President Bush 41 Funeral Train

[John]

According to news repots, UP4141 will pull President Bush's funeral train from Houston to College Station .. also according to the article, UP1943 may also be on it's way to participate.

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/12/01-up-4141-expected-to-participate-in-bush-funeral-train

"COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Early this morning Union Pacific’s Jenks locomotive shop in North Little Rock, Ark., outshopped another diesel. That happens every day. In this case, the unit was a specially-painted SD70Ace No. 4141 in honor of the 41st president of the United States, George H.W. Bush, who died Friday night. The unit, whose paint scheme resembles Air Force One, is on its way to Houston, Texas, to pull the president’s funeral train, those familiar with the matter tell Trains Newswire."

[Xmtrman]

Here's the information from UP.com.

Be sure to click on the individual links down the page.

https://www.up.com/media/media_kit/bush41/index.htm?fbclid=IwAR2LqiUCNSYjiiYoFgYiqzyWjU-FJ45GmMJzgkrGIaKd3bTW89x_9ClL7yA

[Englewood]

UP 1943 is now in Spring, TX, having brought 21 passenger cars along with it. The 1943 is being stored in an automotive unloading facility and is not viewable from a public access area. I'm assuming the 1943 will also be stored there until Thursday.

[John]

[John]

[John]

[Mark W]

Will be interesting how Virtual Railfan covers this.  Will they have chase cams?  Did they set up tower cams along the route?

Coverage begins at 1pm cst.  They're doing a slideshow of Presidential Train History now. 

[Mark W]

Coverage begins at 1pm cst.

Precoverage is going on.  Currently looking at a about 100 people gathered trackside with lawn chairs and blankets. 

[Mark W]

From a friend:

From the discussions ive read they have about 10 fans willing to live feed it as it passes.   And its not one train it’s 2.  The first with the 4141 and the casket.  The veterans unit leads train two and that carries the remaining mourners.

Both trains reportedly will have district managers in the cabs for issue control and the line has been cleared of other traffic at 8 am.  Reportedly no other trains until after arrival in College station.  And the 4141 will not move again.  Its being donated at the end of the trip

[Mark W]

Here's another stream on Facebook (if the link works)

https://www.facebook.com/FOX13TampaBay/videos/539778299854997/?hc_ref=ARR7_HwmwFdo9FBylU8DZunUbvJCJrH3j0bMcQSNwED1w5XOf0JmmaU20eYxvuFmLaI&__xts__[0]=68.ARD9ieL7kG0vILzXMQicPo3qNBdFYTMxxrjiOHdYjwj9-jzyZxOefK1Jcu0xU-IWbDNvyqvHeQAoNvMT7M0tOWguLOnqzwfjRZp1CvecizFJFhuOlvNOUIFIF9rSIMLzLbN3B7O8MK4uXpxO0m94irIr2Vf-dPKPcRCOU8usO8NyjhnSZBX28azMuLMWTt5yurAWwYvz53CdzAK4iYj-MkkBNGc3NPUhQUoPAmkt323yQ9TqVt1tx5YmYzlfjOmJgmDYNXacIxUE8m9h88XzRjYqDahk4PPiCb4tvzJz-aPqfK522YttHK4hI-BxRyScw-VRr6BNbLGLTqlPGgLqiJtvtwWN8U55gdKj_YTgxvDiySV93XDtkzR4FSZ76g&__tn__=FC-R&jazoest=2651001204511968531189888691056965121114766650821191157966107529912253737711871526871508474821211041131181218158651001194811486897412273758554118901211151084948751065554841006567531098212210245106115651211225711779539810065


Yucky link.. try copy/paste.  but they have an onboard cam!

[Mark W]

They installed a plexiglass door on the flag car, displaying the flag draped casket inside as it passes. 

There are tens of thousands packed in trackside, inches from the rails!  This is incredible. 

Fox feed shows thousands of people placing coins on the track to make souvenirs. :/
Some people are also collecting pieces of ballast. 

One lady was just resting her hand on the rail, holding a small flag in the other with a bowed head after it passed.  That one got a tear. 

[Doug G.]

It was very moving today to see all the people along the tracks as the Train traveled to College Station.

Doug

[C855B]

Thank you for the FB link, Mark. We watched the video until the break on arrival in Magnolia. The train was an emotional and appropriate commemoration.

[superchief]

I too thought that UP would combine 4141 AND 1943 for the train and seeing the 1943 bring the total 21 passenger cars down I thought this was going to happen. I spoke to a UP employee at Old Town Spring only about 2 miles from the departure area of the Westfield auto Yard, that they used 1943 to make 2 practice runs with a single auto rack and the business car Arden(stationed in Spring's LLoyd yard). Another railfan who showed up late to see the locos a couple of days BEFORE the train left found them running a practice motorcade at the auto yard. A second passenger train left about an hour BEFORE the funeral train ran with the other 10 cars for other staff and dignitaries with just regular UP locos on the front. It was a media circus, I was at the wye in Spring with about 5000 other people, I even saw a girl reach out and touch the train as it went by, An officer also saw this and had words with her! Per the UP employee the 1943 was stationed just north of College Station in case of a failure on the 4141 since it had not run in such a long time. Another nice touch was that UP asked for Ex-Navy UP employees to run the train, both engineer and conductor were ex-Navy the engineer was a female! My hats off to the Union Pacific Railroad for such a fine show and the Texas A&M university as well, it would be hard to top the show we saw yesterday!
                                                                                                               Gordon Bliss
                                                                                                              Santa Fe-All the Way

[Point353]

The following report seems to cast some doubt about the 4141 being put on display at the Bush library.