Best Rail Museum Fremont Near Me

4worldlovers: The museum and freight house are located at: 37592 Niles Blvd, Fremont, CA 94536-2980

For opening dates and times, please check our website Online Calendar.

See what just happened in the Depot! Click here for more info!

The next Niles Depot Model Train Event will be Sunday, June 25, 2023 from 10am to 2pm on the patio behind the Niles Depot. Click here for more info!

Donate Your Model Trains, Books and Magazines! Click here for more info!

The Niles passenger and freight depots located in the Niles District of Fremont, California, are home to a railroad museum and two new model railroad layouts. Using historical documentation, the planners and builders of both railroads are recreating the features of the nearby communities with Niles as the center. Included are the depots and the nearby Niles Tower with the crossing of the Southern Pacific and Western Pacific railroads as well as the many neighboring communities and industries.

The non-profit Niles Depot Historical Foundation runs the museum and operation of the passenger depot which contains many local artifacts and railroad displays. It is also seeking new members with an interest in local history to be docents in the museum.

Inside the Museum and Freight House, the Tri-City Society of Model Engineers built and operate two layouts are based in Niles and the surrounding communities of the Bay Area. Attention is given to accuracy and detail in both the track plans and surrounding scenery. The modeling era is the mid-1970s, but all industries and towns are being represented as they were in their prime.

The HO scale layout features the Southern Pacific mainline from Niles to San Jose with the many industries in Niles, Newark, Union City and other intermediate communities, as well as both Southern Pacific and Western Pacific lines through Niles Canyon to Pleasanton and Livermore. San Jose Cahill St. Station is featured as the model railroad’s large passenger terminal. A section will also feature the BART line through Fremont.

The N scale layout features the SP and WP mainlines from Niles to Oakland with intermediate communities such as Decoto, Alvarado and Hayward.

4worldlovers: Operated by the Society for the Preservation for Carter Railroad Resources, Inc. (SPCRR),

4worldlovers: On Saturday, May 6, 2023, our Niles Canyon Railway Build East Track Construction Crew reached another major milestone as they completed the ballasting, leveling and tamping of all of the current installed track which now ends just on the east side of Happy Valley Bridge. This is a major milestone for the team who has been working for many months methodically working their way toward this goal; insuring the railroad was properly leveled and hardened to allow trains to now pass all the way to Happy Valley.


On May 30, 1968, the PLA operated the first of its Truckee Limiteds over the Southern Pacific. The trip was a round trip one day adventure from Oakland to Truckee, California and return. This was one and only time one of the three unique SP DH643 hydraulics pulled a passenger train. In this follow up blog post to an earlier post, we share some new images and info.