The Kyoto Railway Museum is the largest railway museum in Japan, opened in 2016 on the site of the old Umekōji steam locomotive shed a short walk west of Kyoto Station. Three full floors of exhibition halls combine with the original semicircular roundhouse, where twenty preserved steam locomotives are displayed on the historic turntable — and several are still in working order, hauling visitors on short rides through the museum grounds on weekends.
The collection traces the entire history of Japanese rail, from the first British-built locomotives of the 1870s through the kaisoku express trains of the 1930s to the original 1964 Shinkansen bullet train prototype and the modern N700 series. Hands-on driving simulators are popular with children; the rooftop terrace gives an excellent view across the Kyoto Station rail yards and over to the temples of central Kyoto. Combine with a stop at Tō-ji just to the south.