All aboard! This classics photo, taken somewhere between 1890 and 1900, gives us a glimpse of the bustling Seaside train depot. This was the busy transportation hub in town from 1888 up until 1938 when highway 26 to Portland was completed. The depot was located south of Broadway, right off of highway 101 between avenues M and F (nowadays this space is occupied by the Seaside Community Gardens, a rail car replica, and a three-dimensional sculpture of the “Daddy Train” engine).
The “Daddy Train” was named after the famous train that brought fathers of families to the coast for the weekends. To escape Portland’s summer heat families would make the railroad journey to Seaside and spend their summer in the beautiful little town. Fathers would then make the trip back to Portland, spend the workweek in the city, and then return on the weekends to visit the family. Every weekend the families would gather at the railroad station to greet the returning fathers then see them off on their trip back to Portland. It wasn’t long before the train became known as the “Daddy Train”.
