I really don't think UP is holding the engine to power a funeral train -- as far as I could find GHW's parents (Senator Prescott and Dorothy) were buried in Greenwich CT. There doesn't seem to be any kind of a family plot involved. Given GHW's association with Texas and the Presidential Library at Dallas, it seems more likely he will be interred there. I don't know how a funeral train might be utilized in those circumstances.
However, the UP is being protective about it -- they have lots of engines laid up but I doubt any others are tarped. It's a curiosity.
That's a pretty expensive asset to just send to a museum. I doubt it even has had 100,000 miles put on it at this point.
I imagine with a surplus of power and a special paintscheme, they're keeping it in reserve to preserve the paint from the effects of weather and vandalism, for the day when it can provide final honors for the president it honors.
Then, I'd bet on it being repainted in short order and become just another SD70ACe in the fleet, finally starting to provide a return on its investment.
kgbw49Wasn't it supposed to go on display at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library? (He was 41 and "W" was 43.)
They have two models of the locomotive on display at the museum now.
It's possible that the unit would be moved to the library/museum after it pulls the funeral train, but I have not yet seen that stated in so many words from an authoritative UP (or government, or library) source.
Wasn't it supposed to go on display at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library? (He was 41 and "W" was 43.)
What I don't understand is UP not using $2M of locomotive to bring money to the bottom line for 8 years or so.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Still in front of Jenks 12/2016
Not to be outdone, CN is apparently trying to curry favor with the New U.S administration by applying this livery to one of their GE's:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/05/13/donald-trump-train-photo_n_9950180.html
DISCLAIMERS:
A.I'm probably risking angry political backlash for linking to a Huffington post but the image is funny.
B.While I would bet that the writer is unaware of the amount of trackage CN owns in the United States it is a Canadian company so the basic contention is correct.
C. Can't we all just have a chuckle now and again?
"I Often Dream of Trains"-From the Album of the Same Name by Robyn Hitchcock
Last I heard, it was still laid up with a tarp over it. Ask this in the LocoNotes Yahoo group -- they will find out the current status.
At one time we had a thread here with the satellite coordinates for the storage location, and it was possible to identify the tarped unit easily. You might see if you can find that post and determine what's there as of the last update of the satellite imagery.
Locomotive was given touch-up painting and some maintenance at Jenks (North Little Rock) in mid-May 2015. As far as I know it went right back into storage after that was done.
For the record: something made UP take the engine out of service a year into the Obama administration. I personally don't think the conspiracy theory about Holder's Justice Department suing for copyright infringement of Air Force One holds any particular water, but an alternative theory - that the locomotive might constitute a particular target for vandalism - may be more sensible. It will be interesting to see whether UP brings the locomotive back into service at some point in the Trump administration... it may be a long, long time before it is used to pull GWB's funeral train.
UP 4141 was a George W. Bush locomotive with special paint. Does anyone know what happened to the locomotive? Thanks!
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