on what footfall they can achieve, whilst meeting specific government set objectives.

 

An example being the "Think Tank" in Birmingham, UK that replaced a traditional Science Museum with, based on a recent visit, to now have a layout, information and displays based on the intellectual capacity of 5 year olds...... http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/thinktank.

[kvp]

One thing is to fix the lights in the cars, another is to keep them more or less operational and also extend the collection to be larger than the display area, which allows rotating the less important heritage cars on a regular basis. You can also add interactive features like the working steam locomotives already there. Imho so far they have been going in a good direction.

 

It's also possible to hold thematic events, both yearly and occasional ones. The outside environment could be upgraded too, imho a good example is the railway historical park in hungary, that has extra things added to the old roundhouse, like a miniature ride on railway (maintained by a club and mostly run by student voluanteers) and a railway themed playground for children near a picknick area, besides having a permanent model layout exhibition with various layouts operated by the mostly senior members of the old national railways' model railway club (they got a small detached clubhouse for free as a storage and exhibition space). There are also non railway related events in the park, like the annual classic car exhibition and meeting, together with spring and christmas kids events and of course two yearly international model railway exhibitons. There is a classic railway restaurant housed in an old station building and one mostly static operational restaurant car, while there is an annual international restaurant car festival and also a preserved steam locomotive meeting. If you can get one 1 or 2 day long larger event each month (12 in total), it means many people will return at least 2-3 times a year, depending on if they like steam locomotives, model railways or classic cars. Btw. the permanent core exhibit consists of the static and operational trains in and around the roundhouse, an equipment and history exhibit upstairs and larger stuff (signals, water cranes, bridges, etc.) behind the building near the 2nd turntable. The idea is that they try to get everyting that would otherwise be scrapped and either restore it for display or at least just store it behind the workshops for the future. (the rust pile there is huge and getting larger, but once in a while something gets pulled out and restored)

 

So imho the number of possibilities for the Kyoto museum to grow in the future are large.

[Das Steinkopf]

To be quite frank I visited the museum in mid April and would have to say that it is the best museum I have ever been to, there is a vast array of interactive displays that are extremely educative and are designed to engage the visitors especially children in learning all the different aspects of railway operations and technology. I visited Umekoji back in April 2015 and whilst it was a decent rail museum back then primarily devoted to steam traction it pales in significance to the refurbished museum. The rooftop viewing area is fantastic idea in that you can either sit down and enjoy lunch and watch the activities of the mainline or the roundhouse and get some great photos, I remember the crowds reaction when my son spotted the Mizukaze running along the Sanin Mailine and everyone spinning around to get a view of it.

Edited June 19, 2017 by Das Steinkopf