The Himeji City Monorail ran 1.6 km from Himeji Station to Tegarayama from 1966 to 1974. Its two 200-series cars are displayed in the restored Tegarayama terminus, alongside the original platform, in an exhibition room that recreates opening day.
Why it's unique
Only two Lockheed-type monorail lines were ever built in Japan: Himeji's and Odakyū's Mukōgaoka-Yūen line, whose cars were not kept. Trafficnews states the Himeji pair are the world's only surviving Lockheed monorail cars. That rests on one press source; the city's own page does not make the claim.
The line was built for the 1966 Himeji Grand Exposition celebrating the castle's Shōwa restoration, averaged 938 riders a day against a break-even of 3,460, and was suspended after eight years. What survives is not a car on a plinth but the terminus itself, with the platform the cars stopped at.
Before you go
One of the two cars is open to walk into whenever the building is open, which most visitors don't realise. The room recreates opening day, 17 May 1966, with period adverts, timetable, water fountain and bins, and sound and lighting.
Combine it with the aquarium next door. Since March 2026 the new JR Tegarayama-Heiwa-Kōen Station puts it two minutes from a train. The other monorail station, Daishōgun, built through an apartment block, has been demolished; this terminus is what is left.
