Bill,
Good to have you back aboard!
I, too, took the ride behind the C59 (I'll have to re-check my photos, as I think the engine I rode behind was one of the D51s, but I could be wrong) and it was quite the experience. I could have done without the repeated playing of "I've been working on the railroad" (in Japanese, of course) the whole trip, would have been nice to just hear the hissing of the cylinders.
Still, they have quite an impressive collection of steam power there in the collection. As soon as I obtain a new power source (a new power strip) to power my scanner, and get a webpage to host my pics, I'll put a few up here as well.
In the meantime, here are links to the Umekoji SL (steam locomotive) Museum pages in English on the website for the Modern Transportation Museum.
OVERVIEW
http://www.mtm.or.jp/eng/umekoji/index.html
(Note, the picture at the very bottom shows the train that Bill and I have ridden)...
MUSEUM GUIDE
http://www.mtm.or.jp/eng/umekoji/guide.html
INFORMATION
http://www.mtm.or.jp/eng/umekoji/information.html
And a RT&R (Railway Transport & Review) article (PDF) on Umekoji (as well as some other steam preservation programs in Japan)...
http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr31/pdf/f24_tan.pdf
And, a website that has pictures of the various steam locomotives displayed at the museum...
http://www.japaneserailwaysociety.com/j ... mekoji.htm
(There's also a link at the bottom of that page for more steam in Japan.)
