Nostalgia & History > Campaign Train.

The campaign train, once a staple of American politics, is almost a thing of the past. Especially in recent California contests, where pollsters give the state to the Democrats weeks before votes are cast, causing campaign string-pullers to spend money elsewhere. Candidates prefer luxury buses and chartered aircraft, altho I have yet to meet a candidate for any local or national office who could resist the opportunity to give a stump speech from the rear of an open-end obs car.

Here is the only campaign rain I've ever ridden.

We are in Bakersfield, Calif., on October 30, 1988, where the Democrat presidential candidate Michael Dukakis will begin a traditional day of off-the-rear-platform speechmaking along the Santa Fe main line up California's central valley. While the area is not a voter-rich environment, the day will make great pictures for the gaggle of national media, and provide colorful video for local television stations from Los Angeles, San Francisco and smaller stations along the route.

This picture was taken off the camera platform, a flatbed truck trailer carefully spotted to give a good angle for TV and still photgraphers. The gaggle of flag-waving boosters is responding to something in the candidate's stump speech. Look very carefully, and you'll notice the late California Sen. Alan Cranston on the left of the candidate. On his right, are the candidate's neice, actoress Olivia Dukakis and the actor Rob Lowe.

The train is an Amtrak special, with an all Amtrak consist, except for the SP business car "Sunset." Two dining cars, if I recall, were also in the consist, serving meals to traveling press and, more important, serving as work areas for various media.

Amtrak Superliner coach-baggage cars were ideally suited for this kind of service, since the lower-level baggage area was a fine place for TV crews to get easy stowage and access for their gear. In those days, a travelling network TV crew almost always consisted of a two or three-person team, with almost two dozen cases of assorted gear.

Following the Bakersfield speech, the train departed and everyone got their shots of the candidate and his party waving to the group. About three car-lengths north, the train stopped, candidate disappeared into the friendly confines of "Sunset" and the travelling press ran up the platform to get on the train. After a "highball" from the crew, the train departed for Fresno. Dukakis camped out in the Hi Level transition car just ahead of "Sunset"--allowing carefully-controlled groups of photographers to have a few minutes of access to the candidate for "looking out at the countryside" shots. When it was my chance to be a part of this group, the still photographer next to me was Ted Benson of the Modesto Bee. The train continued on to Fresno, where a similar campaign stop was staged. We and most of the LA media departed at Fresno and flew home to meet deadlines, while national press filed stories from phones and satellite uplink trucks staged at Fresno. I think the candidate continued on to the Bay Area with stops in several other cities.

As you can imagine, trips like this represent considerable expense to the campaign and a huge problem for those people who are still trying to keep a railroad operational.

The last campaign train I covered was 2000 as the Bush campaign rode from LA to, IIRC, Santa Barbara. I don't think there have been any in California since.
Photo by David R. Busse.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/12 17:46 by Alco251.

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If "Amtrak Joe" runs in 2014, maybe he'll have one. One can only wish.

Oops, make that 2016!!!!!

But the best photo ops that money can but. A train, a platform, a candidate and a sunny sky - what else could say American Political Campaign?

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA

nice photo op
also good plug for Superliners and Santa Fe, both of which would have been cropped

There was the Kerry/Edwards whistle stop tour in 2004 from St. Louis to Kingman AZ.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,770453

In the book "Truman", as Truman's Give 'em Hell Harry campaign train crossed the country, he and his staff were stunned by the size of the crowds. They were pretty sure that Dewey was going to win because the polls said so. Of course, polling was only beginning as a science. Some staff thought all those people were there to see a president that was going to lose anyway.

Back in '96 when Clinton had his campaign train which ultimately was to take him to Chicago and the convention, my good friend the late Danny Boehr was in charge of the whole thing for Amtrak. Somewhere I have what he wrote about the adventure after it was all over---------this was pre-9/11 but the Secret Service and security issues were an incredible nightmare to deal with even then . However, if you recall, Clinton arrived at the Chicago convention center by helicopter, not train. Reason? Whoever was head of Conrail at the time said that he didnt give a flying etc. whose train it was, it was NOT going to run on his busy freight railroad and screw things up and ergo, POTUS, could fly himself from wherever to the convention site!! I forget where he flew in from, somewhere across the lake from Chi, but I just loved the chutzpah of the railroad for saying "excuse me????"-----------:-)
C.

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

Not rail related, but another example of someone who remembered that the President works for us and not the other way around: Back when Richard Nixon had the Western White House on the south end of San Clemente, one of his administrative assistants called the Crab Cooker restaurant in Newport Beach to arrange for a Presidential entourage to dine there. The assistant introduced himself with something like, "This is [so and so] from the Western White House. The President and his family would like to have dinner at your establishment, and they don't expect to wait in line." The proprietor replied, "I don't care what color your house is. Everyone waits in line here."

DNRY122 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not rail related, but another example of someone
> who remembered that the President works for us and
> not the other way around: Back when Richard Nixon
> had the Western White House on the south end of
> San Clemente, one of his administrative assistants
> called the Crab Cooker restaurant in Newport Beach
> to arrange for a Presidential entourage to dine
> there. The assistant introduced himself with
> something like, "This is from the Western White
> House. The President and his family would like to
> have dinner at your establishment, and they don't
> expect to wait in line." The proprietor replied,
> "I don't care what color your house is. Everyone
> waits in line here."

Could have been Karl Rove. He was an intern in 1972 and worked with Donald Segretti. If you're old enough to know who Donald Segretti was in the Nixon Re-election campaign, then you can appreciate what happened to Rove the eager skinny boy to the blob he has become.

Great shot, thanks for posting.

Given the candidate, though, maybe this should be cross-indexed under "train wrecks?"