Best Rail Museum Oakland 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 motors 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.


What we offer at the museum is a celebration of 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 a wide variety of unique San Francisco gifts, souvenirs and memorabilia not available anywhere else.

Our ‘flagship’ merchandise line is Market Street Railway’s own Historic Travel Series of images that evoke the heyday of travel posters from the 1920s and 1930s. These images, created by San Francisco artists John Mattos and David Dugan, depict cable cars and historic streetcars in the context of the San Francisco neighborhoods they serve. This furthers Market Street Railway’s mission of educating the public to the value of historic transit to neighborhood vitality and to expansion of San Francisco’s vital visitor industry. These images are currently available as posters, note cards, framed prints and magnets. We also offer our signature “fleet poster” of all the vintage streetcars currently active on the F-line. We’re always adding additional unique gifts, including mugs, t-shirts, and kids’ items.

4worldlovers:
A visit to our 10,000 square foot Museum of operating model trains provides an inexpensive, fun-filled outing for young and old, with plenty of room for youngsters to stretch their legs and expend energy as they follow trains along the 200+ feet of public walkway.

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:
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: More than a pretty waterfront town, Tiburon has a rich railroad and maritime history, which is captured in the Railroad & Ferry Depot Museum. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Museum rests on Shoreline Park with priceless views of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Angel Island.

OPEN – April thru October, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, 1-4 pm (OPEN on Sunny Sundays, 1-4 pm, April – October)

Spanish explorers named the area Punta de Tiburón (Point Tiburon) in 1775. One hundred years later, due to its the proximity to San Francisco, Point Tiburon became a major railroad and ferry terminus, maintenance yard and industrial town. In 1884, Peter Donahue, Irish immigrant and industrial tycoon, completed the extension of the San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad to Tiburon with a ferry fleet to provide faster passenger and freight service between the City and Northern California. Twenty-three years later, the Donahue Line merged with competitors to become the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The last train left Point Tiburon September 25, 1967.

With trains no longer running, Southern Pacific deeded its shoreline property and the depot building to the Town of Tiburon for open space and a museum as a condition of redevelopment. In 1995, Tiburon and the Landmarks Society entered into a 99-year lease, and Landmarks became responsible for the care and preservation of the building and installation of a museum. By 1999, the structural work was complete and construction of permanent exhibits began.

The lovely restored gray building at Shoreline Park captures the past in two museums. On the ground floor, a detailed operating HO-scale model shows Tiburon, the railroad town c.1900 to 1910. The model’s scale (1:87) is accurate so sizes of landscapes, buildings, trains and boats are accurate when compared to one another. The only exception to authenticity is the palm tree, which was planted twenty years later. It is included in the model as a point of reference.

The three ferryboats in the model were part of a large fleet that operated between San Francisco and Point Tiburon. The Ukiah was built at the local yard and the Donahue was named for Peter’s son, who succeeded him as president of the railroad company. The Ukiah originally carried railroad cars but was rebuilt after World War I to ferry automobiles across the bay — although not to and from Tiburon. Later renamed the Eureka, it is preserved at the San Francisco Maritime Museum’s Hyde Street Pier.

Upstairs is the Depot House Museum, where the stationmaster’s family lived. Restoration was based on the memories of Florence Bent Palmer, the daughter of the last stationmaster, William Bent, who served from 1913 to 1940. Bent’s family included three children and a dog, as well as his wife, Ann, who sometimes milked cows that had to spend the night in the railroad yard before continuing the journey to San Francisco. School children frequently visit the museum to learn about typical middle-class life in the early 20th century. Among the period details are hanging light bulbs and a coal/wood-burning stove in the kitchen, an ice box and wringer washer in the pantry, a gramophone and several original pieces of furniture from the Bent family.

Items in the museums are donations to the Landmarks Society’s History Collections. Donors also underwrite the cost of scale models, which is based on the square footage of the footprint of original full-size buildings.

Private Group Tours: Landmarks offers group tours for all of our historical properties. Whether for senior excursions, school visits, or just large groups (10 or more) from out of the area – our docents teach the exciting history of this beautiful area and each Landmark. The easiest accessible sites are the Railroad & Ferry Depot Museum and the China Cabin. (Old St. Hilary cannot accommodate large buses; therefore, groups need to walk about 100 yards uphill to gain access.) We ask for a donation of $5 per person/per site to be paid in advance to help defray the operating and maintenance costs of each of the sites. For more information, please call Landmarks at 415-435-1853.

We are actively working to complete the Railroad Museum and if you are interested in sponsoring any of the remaining models or rooms upstairs, please contact Landmarks at 415-435-1853.

4worldlovers: The Museum of the San Ramon Valley is dedicated to preserving and celebrating our rich history and heritage. The collections and exhibits reflect our human experiences, institutions and cultures that were shaped by the valley's landscape, environment and early settlers.

The Valley's past is featured in a permanent exhibit that includes artifacts, a historical narrative frieze and pictures of historic buildings. The Museum collects, stores and protects artifacts from the San Ramon Valley. The Museum sponsors revolving exhibits and several guided tours including the Alamo Cemetery and Old Town Danville.

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