Railroad Ferry Museum, Tiburon

About Railroad Ferry Museum

The Railroad & Ferry Depot Museum in Tiburon captures the area's rich railroad and maritime heritage through restored exhibits housed in a historic building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Located at Shoreline Park, the museum overlooks San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Angel Island. Visitors explore the ground floor's detailed operating HO-scale model of Tiburon as a railroad town between 1900 and 1910, with accurate 1:87 scale proportions showing landscapes, buildings, trains, and ferryboats as they appeared during that era. The restored gray depot building itself tells the story of how Irish immigrant Peter Donahue extended the San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad to Tiburon in 1884, transforming the area into a major railroad and ferry terminus until the last train departed in 1967. The museum suits history enthusiasts and model railroad fans interested in Northern California's industrial past. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday with hours published on the venue's site.