I am not a huge fan of the guy but has anyone seen the stories that Obama did a Whistle stop campaign tour today? Anyone have any better pictures or know what the motive power/cars were on the train? I saw the cars were from the 1930's. Before Obama who was the last presidential candidate to do a Whistle stop train tour. I see he did over 100 miles.


http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4689054

I am not intending for this to be political, however presidents going back to to campaigning on train seems good to me. Anyone have any better pictures I can't seem to find any of the train itself.

Adam

I found a bit more on the train car he is traveling in here it is;
http://rides.webshots.com/album/552849236TwdcQC

From the stories I read it seems like this stunt of his has worked rather well for him so far, and is getting quite a bit of notability. Once again this is not political, hell I'd love it if all 3 major candidates would take to the rails and try to out do each other on rolling stock and motive power. Where's Ross to voulenteer 614 to the campaigns. BTW what would one of these trips cost a candidate to pull off?

Adam

Hello,

My daughter & I went to the Amtrak overbridge at Bird-in-Hand, yesterday evening to see Obama's train come into Lancaster. I did't know about the consist in advance and hoped a private car would be used. Sure enough it was.

I understand he had venues at 2-3 Philly suburban stations and he the travelled on to Lancaster & Harrisburg for two additional events. His event was posted for 6:00pm at the Lancaster train station.

At normal service speeds, Bird-in-Hand is maybe only 5 minutes out of Lancaster. The train passed us at about 5:20pm. The train was not going track speed. The train had (2) Genesis diesels, maybe 2-3 Amtubes and the Georgia private car described here. The car was complete with drumhead. Very nicely done. There is a long sweeping curve through Bird-in-Hand and the superelevation is about 12". There is double track complete with concrete ties....very impressive.

There were a few chaps form the Cincinnati area visiting the area and they did not know Obama's train was coming. We caught two regular service trains as well all in a matter of about 20 minutes. They got some bonus photos!

I thought the same thoughts about the 614. For the cash they are spending on their campaigns, it seems a 614 rent could be good publicity. Take that one step further. Fire the 614 on 100% bio-oil and make the campaign train green. (I believe Ross wants to do this with the YRE) Noise....lots of noise, monkey motion, nestalgia, spit-polish, bio-fuel....it makes good sense. Isn't the idea to get people attention?? Hopefully the candidate still gets most of the attention!

With the energy situation as it is, it may make good sense for a candidate to do this in the next election. I am closely involved with an emerging technology that will produce heavy bio-oil and bio-diesel in significant volumes.....(NON-FOOD BASED) perhaps it will be commercialized by then?

I will say, if you are a naysayer and think that biofuels cannot make an impact on our energy picture.....you may be proven wrong. As energy prices continue to rise, there is massive investment pouring into biofuels. We are only at the beginning of this development. In 5 years, things will not be as they are today. I can divulge no more.

America is technologically strong, we will conquer this challenge.

Cheers,

Randy

Years ago, Bill Neddin (sp?) author of Central Electric Railfans Association's well-researched history of The Milwaukee Electric Railway (TM) posed for an Illinois Railway Museum promotional photo. Bill's great sense of humor was evident in the picture which showed him standing on the rear platform of a passenger car while orating as fictional politician "Larson E. Whipsnade."

Sloan

It is funny for a guy who is all about change and into the future he was the last one I would have expected to be on a whistle stop campaign, I could have pictured an older more traditional guy like McCain on a train first. But I like it! Maybe I wasn't paying attention at the last election well enough but did Bush or Kerry go on a train. Maybe I wonder if the mere heading back to the rails was supposed to be a political statement in and amongst itself.

As for a Biodiesel fired locomotive I have always wondered if a steam locomotive would would be a campaign asset or liability. Wit the way those politicians toss around stupid hot air over dumb stuff, I wonder if today's media would view a steam locomotive simply as old smoky or would it make a hit? I sure hope it would be the latter. I was almost wondering if his train would have been powered by a hybrid locomotive to be used as "green" statement. Plus maybe GE could have funded some of the trip for their own publicity.



Heck this locomotive even has the Obama blue!

Hello,

Yes maybe a hybrid would be more "politically" correct. If you fired the 614 with B100 or some heavy biofuel similar to bunker C, you had better keep the stack perfectly clean or its "game over". Of course political correctness may goes as far to say......"look at that wasted water" meaning the steam exhaust. (Its too bad we don't have a 4-8-4 condensors like they used in South Africa.......but then you loose the stack talk!)

