I refer to Odakyu's limited express train as "Romancecar (one word)" in this blog from now on, following the formal naming in English by the company.
I recently visited a new holy place for rail-fans, named Romancecar Museum. It was opened next to Ebina station on the Odawara line by Odakyu Electric Railway on April 19th last year.
To start, let me quickly review Romancecar. In the Tokyo metropolitan area, several railway companies compete with gorgeous express trains as their flagships. One of the venerable and popular trains is Odakyu Romancecar being operated from Shinjuku, a subcenter of Tokyo, to western suburbs. Odakyu first launched a resort train in 1935 as Hot Spring Express; however, it was forced to stop operating due to WWII in the 1940's. After the war, Odakyu resumed the operation of the express in 1950 under the new name of Romancecar. An epoch-making event occurred in 1957, when they launched a new model, the EMU 3000 series. This train established a maximum speed of 145 kilometer per hour on their test run. It was the world's fastest record of a narrow-gauged railway at that time. Odakyu then launched new Romancecar models one after another.
In Romancecar Museum, the successive Romancecars are preserved and exhibited. A driving simulator and a large diorama are popular specifically among junior rail-fans. Moreover, the attached cafe lounge can be used by everyone including passengers stopping by Ebina station. I'm going to show you the successive Romancecar models one by one from next post.
