Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - SCMaglev and Railway Park

 

The actual itinerary of the day was this train museum. SCMaglev Railway Park. It was highly recommended, and was quite expensive. I think it was 1000Yen to enter? The train to get here and back was already almost 400Yen. But how could I not come, right? In total, I spend maybe only 3 hours here. I did learn a lot and finally knew what SCMaglev meant. But in terms of ROI, it wasn't really worth it unless you are a train fanatic. But if you are open to explore and learn about train, it's a good place. I didn't regret coming. 

Needless to say, the place was crawling with mainly male visitors....And entering the hall, the display there just blew you away. Full sized trains, not one or two, but many many are displayed in the hall. It was a huge place.

You could see bullet train up close! You could even walk into them. I felt like I've somehow stepped into the future! I thought it would be boring. But I actually learned a few new things here! Japanese and all!

Above is a demo set of how Japan prevents catastrophe of their train network when an earthquake is detected. For a land with so many earthquake, it was something critical for the train system. And this demo shows how detection straight away cuts off the power for the train and everything would come to a standstill. Amazing.

One of the coolest thing I learned in this place, was the speed of train and their evolution. And we're not talking about up to bullet trains. We're talking about up to the fastest magnetic trains in the world!

And that would be the maglev train, reaching speed of 581 km/h during testing. It would be in operation in the near future, but not currently.

Here's the proof from Guinness World record showing it as the fastest train on earth!

And they even have a simulation room where you can go in and pretend that you are seated in this train. There are proper seats, display and windows, and it takes you on a ride, with motion, sound and explanation of the train. I didn't know that after hitting a certain speed, the train's wheels are actually lifted up and stored away, and the magnetic technology taking over from there. I guess friction will slow a train down. So basically the whole train is floating as it moves. How cool is that?

Here's a photo showing the train reaching 500km/h. The windows next to the seats are also part of the simulation, and it's quite a blur! At this point, you can feel the chair kinda shaking too. It was super awesome to experience it. 

The other highlight of the museum was the simulation room where you can have a crash course on being a station master or a train driver. You could drive the local train, or the bullet train. Everything is conducted in Japanese. And you have to purchase and booked a slot when you buy your entrance ticket. I wasn't interested, so I didn't get a ticket for it. But from what I read and heard, they usually run out fast. Guess all the boys wants to drive trains?

Above is the bullet train simulator. While you are driving, people can actually watch you, so please don't crash the train! Lol. There will be another two post on the museum. One is on the diorama coming up next, and the last one will be on retro trains.  I will try to squeeze everything I can in the last one as I had so much fun running in and out all the beautifully restored retro trains that was on displayed here! Who would have thought that a girl can fall in love with cars and trains in Nagoya ;)