Umekōji Steam Locomotive Museum, Railway museum in Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan

The Umekōji Steam Locomotive Museum is a railway museum in Shimogyō ward, Kyoto, housed in a reinforced-concrete roundhouse built in 1914. Its 20 steam locomotives, representing 18 classes, stand on radiating tracks around a turntable made in 1956. The roundhouse, with its 5-ton overhead crane and lead-in tracks, was designated an Important Cultural Property in 2004.

The depot was built in 1914 as an operational facility and served for decades as a maintenance center for steam locomotives in the region. Its conversion into a museum took place in 1972 to mark the centennial anniversary of railway service in Japan.

The name Umekōji refers to a former district used for steam operations and rail yards. The turntable at the center of the roundhouse shows how locomotives were rotated and distributed before their next journey.

The museum sits inside Umekōji Park in Shimogyō ward, and the roundhouse connects to the working Umekōji depot, so locomotives and DE10 diesel engines used on the Sagano Scenic Railway can be seen under maintenance. The site is reached from Kyoto Station on foot. The old Nijō Station building, moved here in 1997, serves as the entrance and ticket hall.

The turntable at the centre of the roundhouse was on the list of potential targets for the atomic bomb during World War II; Kyoto was spared and the target changed. The roundhouse, its 1915 5-tonne electric overhead crane and the approach tracks were designated an Important Cultural Property in 2004.