There are quite many railway museums in Japan. Some of them are small, and some are huge. For example, the Railway Museum in Saitama, which opened in 2007 to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the JR East railroads.

The exhibition presented in this museum is fascinating. Several floors, each with a different theme, are exciting to visitors of all ages. For adults, such a museum is an opportunity to see how technology evolved and what progress has been achieved. For children, it's a few hours that they spend with amusement studying locomotives and diesel locomotives, examining the cab of the engine, and enjoying miniature models of entire cities, which are connected by the railroad.

Most of the exhibits on display in the museum are trains made between 1912 and 1926. Some of them belonged to the imperial family.
The oldest and most valuable exhibit is Locomotive No. 1. It was made in Britain in 1872 and was intended for one of the first railway lines of the country.

Almost all of the locomotives and cars in the museum can be viewed not only from the outside but also from the inside. Some exhibits are raised to a man's height above the floor so that you can see how the running gear is constructed.

And there's also a room with simulators, where anyone, with the help of special computer programs and large screens, can try themselves as a train driver. The most interesting thing is that there are models of trains from different eras in this room. In a couple of minutes, you can be transported in time and drive a train that ran on the railroad in 1930 and then immediately get behind the wheel of a modern train.

Twice a day the museum hosts a colorful theatrical performance: actors dressed in ancient uniforms demonstrate how they used to see off trains, and they also launch one of the old steam locomotives, driving it a few dozen meters.