Inauguration Train in the works

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Mon Dec 15, 2008 1:14 pm

Reposted from WashingtonPost.com and several other sources:

Quote:

Following in Abraham Lincoln's steps once more, President-elect Barack Obama is planning to travel by train to Washington ahead of his inaugural next month -- starting in Philadelphia, where Lincoln delivered an address while en route to the District from Springfield, Ill., in 1861.

Obama and his family will ride a special charter train, an inaugural spokeswoman said. From Philadelphia, they will make a journey familiar to commuters along the Northeast corridor: riding to Wilmington, to pick up Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his family; then on to Baltimore, for another event. Obama's trip will take place on a single day -- Saturday, Jan. 17 -- and wind up in Washington that night, making for a less arduous journey than the multiweek trip Lincoln took in February of 1861 (and which included, along the way, news of the infamous "Baltimore Plot" to assassinate him en route).

It is unclear where Obama will be immediately before Philadelphia, or what events he will hold in the cities along the way, although he is expected to be living in Washington already by that time.

"As part of the most open and accessible Inauguration in history, we hope to include as many Americans as possible who wish to participate, but can't be in Washington," Emmett S. Beliveau, executive director of the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee, said in a statement. "These events will allow us to do that while honoring the rich history and tradition of previous inaugural journeys."

Let's see....... classic old stuff, or modern stuff? Is the Ferdinand Magellan being liberated from Florida once again?

Oh, and meanwhile, the crush for the inauguration is predicted to break the backs of local transit that week:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... id=topnews

tomgears · **Posted:** Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:53 pm

I saw this too. I am wondering what the turnout will look like trackside? Will we see the thousands of people like depicted in the photos of the Bobby Kennedy funeral train? Using the Ferdinand Magellan would be historic. I wonder is she is up to snuff both mechanically and cosmetically.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Mon Dec 15, 2008 3:53 pm

To answer your question:

In the case of the 1993 train taking Bill Clinton to Camden Yards, I wasn't the only one the police and Secret Service barred from photography--even the credentialed media photographers were barred from EVERY LAST overpass, crossing, and overlook, which were all manned with multiple police forces. I tried for a photograph from the second floor of a building overlooking a crossing south of Baltimore, and had the police accosting me in short order; I think only my railroad connections kept me from the hoosegow that day.

And rightly or wrongly, between post-9/11/2001 hysteria and the "historic nature" of Obama's inauguration, I expect security to be ten times as paranoid in 2009. I'll be surprised if they let people sit in the same city as that train when it passes through. Okay, I exaggerate, but only slightly.

JimBoylan · **Posted:** Tue Dec 16, 2008 12:06 pm

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

In the case of the 1993 train taking Bill Clinton I tried for a photograph from the second floor of a building overlooking a crossing south of Baltimore, and had the police accosting me in short order.

With today's electronics, could a remotely controlled and viewed "security" camera be mounted in that building RIGHT NOW?

Richard Glueck · **Posted:** Tue Dec 16, 2008 12:20 pm

Why not fix up C&O 614 to burn bio-fuel and put her at the point?