Of the president travels by train politics and pullmans. The president travels by training it is his first 29 books. Came out the First Edition in 1996. It is been updated several times in 2018 was rereleased by eco books and media i believe is the third or fourth edition of the book. Bob himself as a journalist by trade. And 38 years worked for the Huntington Herald a dispatch in huntington West Virginia where he currently lives. He has a ba and ma from marshall university. While he was in college he worked summers for the railroad. That actually is how i got to know, bob. I interned at the museum in baltimore, maryland. Mutual interest and admiration got us together. I welcome bob and i will begin the presentation now. One other programming notes, so understand all president s use trains to travel around and still do on some occasions. We picked seven president s because of some specific issues they encountered or specific milestones that are associated with their president ial train travel. At the conclusion of the stock are going to end with a couple video presentations from the george h. W. Bush funeral train courtesy of Union Pacific so please stick around for that to think you will enjoy that very much. There are three main i guess pieces of president ial train and travel the campaign which is prime which are most familiar with, while in office and then after the president passes away. Were going to move from president to president and talk about all three of those even though it may be a little out of Chronological Order it would probably the best way to handle it. So bob are you there . Wonderful thank you for joining us today. We are going to start with the first president to travel by train and how they did it. So bob, talk to us a little bit about andrew jackson, John Quincy Adams who was at first and theres a difference between them. Cliques quincy adams was the first it was after he was president. To be a member of the u. S. House of representatives. He traveled to massachusetts we got to baltimore, the railroad had just started because to go by horses. He had where they put up on a flat car and hauled in about 7 miles from baltimore and then they lowered his horse and wagon off the flat car and with the rest of the way on the road. Since the first piggyback operation that piggyback means placed on flat cars and when they get where they are going they fix them up and take them off the flat car. Very few people know that first piggyback operation took place in 1840. It was the first sitting president to ride a train. He went to maryland by horseback and when he started back he had a crossing and they had Railroad Cars the call steam cars because the Steam Locomotive was part of the train. He got in the steam car and road several miles back. And he was astonished the train was traveling so fast. I can imagine that new technology back then was certainly impressive and quite frightening to a lot of people that were not used to that speed of travel. Speaking, before we get to the next item we are looking here, ladies and gentlemen at what are called these are cars are the Baltimore Museum in baltimore, maryland you may have seen these before because both of these specific cars were used in a movie which featured John Quincy Adams traveling aboard these very cars. Which leads me too another item, bob, the First Railroad in the United States also involved John Quincy Adams in 1833, do you want to talk a little bit about that . I dont remember that much about it. The First Railroad accident in the United States on friday november 8, he was going across new george jersey towards washington about halfway between an emberley railroad. In an unheardof speed of 25 miles per hour. Because the cars careened down the embankment the coach remained upright no one in it was hurt. But the one just behind his overturned and two men were killed instantly. They were mutilated beyond expectation. This is from a contemporary report, bob correct . Corrected. So quincy adams even though he was not the first sitting president to write he certainly was involved in several early milestones in president ial train travel and unfortunately the railroad wreck is one of the ones is most notable because the 25mile per our travel was something that was very, very unusual for that time for that era. By the way, bob reference to journals if you look at the picture we are looking at right now in the cars, down by the wheel on all the cars in the center of the will is a brown circular item is where the car actually sits on the wheel itself. When the car rolls down the track those could get very hot. So hot the metal would melt in the cart would fall down off the will and that is what bob was describing when he talks about the journal, which is what it called broke and the cart derailed or fell off the wheels and fell down the embankment. All right, well move on to president Abraham Lincoln which is someone we probably all know a little bit about as far as his president ial travel. This image you are looking at right now highlights the stops he made on his journey from illinois after he was elected president to washington d. C. You can see a little fuzzy, i apologize for that. He made 93 individual stops on his journey. Real journeys that were not like what they are now they were not very quick at all. But before this, before this journey he spent quite a bit of time in illinois traveling by train because of the Lincoln Douglas debates. Bob, do you want to talk a little bit about mr. Lincolns problems at the Illinois Central Railroad during that period of time . I found it in a book called lincoln and the railroads 227 copies were ever printed. Was by her have no idea it existed before he did research for this book. You can buy this book from other libraries. Anyway i finally got a copy in the pages could not be cut apart. Nobody had even read the book took the book home and copied every page in it. But my favorite story writing