1948 Truman Campaign Train

NICE! Do you happen to know the 16 car Consist of the train. I'm sure to guess the last car was the Ferdinand Magellan!

It was too small to see a road name, but the Spirit of 1776 PA with Truman walking beside it

truman campaign train locomotives - Bing images

u-3-b 6325 of GTW pulled the train across Michigan

Grand Trunk Western 6325 - Wikipedia

UP 835 4-8-4 in Denver

Truman campaign train at Denver | Classic Trains Magazine

Nearly all of the articles and pictures focus on the Ferdinand Magellan as Truman was speaking, the photos accompanying the internat pages don't attribute the depicted Locomotives as actually pulling the train and are shown without a consist.

Interesting information here.  Thanks to those who are researching.

In the book The President Travels By Train by Bob Withers, he details the 1948 Truman Whistle Stop tour, complete with map of the tour, both in writing and photos.   Although there's several photos taken from the rear ( F. Magellan ) of the train, the following pages show pics of the headend power.

Page  220 reveals a photo ( taken October 28, 1948 ) of Truman with New Haven Road Foreman of Engines standing next to what appears to be a diesel locomotive.  Truman has a clean pair of engineer's gloves in his hand.  Perhaps he's ready to score a cab ride?

Oct 1, 1948 photo on page 215 shows C&O shows K-4 type loco and sister pulling Truman's train into Mt. Sterling KY.

Oct 25, 1948 photo on page 203 shows  trio of B&O E8 ( ABA ) pulling into Gary, Indiana.  Another shot from Oct 25  on page 206 shows B&O lead E8 number 68's front end and in background the entire length of the Truman special from the front of locomotive.

July 4, 1948  page 192 B&O E unit number 80  at point of Truman's train as he accompanies the president of Venezuela, Romulo Gallegos to Bolivar, Mo.  

Other photos from 1947 include Pennsy K4 double header leading Truman's train in Buffalo NY 6/13/1947 .... and D&H 4-8-2 at head end of Truman's train on trip to Ottawa 6/10/ 1947

Due to OGR TOS sighting copyright laws I can't show the photos here.  

The President Travels by Train is a great read!  I highly recommend it!  

There's an article hanging in my club about Truman and the campaign train.  The Ferdinand Magellan was so heavy it limited the train's speed to 55 MPH for safety around curves.  Truman would frequently and purposely annoy members of his staff by asking why can't the train go any faster (usually while he was playing poker with them).  Being the president, they had to respectfully remind him that its speed was limited.

And the famous "Dewey Defeats Truman" picture was taken on the rear platform of the car.  Many versions are cropped so it is hard to discern that, but the full-size photo is out there.

Thanks guys for all your help and information.  I was on YouTube this morning and there are 2 videos that were uploaded by the Truman Library.  They were taken by the Navy during the whistle stop tour in June.  Unfortunately no "Head End" Shots.

Apparently there were two loops out to the west coast, one in June and another closer to the election in Sept-Oct.  There was also a Midwest loop and one in the Northeast.

I have been reading a lot in the last day on this so getting "overwhelmed with facts".  In the article I posted Truman's first job after High School was working for the Missouri Pacific.

He was a life-long railfan!  He liked going "fast" in trains.  It is interesting that the AT&SF photo I cited appears to show him "on the ladder" of the Lead Unit.  He was President at the time (and 64 years old) so definitely proves he was a Railfan.  Probably telling the Engineer "let's see what it will do".  Give em He** Harry!  LOL

@Professor Chaos posted:

Just FYI, photos from 1948 are unlikely to still be copyrighted.

They would have to have been first published with the proper notice to be copyrighted at all.  Then the photographer (or copyright owner) would have had to renew the copyrights in 1976.

Unless both of those took place, the photos are now in the public domain.

@Professor Chaos,

Help Save the Threads.

I understand where you're coming from but it's probably a good idea to bounce your assumption off the moderator before publishing it in this thread as fact.  Even if you're correct, if your conclusion doesn't align with the stated policy of this site, you'll run afoul of its rules.  "Unlikely" is neither clear nor precise enough.

Why am I giving you a hard time?  We've heard this kind of opinion many, many, many times.  There are a large number of us who are tired of interesting threads being removed after someone ignored the rules, or encouraged others to do so.

OGR has been sued before and, very rightly so, doesn't want to be sued again.  If appears to be the case that the copyright could still in force just accept it -- and don't encourage others to weasel their way around it.

