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Home of the Baldwin Steam Locomotive "Big Mike"
"Big Mike"
"Big Mike"

All Aboard!!...You can almost hear them as they whisper of yesterday.

The first floor of this building was used for the depot and rooms included the rotunda, ticket office, one waiting room for white women, one waiting room for white men, a Negro waiting room and ticket office, a baggage room, a dining room (Vannoy Restaurant), a kitchen and three rest rooms. The second floor housed the general railroad offices for the superintendent, the roadmaster, the trainmaster, division engineer, dispatchers and clerks.

Today, this building is a step back in time. The charm of the railroad and the people who developed the area are evident in every room. For $2.00 admission for adults, $1.00 for children and special breaks for groups, you can tour the museum on weekends from 1-5pm. Special arrangements can be made for other times if you call in advance. The second floor also has a vast collection of genealogy records on the Teague Family name.

According to Ms. Dorothy McVey, who has kept a chronicle of the railroad with great detail and devotion, the first passenger train arrived in Teague on July 23, 1906. Ms. McVey goes on to say:

"This great event was reported on the front page of the first edition of the Teague Chronicle, Vol1, No. 1, dated July 27, 1906, which is now exhibited in the B-RI Railroad Museum, along with the Cottrell printing press which printed it.

This same railroad which brought the "Black Iron Horse" to Teague, introduced diesel passenger streamliners to Texas. This railroad belonged to the Burlington-Rock Island complex during most of its sixty years of service. In Texas' Centennial year of 1936, this new era in passenger transportation was inaugurated with the state's first diesel powered streamlined train, the "Sam Houston Zephyr" named in honor of Sam Houston.

On Oct. 1, 1936, this famous train went into daily round trip service between Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth on the fastest daily schedule ever established, clipping off the 250 miles in 250 minutes, with Teague being one of only three Stops."

Click here to see pictures of the B-RI Railroad Museum

 
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