From a marketing standpoint, exhaust steam=noise=getting attention. Why do you think David Wardale painted the Red Devil Class 26 bright orange/red?......a bit non-traditional.

In the heavy fuels, I believe bunker C or unrefined biofuels have possible 10% more heat content per gallon. Big stationary recips and ship engines can run on bunker C but doing this in rail recip power may not be practical due to the fuel preheat/pretreatment systems required. You may be able to accomodate this more with a boiler burner.....its a bit less precise that high pressure fuel injection.

With regards to showmanship and getting attention, imagine the 614 digging in from a station stop in suburban Philly with the cut-off wide open......bouncing stack talk off all the residences close by. Its American as a Harley Davidson blasting though the same neighborhoods with no mufflers. Harleys are not politically correct from an energy efficiency and sustainability standpoint but isn't interesting why everybody wants one! I don't think you will see Harley bringout a hybrid hog.

By the way, Andy's Muller 425 has been painted in the right color for Obama!

Perhaps America is not as quick to throw away their heritage as we think they are. Maybe folks need to think about history and WWII and understand ........now, like then we are facing a global threat that we must all band together to resist and stop. The battle could not only be direct but indirect with the United States developing energy sources that are 100% domestic. Petroleum, biofuels, wind, hydro, solar, increased efficiency.......ALL hands on deck!

Cheers![/u]

[quote="Randy Musselman"]
By the way, Andy's Muller 425 has been painted in the right color for Obama!

Umm... not wishing to veer too far off-topic, but I don't quite understand the references, which may be several. Would you mind unpacking that statement? What color would be the "right color" for Mr. Obama?

G.J.C.

I was thinking something along the lines of this blue, seems to be placed on most of the posters from him I see everywhere.

Adam

Even as a peripheral issue, how does any politician of any stripe have anything to do with preservation?

The fact that the politician, or at least his handlers would consider a campaign train suggests power of railroads image public to the public...

Since part of the role of railroad preservation is to use our railroad artifacts to engage the public, looking at how a political campaign used a railroad would provide feed back.

Well, if thats the case-then the people interested in aeronautical and motor transportation preservation must be thrilled-given the rather far more extensive use of bus and plane tours.

Since I am currently stuck working on the computer all day, I have been periodically taking breaks and goofing off online. One of the places I always like to check is google's news site. As I have said, I have never been a fan of Obama and don't intend to vote for the guy, however to me as one who loves historic railroads yet never grew up in that era this is quite an exciting story. We have all seen the famous "Dewey beats Truman" photo taken from the back of Truman's whistle stop train tour, in the era where railroads linked together the country and were key part of not only every day transportation but also the culture. Well face it, we now live in a generation where railroads are a more subtle part of simply a seldom thought of infrastructure system, to the general public, the romance or human side has been dead for years now. So to be reading a ton of stories today about a presidential candidate who is using a 1930's vintage railcar, while trying to convince people that he is some one capable of moving us into the future should be quite exciting to anyone who is interested in railway preservation.




I am sure that if a presidential candidate took off in a 1930's or WWII Warbird style bomber or something, as opposed to a modern bus or jet plane, that you would see more coverage of it over on one of the aeronautical websites, however instead, Obama was campaigning in a 1930's vintage railcar predating WWII, and straight out of the golden age of railroading! Most of the time when the campaign bus/plane pulls up the candidate gets off and walks to the event venue, here the the railcar and the railroad stations were the event venues!!!

I posted this story in the Flimsies section however I think out of all the stories on the trip this article here best covers the railroad appeal; http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-obama20apr20,1,6450412.story



This perhaps is my favorite part of the article;


How many times have we had discussions here about how little public interest there is in railroads today, especially preservation of them. Yet here is a guy trying to take us into the "new-era" on an 80 year old piece of railroad equipment.

