SCMAGLEV and Railway Park for train fanatics

If you're train fanatics, you're going to love the SCMAGLEV and Railway Park in Nagoya in Japan. The museum has 39 trains from different periods and showcases Japan's railway development and history over the years.

By the way, in case you're wondering why the name is a bit of a mouthful. SCMAGLEV is the superconducting magnetic levitation train developed by the Central Japan Railway Company. In the simpliest term, it uses "magnetic force between superconducting magnets installed on rolling stock and ground coils installed on the ground guideway (track) to levitate a train by about 3.9in for ultra-high speed operation." (Source : https://scmaglev.jr-central-global.com/faq/). Now you know!

 

---

MUSEUM ENTRANCE

If you read my last post, you'd remember I caught the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagoya. I visited the railway park on my last day in Nagoya before I headed off to Ise. It was a rushed visit as I had to be in Ise in the afternoon to meet the Ama divers. Ise was about 80km away, so I could only spend one hour here. The reception inside the museum was very airy and light. I loved the sleek and modern feel which goes well with the Shinkansen, bullet train image.

---

BULLET TRAIN DISPLAYS

The museum has two massive floors to house the 39 trains. I spent most of my time on the first floor where they displayed the bullet train. By the end I finished here, I didn't have much time for the second floor to see the conventional trains.

The whole set up on the first floor was very impressive as these were all retired live size trains. You may see a lot of trains on the railway platform, but you never see them so close to one another. Nor do you see so many different generation of Shinkansen trains all together at the same time

These two trains below are the stars of the show. The one on the left is 300x. In 1996, that's 23 years ago, it set the world record of 443km per hour! And things got even better from then. The one on the right is the MLX01-1 Superconducting Maglev. In 2003 it achieved a speed of 581km per hour on the Yamanashi Maglev test line, a record at that time. That record has been broken twice since, the last in 2015 when another SCMaglev train achieved 603km per hour. The SCMaglev will be available between Tokyo and Nagoya by 2027. (Meanwhile if you want to catch the maglev train, you will have fly into Shanghai, and catch the train from the airport in Shanghai city)

---

DRIVING SIMULATOR

I think one biggest attraction for train fanatics is the opportunity to drive a train, or a perhaps a Shinkansen? You can do that here in the two simulators, one for the N700 of the Tokaido Shinkansen, which is the one I went on, and another for the normal trains. The problem is that you have to go through a lottery first. Everyone is given a lottery ticket with their entrance ticket and you have to drop your ticket in the lottery box depending on when you would like to try the simulator.

For example, I was there around 10.30 in the morning. In between 10.15 to 11.30 you can drop your ticket into the lottery box. They will announce the results of the lottery at 11.50 and the winners can purchase a ticket for the simulator for the 12.00 to 1300 sesssion. This routine continues for 4 more times throughout the day.

---

PERSONALISED SHINKANSEN TICKET

Obviously I didnt' go for the simulator lottery as I didn't have enough time. However I do love everything that is interactive and I finally found it. There was a mock up gate for the Shinkansen at one part of the exhibit. At first I didn't think much of it other than "how nice to show people the whole set up". I was about to walk away when I saw someone at the terminal on the left hand side of the photo below.

Being the curious me, I went over to investigate and realised you could print your own personalised ticket. You can select the origination and destination station, date of travel and if I remember correctly you could also select the train time. And you know what the coolest thing is? You can print your name on the ticket!!! Here's me typing my name into the maching - LivingUKTaiwan!

You've probably gathered by now, it doesn't take much to get me excited! Here's my ticket, isn't it so cool!!! It's printed on thermal paper eight months ago and has started to fade. I've tried to enhance the image and you can just about see my name on the bottom right, and my selected stations Nagoya to Tokyo.

To be honest, this isn't anything high tech and difficult to produce. It's more of the creativity to enhance the customer experience that impresses me the most. The personalised ticket is a great souvenir for train fanatics.

---

RAILWAY PARK INFO FOR THE TRAIN FANATICS

Getting to the park is very easy. From Nagoya, you can catch the Aonami line to Kinjofuto Station, and then its a two minute walk to the park. If you're driving, the mapcode for the GPS is 152 477 463*74. The museum is closed every Tuesday, and on 28th December through to 1st January. Other than that it is open everyday from 10am to 5pm. There is an admission fee of 1000 Yen which is £7.50 or USD9.20.

If after visitng the museum, you still have plenty of time left, you can also go the Legoland. It is just 1km away. That would make a fanatatsic day out for the whole family.

---

如果你是鐵路粉絲，到日本名古屋一定要到磁浮鐵道館參觀。 磁浮鐵道館裏面有39輛見證日本鐵道歷史的退役火車。從最早期的蒸汽火車頭，到磁浮列車也有。

鐵道館樓高兩層。 第一層展示歷代新幹線的火車型號。 其中一輛300X型號，在1996年創下443公里的最高時速。 23年前，沒有幾個國家有高速鐵路，而當年這是一項世界紀錄。 之後這個世界紀錄兩度被日本的磁浮列車 MLX01-1 型號打破。 最後一次在2015年，在測試路軌上做出603公里時速的紀錄。 日本的浮磁列車系統將在2027年連貫東京和名古屋。 如果現在想乘坐浮磁列車就要到上海浦東機場喔！

鐵道館有兩個模擬駕駛艙。 想體驗駕駛新幹線或傳統火車的朋友， 要把入場券附上的抽獎券/摸彩券投入抽獎箱內， 然後等公佈方知道可否購買體驗模擬駕駛艙的票。

另一個我很感興趣的互動體驗是印製新幹線車票。 我見到有一個模擬新幹線入閘口，原本以為沒什麼特別。後來看到旁邊有一座售票機，好奇過去看看。 原來這台機是可以輸入乘車資料和個人名字，然後就會得到一張個性化車票。很酷喔！ 其實這不是什麼高科技，要做很容易。但鐵道館勝有心思， 讓遊客們有一個與新幹線互動的體驗。

去磁浮鐵道館非常方便。從名古屋乘坐青波線到金城埠頭站， 然後步行2分鐘就到 。 鐵道館每星期二休館， 12月28至1月1 日也休館。 其他時間開朝十晚五，門票1000 日元。 如果是自駕遊，輸入 152 477 463*74 到導航就可以。 忘記說，樂高遊樂園就在附近，只1km。去完鐵道館，再去樂高遊樂園剛好

---

Check out all my travel posts here on Steemit Worldmap, and also my latest project @LadiesOfAsia where we share fun and cultural diversity across Asia Pacific.

 

 

---

Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://livinguktaiwan.com/scmaglev-and-railway-park-for-train-fanatics/

---