Yokokawa Train Village
by Tony Lou
In October of 2001, I had joint the group tour with my friends to Japan. In my journey, I had stay behind 3 days in Tokyo and met with one of our Japanese member Mr. Toru Mitobe. He took us to visit one railway museum in Yokokawa called Yokokawa Train Village. There is the northwest area of Tokyo. The main line is“Shin-etsu Line”.
We could take an express train from Ueno to Takasaki and change local train to Yokokawa. The museum is beside of train station. Total in around 3 hours can be reach. Or, you may take“Shinkensen”from Ueno to Takasaki first and change local train. Then, you may saved around 1 hour by train.
EMU 211 Series |
Shinkensen 200 |
Takasaki Station |
EMU 107 Series |
Yokokawa |
Yokokawa Station |
The entrance fees is $500Yen /head. The opening time is 10:00am – 4:00pm. Will close on every Tuesday.
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Entrance Gate |
Depot |
Outdoor Places |
Inside the museum, most of places is opened. Its is like a custom garden with many trains. They show so many different kind of locomotives and rail vehicles. Meantime, you may make a booking for test driving of electric loco EF63 with their lecturer. But the trainning costs are so expensive ! Also, they have some little live steam trains can let tourist get on the trains and tour around whole museum. Very fun !
Outdoor Places
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Inside Depot
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Test Driving of EF63
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Steam train tour around the museum
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Little Live Steam
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Inside their exhibition room, we could found all history of the old main line of“Shin-etsu Line”and the techincal details of rack guard railway between Yokokawa and Karuizawa with electric loco ED42.
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New line was opened in 1963. Distance between Yokokawa and Karuizawa was 11.2Km and height different approx. 600 meters. The slope is most steep within JNR line which is 66.7 per mill (66.7/1000). Electric loco EF63 double heading were always take a position at downhill side (Yokokawa side) to push and brake trains.
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Meanwhile, they have a big model train layout which show you the simple introduction of JNR.
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Their website is http://www.usuitouge.com (Japanese langauge only).
Any member or friend would like to go overthere, you may feel free to contact me. Hope you have a great journey in Tokyo.
Thank you very much.
Kind regards,
Tony Lou / HKRS