From what I can tell after reading about 10-15 articles of his railroad trip it has been a huge success gathering a ton of publicity. From what the polls seem to say Clinton is still in the lead in PA however this railtrip of his really caught the top headlines on google's news site this morning. Since google's news site brings up the most popular online stories that people have been clicking on, since the stories of his railroad trip have been at the top of the list it must mean there is something still significant about the historic romance of the rails in the American public. I read google's news site almost daily now, as I get the best variety of news and unless it is just that I am a bit more conscious of the stories since there is a train involved best I can tell this Whistle Stop Tour has gathered more positive publicity for the guy then usually that is for sure. Additionally to see stories where a lot of reporters also have been writing about or at least using terminology from the golden days of railroading makes this in my mind quite significant to us. Everything I can see says that this was one of the most successful events for the guy of the week, and I would not be surprised if we start seeing more Whistle Stop trips, and railroads once again starting to play a role in modern elections. As I was asking before, does anyone know when the last presidential candidate took to the rails not just to move from one place to another but to use it as a campaign platform?

Once again, I didn't even get to come from the generation that saw millions of people turn out to see the American Freedom train come across America. Unless I have missed either Bush, Clinton, or Bush Jr (the two presidents who at age 21 I remember seeing my whole life) or their competitors out on a whistle stop, I can't think I remember hearing or seeing in my lifetime a single instance where railroads played any significant role in popular culture, shy of being in some movies. So the thought to me that railroads can still generate so much positive attention from the population, and be seen with far more romance then say a greyhound/city bus, or the truck they so commonly compete with is exciting to say the least. I am surprised more on the site don't share similar views.

Adam

If I recall correctly, Bush 41 was the last presidential candidate to have a whistle stop train tour.
I think Bush 43 (current president) rode Amtrack from DC to Philly to talk to persons on board, but it was not a whistle-stop.
Doug

A politician's use of a train as a novelty method of campaigning will have zero, I mean ZERO positive effect on preservation. There might be a small group of people who say "oh that's neat", but it'll be over. They'll return to the air tomorrow. This is heading right through Strasburg's back yard-how many people do you think are going to call for tickets after and because of this campaign event?

Politicians have been riding trains since before Abe Lincoln, as I recall the first Presidential rider (Garfield?) had his son injured or killed by a "snake" back in the days when iron bands were unreliably attached to wooden stringers and they would rip through flimsy wooden coaches without warning. Living in PA, I'd like to escape the incessant drone-the crap stuck in my door, the phone calls, and the every two minute TV commercials.

As a practical matter, I really pity the poor managers who have to plan a special operation, with all the security that goes with a candidate. Long hours, much worry.....if there's an effect on preservation, it'll be exhausted and disgusted management not wanting to have anything to do with special operations or excursions.

Dubya did a brief whistle stop trip with NS and CSX business cars and locomotives in 2000 right after the GOP convention. I'm not sure of the exact routing, but I know it went through Akron on CSX.

My rule of thumb for political whistle stopping in the Amtrak era is that Republican candidates get office car trains provided to them by the railroads and Democrats have to charter Amtrak trains and privately owned obs cars. Reagan Whistle stopped through Western Ohio and S. Michigan in '84, with freshly painted GP40-2 #4444 (for "four more years") pulling a Chessie OCS train with the last official Presidential Pullman "Ferdinand Magellian" (used by Truman in 1948) carrying the markers. Bush 41 also had a CSX provided OCS in 1992, pulled by a then-new CW40-8, I believe the 7912 temporarily renumbered as "1992" or "92" for the occasion. CSX office car "North Carolina" was modified with bullet-proof glass and probably extra armor plating for the trip.

The Georgia 300 was probably used for the Obama campaign special since it was also modified in 1996 for President Clinton's use on his Amtrak train trip from DC to Chicago (via "Cardinal" routing) for the Democratic Convention (I think it was Chicago?). So, it already has the security measures necessary for a presidential campaign.

It certainly would have been far more elegant and regionally fitting to have had Bennett Levin's PRR E units and business car "PRR 120" used for Saturday's Sen. Obama trip. Since Sen. Obama is often called "Kennedy-esque", it would be more than fitting to use the PV that bore RFK's body from NY to DC in June of '68. (Of course, RFK, Jr. is supporting Sen. Clinton, so maybe not such a great match.)

Oh, and while I'm tossing out presidential campaign trains of recent vintage, Joe Biden kicked off his first Presidential bid in '88 with an Amtrak charter out of Wilmington with Bill Kratville's Amtrak leased PV #10000 (nee - "Adolphus"). Of course Sen. Biden is a MAJOR Amtrak supporter, and commuter (heck, I even sold him a drink on the old "Night Owl" years ago).

Paul Woodring

BA, Political Science; amateur Presidential historian; and railfan locomotive engineer