It has been full steam ahead for the Kyoto Railway Museum since its grand opening last Friday, the first day of the Golden Week holidays.
The 30,000-sq.-meter museum, one of the largest in Japan, boasts 53 train units, ranging from the nation's oldest steam locomotive to recent shinkansen models.
The museum, which replaces the now-closed Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum, also has train driving simulators and a display that shows the internal structure of the ticket gates used at stations.
Also, from the Sky Terrace lounge on the top floor, visitors can view shinkansen trains running in front of Toji Temple.
About 210 people from local governments and West Japan Railway celebrated the new facility, which is run by West Japan Railway Co., at the opening ceremony on April 28.
"We are aiming to make it a museum that children and adults can both enjoy," JR West President Seiji Manabe said at the ceremony.
JR West aims to attract 1.2 million to 1.3 million visitors in its first year. On the first day, about 14,300 people visited the museum.
As well as being bigger than the Umekoji museum, the Kyoto museum also includes documents previously stored at the former Modern Transportation Museum in Osaka.