OGR's rules are clear.  Read the terms of service and then read the following (from Historical photo copyright | OGR-CEO PUBLISHER) :

'There are too many "gray" areas in the law and we don't want to subject you or OGR to any possible lawsuit.  If you didn't take the picture, then the safest route is to post a link to the website where the picture resides.  OR, if you want to post it, make sure that you state you have permission to do so and be prepared to prove that you in fact have that permission.  If you took the picture, then it is yours to post.  We had a forum member quit his membership when he got mad about his pictures being taken down.  He insisted that the scans he took from the book he purchased gave him the the right to do whatever he wanted with the pictures because he paid for the book!'

Thank you for putting up with my rant.

Mike

The 1948 routes for Truman's campaign are shown on the map at this link.

Truman1948Stops - Whistle-stop train tour - Wikipedia

@Mellow Hudson Mike posted:

@Professor Chaos,

Help Save the Threads.

I understand where you're coming from but it's probably a good idea to bounce your assumption off the moderator before publishing it in this thread as fact.  Even if you're correct, if your conclusion doesn't align with the stated policy of this site, you'll run afoul of its rules.  "Unlikely" is neither clear nor precise enough.

Why am I giving you a hard time?  We've heard this kind of opinion many, many, many times.  There are a large number of us who are tired of interesting threads being removed after someone ignored the rules, or encouraged others to do so.

OGR has been sued before and, very rightly so, doesn't want to be sued again.  If appears to be the case that the copyright could still in force just accept it -- and don't encourage others to weasel their way around it.

OGR's rules are clear.  Read the terms of service and then read the following (from Historical photo copyright | OGR-CEO PUBLISHER) :

'There are too many "gray" areas in the law and we don't want to subject you or OGR to any possible lawsuit.  If you didn't take the picture, then the safest route is to post a link to the website where the picture resides.  OR, if you want to post it, make sure that you state you have permission to do so and be prepared to prove that you in fact have that permission.  If you took the picture, then it is yours to post.  We had a forum member quit his membership when he got mad about his pictures being taken down.  He insisted that the scans he took from the book he purchased gave him the the right to do whatever he wanted with the pictures because he paid for the book!'

Thank you for putting up with my rant.

Mike

This thread was sent to my attention.  Let me make it clear, OGR and its legal council cares about one thing and that is to take NO chances with copyright.  So....if any of you choose to post a picture, you had better follow our TOS concerning copyright.  If you don't, you will be banned from this forum and will be subject to any possible legal action that MAY be brought by the owner of the copyrighted pictures which in some cases can occur anytime during a multi-year period.  Rather than taking the chance, just provide a link to the picture or pictures and if they are in a book, then mention the book, author.  After the costly legal action brought against OGR a few years ago over a couple of now ex-members of this forum and their posting of copyrighted pictures, we now have a no-strike rule.  AND...it could be very costly for you!

@Ron_S posted:

It was too small to see a road name, but the Spirit of 1776 PA with Truman walking beside it

truman campaign train locomotives - Bing images

That is an image of the 1947 Freedom Train that operated from Sep '47 to Jan '50.  That train's purpose was to carry America's history to all Americans as a way to focus post war Americans on the future (listen to Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters song ).  It was government sponsored, industry funded and not associated with any railroad.  While the train was not part of Truman's campaign, he did do a nonpartisan (mostly) speech in front of it.

Mike and Alan - Thanks for the clarification and moderating of this topic and confirming the copyright rules as they apply to our postings.

Ron S - I had seen the map you show, thanks for linking it, I forgot to.  Apparently (maybe not part of the campaign per say) Truman also did a loop out west coast in June 1948.  These are the newsreels I was looking at hoping to find some pictures of the locomotives (to no avail).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viClfse1XG8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLm4Jfr_fAY

CAPpilot - Thanks for the info on the PA, and also the link to the song.  I had never heard it before.  I did go see the 1976 Freedom Train, but the 1947 version was before I was born (so no).

If anyone else has information, please add a reply.

I find it very interesting the rate the various Railroads Dieselized.  I know there were many factors involved, including but not limited too availability of Coal, Topography, Distances covered, Financial condition of each particular RR, Contract negotiations, etc.  But Management "beliefs and style" also played a role.

Another big factor in dieselization was water. Santa Fe for example were quick to accept diesels because of the difficulty they had supplying water to their steam engines, since so much of their line went through arid / desert areas. They sometimes had to bring water by rail to remote water towers to refill them.

Stix - Thank You for the information, that makes complete sense.  I knew that a lot of the Western RR's Used Oil, and previous to that Wood, rather than Coal, because of availability.  But you still needed water to make steam.  There was post about auxiliary tenders a couple of months ago and that too was interesting.