Japan: Home grown trams ... with just a little hint of Europe

摘要

Last year we featured static historic tramway collections in japan. This month, Mike Russell looks at working examples. He also took the pictures. Japan does not have a national working tramway museum in the style of Crich in the UK. Although a vast array of interesting rolling-stock has been saved, it is been left to individual organisations to preserve and operate their own vehicles. There are three museums with working tramway lines. The biggest and best-known is in the Meiji-Mura heritage museum in the northern suburbs of Nagoya, operated since 1967 with two ex-Kyoto four-wheel 3 ft 6 in (1067 mm) gauge tramcars, and a full account was provided by John Price in his December 1967 article in Modern Tramway. Operation remains basically unchanged, the two ex-Kyoto cars providing a shuttle service for visitors over a short single-track line within the museum grounds. Services are about every 20 minutes between 09,30 and 16.00 (17.00 in summer). The website is http://www. meijimura. com