Freight Railway Museum, Railway museum in Inabe, Japan

The Freight Railway Museum occupies the former freight platform of Tanigawa Station on the Sangi Line in Inabe, Mie Prefecture. Its main hall, entered beneath an illustration by Eikichi Yokomizo from the picture book Wamu-kun the Freight Train, holds documents, wagon parts and private-owner company crests, plus an HO-gauge layout and a children's corner. Outside stand 19 locomotives and wagons, including a British-built 1898 steam locomotive and tank wagons for alcohol, gasoline, hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide.

The museum opened in 2003 and documents freight transportation from Japan's Meiji era through to modern logistics. It preserves an important chapter of the country's industrial development.

The museum is run entirely by volunteers, not by Sanagi Railway or the local government; donations cover its costs, while the railway only prepared the site. The entrance wall of the main building, housed in Niu River Station's former freight platform, carries an illustration by Eiichi Yokomizo, illustrator of the picture book Kamotsu Ressha no Wamu-kun.

You can visit the outdoor exhibition area any day to look at the freight vehicles and equipment. The site is open and free, so you can stop by whenever it suits your schedule.

The museum is run entirely by volunteers, not by the railway company or local government; Sangi Railway only prepared the site, while donations cover costs. Among the collection is a tank body from a former Rising Sun Petroleum oil car, built in Britain in 1898 and counted among Japan's oldest. Four vehicles, including the Meitetsu To246 and the ShiKi160, were named National Museum of Nature and Science "Important Historical Materials for Science and Technology" in 2010.