for a newspaper in new york city talks about a conversation he had with Abraham Lincoln on a boxcar. At 9 00 oclock on a hot sultry evening that is where the train stops or someone is to be picked up or dropped off its not a regular stop. Theyre getting to a station the train intended to take after waiting a half an hour for the train to come in at thunderstorm at the station. It was then in their when he was clerking the highest of the political ambition was to be a member of the state legislature. This of course he said with a laugh but my friends got me into this business being a railroad lawyer. I do not consider myself qualified for the United States senate i took a long time to persuade myself that i was. Im convinced that in spite of it all i am saying to myself every day its too big a thing for you you will never get it. His wife insisted i learn to be a senator and the president of the United States to the last words when his own mother read news in his last ambition, just think he exclaimed there is such a sucker as me. [laughter] it is one of the stories, bob, you dont often think of Abraham Lincoln is a very funny man with a lot of humor. If you read deeply into into the stories like you have just done, he did have an incredible sense of humor and was quite a humble man. Im not sure mary todd could force them into the presidency but certainly her inspiration and standing with him, behind him and often times and got him to where he ultimately landed. Later on in this document talk about couple other first ladies that played a similar role in the lives of their husbands, the presidency. One other thing, bob, could you talk about what its like to travel on a train during lincolns time . We often think in contemporary terms about the comforts we all enjoy in an automobile, and train with airconditioning the comforts of modern era. Can you talk a little bit about what it is like for president lincoln even after he was elected for example during the journey took from springfield to d. C. What was it like for him to be on board a train back then . Even before my time not sure how it wouldve worked out except never had coal stoves or wood stoves in them to keep warm in the winter. There is no such thing as air conditioning no such thing as reclining seats or rotating seats. You see people on stagecoaches would have been much better than that. There is obviously no electricity so they use candles are often quite dangerous or dangerous as spilling the oil or dropping a candle on the wooden car. We will not go into recounting those problems but certainly that era of train travel from the 1860s until probably early 1900s was quite dangerous because of that and many other issues that again we wont go into on this conversation. In the early 1900s passenger cars had a stool. They were much more substantial and much safer. Agreed, agreed. That is what we use today. So, moving to a little bit more somber subject, bob, we are looking right now Abraham Lincolns funeral car that was used to transport his remains from washington d. C. Back to springfield, illinois where he was laid to rest. Do you want to talk a little bit about the funeral train in the way it unfolded and what the Public Perception of it was . That funeral car was made for lincoln to write in it but ended up being his funeral car because he was assassinated shortly before his term was to expire. The route it took back to springfield, illinois was similar to with some exceptions the trip he made to washington. The stories about so many people putting files on fires on the rails ahead of the train the wheels would spin and slip that have to get the fire off the wheels before the train could proceed. Back in the days when embalming was not the exact science it is now, they would have materials in the funeral car under the casket to touchup the face of the deceased several times on that trip. It took several days to get his body back to the burial. We are looking a picture now, bob, a broader image of the funeral train. You wont notice the decorations that festooned the outside with the different bunting, the flags and going to move to another picture here which is a little bit more close up of a locomotive. Youll notice theres a picture of Abraham Lincoln prominently placed on the ont of the locomotive so people were aware of the significance ofhe trip. Do you see the locomotive itself is quite small compared to modern standards. For the era this was topoftheline transportation. We are going to move on now to theodore roosevelt. His presidency of course began suddenly with the assassination of william mckinley. But before we get to that were going to talk a little bit about president roosevelt the campaigner. He has the nickname the bull moose he was a man of boundless energy, quite an intellectual and quite a physical presence in modern politics he be the guy that sucked the oxygen out of the room when he answered it. So bob khanna in your book you talk about a conundrum for roosevelt. He obviously enjoyed train travel and traveled extensively. Is also the first president to fly an airplane. And of course that was after his administration. When he traveled for campaign for Vice President with mckinley in 1900, he traveled 21000 miles during that campaign on a train and made 673 speeches according to your book. Here we have a picture of him making a speech from the rear platform of an observation car. Can you talk a little bit about what that speech was like and how it unfolded when the train arrived . When the train got to a certain city would come out on the private car like you see in the picture there. He would talk directly to the people. This was a lot better the way president s are today 35000 feet up in the air of heard of truman why do you do this . Why do you go all over the country speaking to people from the rear of the train . The people got to know the president s that way. They got to know the candidates, they got to know what they