Depot celebrates 100th anniversary 

By Conan Knoll 
STAFF WRITER 

FREMONT -- Train buffs will celebrate the Niles depot's 100th year Saturday with more than a ceremony and entertainment. They will be beginning a drive to raise more than $1 million to move the historic building to its original home. 

"The depot is turning 100 years old and we are using this occasion as the kick-off of a fund-raising drive to bring the depot back to the downtown and renovate it. We estimate it will take $1.5 million," said Matt Edwards, a member of the Niles Depot Historical Foundation and the Niles Merchants Association. 

The city recently adopted a plan to revitalize Niles, which includes looking at moving the depot from its home on Mission Boulevard to its original location on Niles Boulevard across from H and J streets. 

The centennial celebration is being held in conjunction with the Niles Harvest Festival. The event is free, but proceeds from a raffle to win a model train layout, T-shirt sales and any donations will go toward moving the depot. 

Trains have long rumbled through Niles, shaping the area's history and identity along the way. The area was first called Vallejo Mills, but became known as Niles when Southern Pacific Railroad named its depot after Judge Addison C. Niles, a railroad official. 

The depot is the second to serve Niles. The original, built in 1870, included a restaurant and saloon. In 1900, Southern Pacific closed all its railroad saloons. Without the bar, the restaurant soon closed its doors. 

The building was sold and a portion of it was moved a few blocks away and still serves as a private home. 

The depot was closed in 1974 and Southern Pacific planned to demolish the building in 1981. But it was rescued when the Tri-City Society of Model Engineers and the city reached an agree-ment with the railroad company to move the depot from railroad property to its location. 

The city owns the depot and leases it to the Niles Depot Historical Foundation and the Model Engineer's Society, which operate it as a museum and a place for rail enthusiasts to meet, to hold events and to house model railroad layouts. 

"Niles is first and foremost, and always has been, a railroad town, and we are trying to restore that sense of history," Edwards said. 

The centennial celebration and the Niles Harvest Festival will feature blues music, a swap meet, carnival games, a scarecrow contest, a pumpkin patch, caboose tours and food. Proceeds from the carnival games will go to Niles School and Vallejo Mills school, who are raising money for the Afghan Children's Relief Fund, Edwards said. 

Greg Schindel, the "Train Singer" who performs regularly on the Skunk Train, which operates near Willits, will sing traditional and original train songs. The River blues band also will perform. 

The Harvest Festival and centennial celebration run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.The Niles depot is 36997 MissionBlvd. 

Self-guided tours begin at 10 a.m. A ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. and will be followed by music. At 2:30 p.m., therewill be a raffle for a model train layout.