Best Rail Museum Hayward Near Me

4worldlovers: San Francisco is one of the few places in the world where you can get the actual experience of riding vintage rail transit in its “natural habitat” — the rumble of the wheels under your feet, the swaying of the car itself, the smell of the brakes. Before or after you take that magical ride on the “museums in motion,” visit our museum to make your experience complete.

Our museum celebrates San Francisco’s rail transit history, focused on exploring the positive impacts streetcars and cable cars have made on the quality of urban life in this great city.

The museum features a full-sized exact replica of the motorman’s platform of a 1911 San Francisco streetcar, where kids of all ages can experience what it was like to be at the controls. You’ll also find unique historic artifacts, illustrative and informative displays, rarely seen archival photography, and audio-visual exhibits that use 21st century technology to bring rail transit in the 19th and 20th centuries to life.


You can also rent our museum for private parties and special events.

The gift shop in the San Francisco Railway Museum features unique San Francisco gifts, souvenirs and memorabilia not available anywhere else. (Except in our online store.)

Our talented designer friends have created many of these products just for us, evoking San Francisco’s vintage rail past and present too. We’re currently celebrating the 150th anniversary of the invention of the cable car with logo mugs, shirts, coasters, and more you can only get from us. Many more products celebrating streetcar and cable car history in the city by the bay are also available. (Check out the “store” button at the top of this page.)

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:
In October 2004, the Millbrae Historical Society opened a railroad museum at the former Millbrae Southern Pacific Train Depot. The new Museum was described in a February 4, 2005 article in the San Francisco Chronicle. The depot building has been continuously in use since it was rebuilt in 1907. The Historical Society has a three-tiered plan for the site. The first step - the repair, clean up and repainting of the structure - was completed by a group of dedicated volunteer railroaders, led by Historical Society Treasurer and Train Museum Curator Vern Bruce. Throughout the process, careful attention has been paid to restoring the depot to as close to its original as-built state as is feasible. The waiting room and ticketmaster's office have been set up as a display area, housing a varied collection of photos, artifacts, documents, and books dedicated to the railroad history of Millbrae, the Peninsula, and the western United States.


In October 2011, we were honored to take possession of a fully restored 1929 Ford Model AA heavy-duty truck outfitted as a Railway Express Agency (REA) delivery vehicle. The truck, pictured below, is now on permanent display as part of our Train Museum exhibition. The vehicle was meticulously restored by MHS Lifetime Member David Hannigan and donated to the Train Museum for the enjoyment of all our visitors. This newest historical gem is just one more reason you'll want to plan a visit real soon to the Millbrae Train Museum!

4worldlovers: Ride through Niles Canyon behind diesel and steam power on select weekends through October of 2023. Read More about “2023 Train Rides”…


Ride through the canyon on a beautiful summer night! Approximately 1 hour and 20 minute diesel powered round trip departing from our Sunol Depot at 7:00PM on August 19, 2023.


Take a ride on a railroad speeder car from Niles to Brightside yard and return on April 29, 2023. Buy your tickets for this unique opportunity to see Niles Canyon from a different perspective. Limited extra tickets added 4/24/2023


Recently our President, Henry Baum, joined The Cast of Niles podcast to talk about railroad history, our railroad and our museum’s future plans. From their website, “In this second episode …


Continue reading “Niles Canyon Railway featured on The Cast of Niles podcast”


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.