Monday Museum Blues: Ebina Romancecar Museum near NAF Atsugi

Ebina Romancecar Museum (Photo by David Krigbaum)

I hate Mondays. Not because it’s the beginning of the work week or a fat cat told me to, but because almost all the museums are closed. So with nowhere to go indoors and rain making the outdoors unpleasant, it seemed I would waste a vacation day in Kanagawa Prefecture. Then I remembered a little museum in Ebina, a town close to Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Odakyu’s Romancecar Museum.

Since the 1950s, the Odawara Electric Railway’s Romancecar limited express has been a stylish way to get passengers from Odawara to Shinjuku fast. (According to the museum, the term “romancecar” likely originated with two-person “romance seats” at movie theaters.) Five of these proprietary people movers are on display allowing museum passengers to come aboard and see six decades of high-speed rail evolution up close. More than just fast, they’re visually enticing with their (then) modern lines and shiny vermillion, white and grey livery. My favorite of the set is the oldest, the SE 3000, which held the world speed record for a narrow gauge railway when it debuted in 1957, and can be considered a forerunner to the Shinkansen. Its round nose doesn’t hurt the comparison either.

The sixth train in the collection is also the only remaining MOHA 1 commuter train from 1927, a classic in wood and brass. It’s in a section about the history of both Odawara Electric Railway and the Romancecar. I think the museum lets itself down a little as there aren’t many of the accompanying artifacts usually seen in railway museums to help visualize the story.

Ebina Romancecar Museum (Photo by David Krigbaum)

The upstairs holds child-friendly interactive areas, including a model railway layout featuring real Odakyu line landmarks that takes up a room, and a Romancecar driving simulator that lets you get behind the controls in a full-sized cockpit. Unfortunately, the simulator is an additional fee. There’s a small café and a gift shop, though the immediate area is flush with dining options.

Having opened in 2021, it still has that new museum smell and room to grow into its facility. My only complaint is that the 900 yen adult entry fee is steep for what amounts to six trains in a company public relations center. That’s like putting positive exposure and advertising for a very attractive way to travel behind a pay wall. The unique trains on display did sell it for me, and I found it worth my time on a rainy Monday.

If visiting on a better weather day, Ebina can be spun off into its own day trip with a nearby historical museum and temple ruins.

Ebina Station

Phone: 046-233-0909

https://www.odakyu.jp/romancecarmuseum/

Naval Air Facility Atsugi