(The Associated Press circulated the following article on October 18.)
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — You could call it Railroad One. Union Pacific Railroad unveiled a new locomotive Tuesday bearing the number 4141, honoring former President Bush, the 41st president. It is painted to resemble Air Force One, the presidential plane.
”If I had one of these when I was president, I might have left Air Force One behind,” Bush said at a ceremony on the Texas A&M University campus.
The diesel locomotive is 74 feet long, 16 feet tall and weighs about 420,000 pounds. ”George Bush 41 Presidential Library and Museum” is painted on its side. It also carries the presidential seal.
”This is the only president who can say he has his own locomotive,” said Dick Davidson, chairman and chief executive of Union Pacific, the largest railroad in North America.
The idea for the locomotive grew out of a collaboration between Union Pacific and Bush’s presidential library at Texas A&M to present an exhibit dealing with the history of the country’s railroad industry.
The locomotive was to be on display at the Bush Presidential Library for about a week, beginning Wednesday.
It will then go into regular service for Union Pacific, and is expected to rack up least 1 million miles over the next decade.