The Spring Historical Museum in Old Town Spring will be one of the stops for the Union Pacific steam locomotive Big Boy No. 4014 as it travels north from Houston on Monday.
The Big Boy locomotive can be seen at the Elm Street crossing in Old Town Spring near the museum from 11 to 11:30 a.m. The train will be coming from Houston and the times are approximate depending upon travel on the tracks.
In tandem with the locomotive’s stop in Spring, the museum will feature a model train exhibit of the design that first appeared in Spring. Part of the exhibit will pay tribute to early Black inventor Ned Eastman Barnes who lived in Willis.
Barnes held patents on equipment that improved how railroads operated in the early 1900s. The museum exhibit opened Saturday.
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Railroad history in Spring
According to Spring Museum director Sue Mallott, the visit of this important piece of railroad equipment coincides with the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the first railroad’s arrival in the Spring area.
“We are excited to see No. 4014 because the railroad transportation system was so vital to the development of the Spring area. This is an opportunity for us to celebrate the importance of the railroads to this part of Texas,” Mallott said. “The Spring area was originally settled by German farmers who needed a way to ship their crops and lumber to markets in Houston and Galveston. The coming of the railroad opened those markets to the farmers and helped the community there to grow.”
The Spring Historical Museum is at 403 Main Street in Spring.
Since railroads were so important to the development of Spring, having the opportunity to see the historic locomotive in person is a rare opportunity for people in this area, Mallot said.
Willis ties and railroad inventions
According to a Texas State Historical Association biography of Barnes, he was born in Walker County in January 1866.
His family moved to Willis in 1870. While still a child, he was employed by the T. W. Smith-Owen A. Smith family. He acquired a 160-acre farm outside Willis and built the family home there in 1900.
Beginning in 1905, Barnes applied for and received 10 U.S. patents on inventions with several of them having to do with the railroads, according to the biography. His inventions included a brace to maintain the distance between train rails, an electric projector to display train arrival and departure times, a railway tie plate and a hot-box cooler and oiler.
In 1913, he opened an office in Houston to work on and patent his inventions. His final patent was issued in June 1928. He was also a deacon of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Willis which remains active today.
Barnes died at age 84 in November 1950 and is buried in Willis’ Rest Haven Cemetery. Montgomery County History Taskforce members Cynthia Stubblefield Walker and Jack Carrel organized the exhibit on Barnes for the Spring museum.
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About ‘Big Boy’
According to information from the taskforce, 25 of the Big Boy locomotives were built beginning in 1941 and were considered important in the World War II efforts. Locomotive No. 4014 traveled 1,031,205 miles in its 20 years of service operating between Utah and Wyoming.
Locomotive No. 4014 was retired in 1961 and went on exhibit at the RailGiants Museum in Ponoma, California. In 2013, Union Pacific reacquired No. 4014 from the museum and sent it back to Cheyenne to begin a multi-year restoration process. It returned to service in May 2019 as part of a celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
The locomotive’s tour began this year on Aug. 28 in Wyoming and will cover nine additional states through the heartland of the country during its eight-week tour. Local opportunities to see the locomotive include stops in Houston, Spring, Navasota, Bryan, Hempstead and Hearne.
See more about the locomotive’s visit to Texas on this Union Pacific website.
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