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| President-elect Obama with former Presidents Bush, Carter and Clinton and the then current President Bush at the White House on Jan 7, 2009 |
(by Pete Souza - Creative Commons 2.0 Generic License)
How did Obama get to Washington DC later in the month? By train of course.
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| Barack Obama on the end of the Georgia 300 train car as it rolls through Claymont, Delaware on the way to Washington DC (17 January 2009) |
(by ajac - CC Attribution 2.0 Generic License)
But look closely at the first photo again. Another old President is in the room - President Lincoln in the picture on the wall. After his assassination by John Wilkes Booth in April 1865 Lincoln's last ride was on a funeral train.
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| The engine that drew Lincoln's Funeral Train from Washington to Springfield |
Presidents travelling by train is a well established tradition as shown by President Wilson. Pictures exist of other Presidents and presidential candidates on the stomp including this from 1920.
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Informal photograph of Governor James M. Cox of Ohio, a candidate for President in 1920, standing on the bottom step at the back of a train in Chicago, Illinois. Date: 1920 |
(Uncredited Chicago Daily News Photographer)
We have no Presidents in the UK of course and I'm not one for photographing trains but I did discover this engine 2392 on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway taken some 40 years ago.
For more Presidents, trains and old photos go to Sepia Saturday 91
