Atherton Train Station Museum Opens in the Old Depot

Published: November 13, 2026

The old Atherton train station is open again as a museum. The Almanac reported on November 11, 2026, that the Atherton Train Station Museum opened to the public on October 18 in the glass-enclosed depot beside Town Center. Six model-railroad dioramas fill the building. The newspaper called the museum a memorial to 150 years of service at the station, including the years when the stop was named Fair Oaks and the trains were Southern Pacific.

Weekday hours at 80 Fair Oaks Lane

The Almanac said the museum is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday, beside Atherton Town Center at 80 Fair Oaks Lane. The visit is self-led. Visitors look at the dioramas, watch videos, and read displays on the town and the region. The newspaper did not print a weekend schedule, an admission price, or a phone number.

Dan Vargas, who co-owns the model company Images RR with his brother Armando, told the Almanac the displays are meant to catch memories of the station. “The goal is to make people feel like they’re right there again, give them a chance to go back in time, in miniature,” he said. A caption in the story identifies one diorama as the Fair Oaks flag stop from 1863 to 1912, and another as the station from 1951 to 1980. Those dates are the labels on the models in that account.

How the depot became a museum

The Almanac reported that by the time Caltrain closed the station in 2020, trains stopped there only on weekends. Weekday service had been cut in 2005. Vice Mayor Rick DeGolia said people who had bought homes to be near the station opposed that weekday cut, and that the relationship with the transit agency was already contentious. He said Caltrain had total control.

The newspaper said the town had concerns about state laws that would have required higher-density housing near transit hubs. It also said Caltrain closed the station because of low ridership and what the paper called an antiquated platform configuration. DeGolia said town officials asked the council to support the closure, and that the council did so on the condition that the train service provide $400,000 to renovate the deteriorating station and to upgrade the Watkins Avenue intersection with the Caltrain tracks.

The Almanac said that $400,000 let the town install new glass, replace rotting wood, and close a two-inch gap between the walls and the ground. City Manager George Roderick said the town spent about $50,000 more on museum features, including the dioramas from Images RR. Vargas said about 150 people came to the October opening. Roderick said a handful of people visit each day, and that the town cleans the displays and sweeps the floors every week. He said children enjoy the museum, and that the town library is considering train-themed events.

Former Mayor Diana Hawkins Manuelian told the Almanac she proposed the museum when the station closed, so the history would have a place people could visit. “The concept behind this is that this is one specific place over time,” she said. “How the trains changed, how the building changed, how the people and the culture around it changed.” She hopes the hours can grow, and that the dioramas can gain interactive pieces, if residents step forward. “It’s really just kind of a beginning,” she said.

Sources

B. Sakura Cannestra, “A chance to go back in time: Atherton Train Station Museum celebrates 150 years of railroad history,” The Almanac, November 11, 2026, almanacnews.com/atherton/2026/11/11/a-chance-to-go-back-in-time-atherton-train-station-museum-celebrates-150-years-of-railroad-history. Opening on October 18. Six dioramas. Hours and the 80 Fair Oaks Lane address are given above. Weekday service cut in 2005. Station closed in 2020, with weekend stops only by then. DeGolia on the closure condition of $400,000 for the building and the Watkins Avenue intersection. Roderick on about $50,000 for museum features, including the Images RR dioramas. Vargas on about 150 people at the opening, and the quotation above. Hawkins Manuelian on the purpose of the museum. The story photographs, credited to Seeger Gray, were not saved for this draft.

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Atherton Train Station Museum Opens in the Old Depot

Weekday hours at 80 Fair Oaks Lane

How the depot became a museum

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Sources