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Train car Obama said to be using has long presidential pedigree
(The following story by Frederick N. Rasmussen appeared on the Baltimore Sun website on January 16, 2009.)
BALTIMORE — Passengers aboard Amtrak's northbound Silver Meteor departing Jacksonville, Fla., earlier this week, probably had no idea that another chapter of presidential history was riding on the hind end of their train.
Coupled to the rear of the Miami-to-New York City passenger train Tuesday evening was the Georgia 300, a classic looking heavyweight observation car from the golden era of rail travel that was built by the Pullman Standard Co. shops in 1930.
The Georgia 300 will be used Saturday by President-elect Barack Obama and Vice president-elect Joe Biden on the 137-mile "Whistle Stop Tour" that begins at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station, according to news accounts and railroad sources.
Chartered by the 2009 Presidential Inauguration Committee, the special train will be operated by Amtrak and will traverse part of the rail route traveled by Abraham Lincoln to his 1861 inaugural.
In addition to the Georgia 300, the train will consist of four Amtrak passenger cars, two of which will be food service cars, and two locomotives.
Security will be a high priority during the run from Philadelphia to Washington, as heavy crowds line the right-of-way to witness the train's passing. With Secret Service overseeing logistics, Amtrak officials referred questions about the train to the inauguration committee, which did not immediately provide specifics.
The Georgia 300 has an impressive presidential pedigree, having hosted trips for Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
In 2004, Sen. John F. Kerry and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards, made a campaign sweep aboard the car when they rode from St. Louis to Kingman, Ariz., after the Democratic Convention in Boston.
Obama is no stranger to the Georgia 300; he traveled aboard the car last spring from Philadelphia to Harrisburg a few days before the Pennsylvania Democratic primary.
An Associated Press photographer snapped an image of the car yesterday at Union Station in Washington, after its overnight journey from its Florida home.
The owner of the car, John H. "Jack" Heard, was circumspect about the car's whereabouts this week. "All I know is that it's going up north," he said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun.
On Saturday, after pausing in Wilmington to pick up Vice President-elect Biden and his family, the train will continue on to Baltimore. Scheduled to arrive at Penn Station in the late afternoon, Obama will detrain and travel to War Memorial Plaza for a 4:15 p.m. speech. They will then return to the train for the final leg of the journey to the nation's capital.
Obama's train is following some of the route used when Robert F. Kennedy's funeral train traveled from New York City to Washington in 1968. It was estimated that more than 1 million people stood trackside to witness its passing.
Painted a Packard blue with white striping, the Georgia 300 was initially constructed as a 10-section lounge car and originally named the General Polk.
It operated for nearly two decades on the Southern Railway's crack Crescent Limited between New York City and New Orleans, until being purchased in 1949 by the Georgia Railroad that rebuilt it into its current configuration and named it the Georgia 300.
"The car features one master bedroom, two other bedrooms, two showers, and a section area off the dining room that seats two," said Bob Withers, a retired Huntington, W. Va., newspaper reporter and presidential rail historian.
"There is a dining room that seats between six and eight and offers full meal service, an observation room, an open rear platform, and TV/VCR, stereo, terminal and cellular phone services," said Withers, author of "The President Travels by Train: Politics and Pullmans."
During the day, the car can comfortably accommodate eight passengers, and at night it sleeps six in its compartments.
The chef who regularly prepares meals on the Georgia 300 will not be on board tomorrow. Food served to Obama and Biden and their families and invited guests will be catered.
Withers said that when it was under Georgia Railroad ownership, it regularly made trips to the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Ga., and occasionally to the Kentucky Derby. It also was used by Georgia governors and other dignitaries.
After the railroad merged with CSX Transportation predecessor Seaboard Coast Line in 1982, the car was retired and purchased three years later, said Heard, who made improvements in 1986, 1989, 1995 and 2000. It is stored between charters at a coach yard Heard owns in Orange Park, Fla.
The first U.S. presidential candidate to ride a train to his inauguration was William Henry Harrison in 1841, and by the turn of the last century, the presidential special became a regular feature of American political life.
During his 12 years in the White House, Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled 243,827 miles aboard presidential trains.
Harry S. Truman was another rail fan president, who often liked to climb into the locomotive cab and hold the throttle, pull the whistle cord for grade crossings, all the while keeping the speedometer at a steady 80 mph. Truman rode 77,170 miles during his years as president.
During the 1948 campaign, Truman rode 31,700 miles aboard a 17-car train while delivering 356 "Give 'em hell" speeches on a steel rail trail that stretched from Lock Haven, Pa., to Sparks, Nev., and from Merced, Calif., to Taunton, Mass.
The end of the presidential rail-era sputtered to an end during the Eisenhower presidency, when the convenience of jetliners presented a major advantage over a lumbering train.
The Georgia 300 is no stranger to Baltimore, having been one of the star attractions when it joined 29 other private cars at the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners Inc. convention that was held on the grounds of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum in 2002.
But security matters will make Saturday's visit infinitely more complicated then historic exhibitions or other presidential trips of just a few decades ago.
William F. Howes Jr., a retired CSX executive and railroad historian, played a major role in the planning and operation of President Reagan's Heartland Express which crossed western Ohio on a 1984 re-election trip.
"I remember the Secret Service telling me during the Reagan trip that when the president rides the rails, the security issues are such it's like having him in Beijing, London and Paris, all on the same day," Howes said.
Friday, January 16, 2009
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