The Yokohama City Tram, affectionately known as the "Chinchin Train," served as a vital mode of transportation for the city's residents for approximately 70 years, from 1904 to 1972.
The Yokohama City Tram Museum preserves and displays seven Yokohama City Trams in their original condition. In addition, it features historical exhibits where visitors can learn about Yokohama's development and transportation history, a tram simulator where visitors can experience driving a tram, O gauge and N gauge railway dioramas, and a valuable collection of handmade O gauge railway models. It is a facility where people of all ages can learn while having fun.
Inside the museum, seven streetcar vehicles, stop signs, and paving stones are preserved in their original state, recreating the "time" and "atmosphere" of the era when streetcars were in operation.
The history exhibition corner, themed "Yokohama's Development and Transportation," clearly explains the process from the reclamation of Yoshida Shinden, which formed the foundation of Yokohama's development, to the opening of Yokohama Port, the Great Kanto Earthquake, post-war reconstruction, the heyday of the streetcar system, and its eventual abolition, as well as the six major projects that formed the basis of Yokohama's subsequent urban planning and the transition to the subway.