believed in, with a promise to do so they could reassure they could find out that he would do what he said hes going to do. The president or the candidate in this case would sometimes debark from the train and walk to the crowd, correct . Was security like back then . Not very good. As a matter fact theres a story is not about Teddy Roosevelt himself, but tom buies train stopped at center city in western kentucky i think he was campaigning against harry truman and the engineer of the train moved ahead in the tank. And then he came back and uncoupled the train, the train started inching backwards. People were worried some is going to get killed or hurt or run over by that train there was a Police Officer named chapman who very quickly reached up and pulled a lever that put the brakes on the train. And stop people from getting hurt or killed by that reversal reverse movement. From that time on up was the best way to find out what a man is, what a man looks like, when a man thanks like, but it does have danger for. It actually does it still does today. As we will save it to the Union Pacific video theres a couple of clips of people standing in it. And respecting president bush as he moved to College Station on his final train trip but youll notice some people ares the ending dangerously close to the tracks which is something will definitely discourage you. A couple of other things, bob, in 1906 in your book you discuss the cost of all of this. That is something we really have not touched down yet. Obviously the railroads cannot do this for free. If you are traveling well over 20000 miles there are expenses associated with that. 1906 Congress Passed an appropriation for the president ial travel. You want to talk a little bit about that . I have been much better concerning that with calvin coolidge. Calvin coolidge was a very feeble man. He did not like the idea of having a special train for the president said you can put my car in the rear of the train of a regular chamber dont do a special train. While in december of 19207 i think was in chicago there are two places in that city. And he decided he would go to a regular compartment and a regular sleeping car and i believe the name of the cars president grants of all things. He would eat there, he would sleep in that compartment, mrs. Put before trains were airconditioned, the car was very hot even though it was in december. So we had to sit there in his compartment with the door open and everybody on the train who walked past throughout the train walked through the aisle and look in there and gawk at him. And he did not like that. The very insecure situation with the secret service threat. I remember one time that waiter asked him as your coffee all right . He just said yes. Then later he asked his wife why would he say that maybe there is something wrong with it. Talk about his frugal habits is very frugal in speech to however the stop was was on a trip east. Secret service men said theres a lot of people here that want to hear from you. Only came out taking a long time with questions just as he came out, the train started forward. And he said goodbye. They heard from him bob regards yes they did. He was a man of a conman in his speech as well theres no doubt about that. So the image we are looking at is not a mistake its called the stereoscopic image is designed to provide depth of field if you bring the proper eyeglasses to see that from the stare at me and each i would see one side of it. But the glasses on you see a very deep field on the at the altar is in the very back. You notice tr is on the platform as he traditionally was pretty leaning forward because hes missing something thats a more modern invention will talk about at a moment there is a voice amplification or pa system is about to call it now. So all of the campaigning done in this area was shouting at out. You can see up close the people are to the car because they wanted to hear what he had to say. If you are not good at projecting your voice you could even call it yelling, people cannot hear what you had to say. So everything is said did not make much difference because people couldnt hear. Especially reporters want to crowd out very close to the car will see a couple pictures later on of this, trying to get the exact words the president spoke or the candidate in this case. So they can report their stories accurately and accuse each other of misquoting all the political stuff you understand happens then and now. The other thing back to the money when roosevelt campaign in 1900 as a Vice President joel candidate the cost of that camping trip was 118,000. There is no money to pay it. Theres a deep set of embarrassment congress in 1906 passed a law that allowed for president ial travel and an appropriation of 25000 which seems today like almost nothing but back then was a princely sum of money for president ial travel by train. We will move a bit ahead. This is another example of the image and the weight trains were decorated, bob mentioned earlier the flowers that were placed on the rails for the lincoln funeral train. This is a more happy occasion. You can see the locomotive is decked out in all sorts of finery. Im not sure a heart record rear rotor would appreciate that but certainly the people writing on the train loved it. I want to move onto a president who you might not expect to see in this president ial. Moran harding 192019203 surgeon office. Here he is on the back of a car as tradition would have it , with his wife and an associate. They are about too go on a trip. The reason i picked president harding and of course all of the president s are covered in bobs book by the way five not already mentioned that is because there is his wife waving to the crowd you notice she is a decked out in the early 20th century traditional garb, wearing gloves and a hat. The reason i mention Lauren Harding as he took an enormous trip probably one of the longest trips a sitting president took to alaska t