(The following article by Stacie Hamel was posted on the Omaha World-Herald website on October 19.)
OMAHA, Neb. — The nation’s 41st president now has a high-tech, custom-painted locomotive named for him and painted in his honor: the Union Pacific 4141.
The locomotive, painted to mirror the features and color of Air Force One, was revealed to George H.W. Bush Tuesday afternoon near College Station, Texas, home of his presidential library and museum.
Following the event, Union Pacific Chairman and Chief Executive Dick Davidson presented the William Waldo Cameron Forum on Public Affairs lecture in the museum’s Annenberg Presidential Conference Center.
The locomotive’s unveiling and Davidson’s lecture were planned in conjunction with the museum’s railroad exhibit “Trains: Tracks of the Iron Horse” set to open Nov. 7.
The UP 4141 marks only the sixth time that the Omaha-based Union Pacific has painted a locomotive in colors other than its traditional “Armour Yellow.”
A design team studied photos of President Bush’s Air Force One to recreate the scheme. Elements from Air Force One’s wings and tail, including an American flag, were placed on No. 4141’s rear panel, with the sweeping lines of forward motion representing progress.
“When we set out to design the Bush Library and Museum, I did not want it to be about just one person. Rather, we wanted to touch a broader cross-section of American life, encompassing an eventful period of our history,” President Bush said at a ceremony to mark the unveiling. “The ‘Tracks of the Iron Horse’ and the unveiling of UP 4141 is the latest example of our commitment to attracting the most unique, educational, and entertaining exhibits we can, and I am deeply grateful to Dick Davidson and Union Pacific for their friendship and support.
“If we had the UP 4141 back when I was still in Office, I might have left Air Force One behind more often.”
The SD70ACe locomotive is 15 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 420,000 pounds with a full tank of diesel fuel. Its 4300-horsepower engine operates at 950 rpm maximum speed.
The locomotive is certified under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations for Tier 2 locomotive emissions effective Jan. 1, 2005, making it one of the cleanest locomotives in the U.S. in terms of engine exhaust emissions. It is equipped with an event recorder, equivalent to an aircraft “black box,” which records more than 30 operating parameters including speed, direction of travel and control settings.
The idea for painting a locomotive in honor of former President Bush grew from the museum’s request that Union Pacific take part of the planned exhibit, Davidson said in an interview before the event.
“Union Pacific felt this was such an historic and important exhibit that creating UP 4141 was an appropriate way to recognize President Bush and his lifelong service to our country,” he said.
Texas also is an important state for the railroad, Davidson said, because of the large number of U.P. employees and customers there. The railroad also took part in the library’s groundbreaking and grand opening.
The new locomotive will be added to the U.P. fleet and could cover more than a million miles during its life span of about 20 years, Davidson said.
One of the locomotive’s first duties, though, will be to head up the George Bush Express excursion train, using passenger cars from U.P.’s Heritage fleet, for a trip Nov. 19 and 20 between College Station and Dallas.
During his lecture, Davidson recapped the history of the railroad industry, specifically that of the Union Pacific – beginning when Abraham Lincoln selected its starting point in Council Bluffs and signed the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 – as well as his own career. Davidson’s first railroad job was at age 18 as a brakeman in Council Grove, Kan.
In his prepared remarks, Davidson said, “The idea that someday I would be giving an address to an audience like this at such a prestigious institution, having been introduced by the 41st President of the United States, is really beyond anything that I ever could have dreamed. This really is a great country.”
He also delivered a serious message, calling for more infrastructure to handle increasing amounts of freight as the nation’s economy increases its reliance on trade.
“If the economy is going to prosper, then the railroads have to play a critical role,” he said. “Our customers want us to grow, and our nation needs us to grow. We are ready for that challenge.”
Davidson focused mostly on the railroad industry’s history, though, calling the last 50 years of railroading its greatest era of transformation. His career has spanned 45 of those 50 years, he said.
“It’s an era that I had the great privilege to witness and an era in which I had the good fortune to participate.”
Davidson said he expects to retire by January 2007, once he reaches Union Pacific’s mandatory retirement age of 65 for senior executives.
He traced such developments as the effect of technology on productivity to the 1980 Staggers Act that partially deregulated the railroads.
Mergers that followed the Staggers Act gradually cut the number of Class One railroads from 42 in 1980 to seven.
It was through one of those mergers that Davidson’s career path became part of the history of the Union Pacific. He had been in charge of operations at the Missouri Pacific and retained that job when it merged with Union Pacific, later rising to become U.P.’s chief executive.
Routes covering 33,000 miles of track through 23 states comprise the Union Pacific of today, he said, calling it “basically a 33,000-mile factory without a roof.”
Even the unpredictable weather hasn’t bested the railroad or its employees, he said.
“Throughout our history, our employees have tunneled through mountains, used flame-throwers to open snow-packed tracks, dealt with wild animals in pitch black and rebuilt bridges that have been completely wiped out by floods. These are not your average desk jobs, but, then again, these are not your average employees.”
The theme of Davidson’s lecture was “Building America,” which echoes a U.P. slogan.
“It’s not an accident that our shield resembles the American flag. We have been part of the building of this nation for the last 143 years. A company founded at the hand of Abraham Lincoln should be called to do no less.”