(The following article by Stacie Hamel was posted on the Omaha World-Herald website on October 19.)
OMAHA, Neb. — A new exhibit at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas, will feature 4,500 square feet of displays filled with contemporary and historic photographs, artifacts, maps and timelines covering the development of America’s railroads.
Trains: Tracks of the Iron Horse – which will include a section on presidential train travel – will open Nov. 7 and run through July 30.
The museum is located on the campus of Texas A&M University.
A lecture series will feature historians, railroad executives, rail fans and regulators. Model railroad clubs also will create displays.
In conjunction with the exhibit, fiberglass locomotives will be decorated as part of a public art project similar to Chicago’s cows and Omaha’s J. Doe’s. The 6-foot-by-6-foot models will be on display from November through May, when they will be sold at auction at the museum.
For more information about the exhibit or special events, consult the library’s Web site at http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu
As far as the life-sized Bush locomotive, the 4141, U.P. Chairman and Chief Executive Dick Davidson said there were no plans to make it part of a series of presidential-themed locomotives.
“I’ve never had another former president approach me about featuring railroads in an exhibit,” he said. “If they did, I might consider it.”