The President Travels by Train: Politics and Pullmans

by Bob Withers

Overview

For much of U.S. history, a private Pullman car on a special train was the equivalent of today's Air Force One for the president - allowing the most powerful man in the nation to conduct business wherever he was needed.

From John Quincy Adams-the first U.S. president to ride a train-to Bill Clinton's more recent journeys aboard the rails, this book documents presidential travel over the years in superb detail with fascinating anecdotes. Complete with the itineraries, crews and equipment for presidents up to Bill Clinton, author Bob Withers gives readers a snapshot of what it was like to travel by train as a president. From the details of Abraham Lincoln's funeral train to the specifications of Franklin Roosevelt's bulletproof railcar, this book will appeal to railroad enthusiasts and history buffs alike.

Many rare photographs of the golden age of presidential travel under Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman in the 1930s and '40s supplement this remarkably well-researched text.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635617221
Publisher:	Echo Point Books & Media
Publication date:	01/18/2019
Edition description:	Reprint ed.
Pages:	456
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.92(d)

About the Author

Bob Withers, 72, has written, co-written, edited or contributed to 27 books, dozens of free-lance magazine articles, and hwidreds of newspaper articles about railroads, steamboats, and historical subjects. His first book, The President Travels by Train, was published in 1996 and he has kept it up to date with a supplement that can be inserted into lhe book. He retired from The Herald-Dispatch on April I, 2007, after a 3 8-year career as a reporter and copy editor. He became a member of Guyandotte Methodist Church when he was l l, and has been a pastor for more than 45 years, 34 of which has been at Seventh Avenue ·aaptist Church in Huntington. He bolds bachelor's and master's degrees iti journalism from Marshall University in Huntington. He is a 58-year charter member of the Collis P. Huntington Railroad Historical Society Inc., and also belongs to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Historical Society Inc. He worked i:IS a brakeman and f1agn:ian for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company during his college-era summers, and he is a veteran of the U.S. Anny and the West Virginia Anny National Guard - in which he attained the rank of captain. He has been married to the former Sue Ann Sawidcrs for 47 years. They have three daughters and four grandchildren.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Foreward..................................................v

Author's Foreword....................................vii

Introduction..............................................ix

Chapter 1

Presidential Pioneers.................................1

Chapter 2

Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War............9

Chapter 3

The Reconstruction Era.............................31

Chapter 4

Twentieth-Century Travels.........................63

Chapter 5

The Golden Era is Born: The Franklin Roosevelt Years...............................................131

Chapter 6

The Golden Era Matures: Truman's Whistlestopping...................................................179

Chapter 7

The Golden Era's Sunset Years: The Eisenhower Presidency....................................237

Chapter 8

Modern Times......................................281

Chapter 9

The Last Miles.....................................337

Chapter 10

The Cars They Rode...........................387

Appendix

Sample Train Consists........................405

Postscript

My Involvement with the Presidents...413

About the Georgia 300.......................414

Bibliography and Acknowledgments.......415

Index...................................................425