UP 4141 George Bush 41 Funeral Train

[SST]

Admin note

Content redacted in its entirety.

[Meal Period]

Excuse my error of thinking it would have perhaps 20 or more cars, I had seen a video of it with 21 cars headed towards Houston with engine 1943. I guess they did not use them all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5ltJtPCcI4

[litz]

I will bet that shortly after this final service to the President, this unit will be donated and retired at the Bush Library.

UP has basically held it in storage since its unveiling in 2005, specifically for this final Presidential request.

Would the library even want it? To properly display it, you would need some amount of space, and unless there is a siding going up next to the library, transporting the locomotive will be incredibly expensive.

It's already been there once - it was unveiled there. UP built a temporary siding to bring it in.

[Backshophoss]

UP 1943 was reported to have been on the "Pilot train" that was run ahead of UP 4141.

[Wayside]

UP 4141 and Council Bluffs will be parked behind home plate at the ballfield in downtown Omaha for a bit.

[henry2018]

If you go to the UP's funeral train route and right click on the PDF under "properties", the file has a date of 1/18/2017, which indicates this was planned for some time.

George H.W. Bush planned his funeral back in time, including using the train to transport him to College Station.

[John_Perkowski]

Admin note:

While this topic is still global, it won’t be for very long.

It will be pinned in the UP forum for a while, and then will be allowed to become an ordinary topic.

Thank you, Uncle Pete.

[John_Perkowski]

The last Presidential funeral train before this was for President Eisenhower in 1969. It had been almost 50 years.

RFK in 1968 had the last major funeral train before that.

[justalurker66]

It would have been awful if the thousands of people watching online witnessed something similar to the 844 incident earlier this year.

CNN and Fox had the feed up on their networks (although half screen on CNN while they talked about other things).

[Teamdriver]

Athearn #G04141 HO SD70ACe With DCC & Sound, UP/George HW Bush #4141
Athearn #G04141 HO SD70ACe With DCC & Sound, UP/George HW Bush #4141
Category: Diesel Locomotive

Number: G04141

Scale: HO

$288.99
Taking Backorders


https://www.trainworld.com/manufacturer ... sd-70-ace/

[justalurker66]

Date due: 12/31/2019 ... not a typo?

[MACTRAXX]

Everyone:

After viewing more video of the Bush 41 Funeral Train taking notice how it ran at higher speed in
between towns a factor that no one mentioned was the short December days to complete the run
and make certain that the College Station ceremonies would occur on schedule before darkness.

At another time of year with longer daylight hours the train could have been scheduled to operate
at a slower speed throughout the 70 mile route with perhaps a stop or two in towns along the route
allowing citizens to pay their respects more closely to the former President, his family and friends.

More then likely UP operated no train traffic on the Spring-College Station route that day other than
the Pilot and Funeral Trains for security and logistical reasons.

With the brief mention of the RFK Funeral Train 50 years ago the biggest difference was that the
Penn Central tried to run trains with some semblance of normalcy on the New York-Washington
route that day - looking back PC was likely overwhelmed by the amount of spectators trackside
throughout the route that were also trying to watch the train on live tracks - which led to what
ended up happening at Elizabeth Station (NJ) the prime example of why other train movements
should have been stopped altogether when the special Funeral Train was in the proximity.

For the Bush Funeral Train security was very tight - even with the highly secured rail route there
was mention of what appeared to be close calls - tough for the train crew first and foremost and
anyone involved with the train operation. Thankfully the Bush train ran without any problems.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Funeral Train-1969 (search for more information with these
words) ran between Washington, D.C. and Abilene, KS across seven states and took multiple days
at the end of March/beginning of April 1969. Long distance special trains such as the Eisenhower
Funeral Train would probably today have needed vast amounts of security and would logistically
created major problems for train movements in and around any route that was used.

These trains are one-of-a-kind historical moves and thankfully are being documented for posterity.
MACTRAXX

[justalurker66]

I did not see another train on the track during the pilot/UP 4141 runs. A very good decision by UP for the safety of the spectators. It also appeared that most if not all crossings were closed and protected by either UP or local police or fire departments (who were also paying their respects). Some places were more protected than others (with barrels and police tape). The more popular the special run the more likely the police and railroad will be overrun by the public.

Two examples from watching steam trains: One at a station in Niles Michigan that was overrun when SP 4449 passed through a few years ago. The public filled the adjacent Amtrak maintenance yard. Local police did their best to keep people back from the track with the railroad very aware that there were hundreds if not thousands of trespassers along the line. The second in Northern Indiana for a two day run of NKP 765. NS stopped all traffic until the steam train passed. They did their best to avoid a situation where anything was moving while "the public" was waiting for the main event.