RIGHTS OVER EVERYTHING.

The Union Pacific Railroad participated in President Bush's recent funeral, operating a special train from a team track in Spring, Texas, outside Houston, to College Station, for the late president's interment at his Presidential Library on the Texas A&M campus.

I don't know how the railroads provide for special movements these days.  Back in the era of dispatchers and train sheets, there would be an entry for POTUS EXTRA 4141 EAST.

The diesel in question has a special paint scheme, honoring President Bush and his library.  The first temporary exhibit at the library depicted Railroads and Westward Expansion, and the former president was intrigued enough by 4141 that he requested a cab ride, which was granted, during which he was able to take the throttle, under the watchful eye of the Road Foreman of Engines.

There's nothing quite like a public railroad move to throw off the journalists.  During the motorcade from Houston to Spring, I wish I had a nickel each time a pressie referred to 4141 as a "train."  On social media there are people wondering who operates the train.  Amtrak?  No, the host railroad.  Amtrak was the host railroad for the 2009 Obama-Biden victory train.

Union Pacific, however,  is capable of rolling out more dome cars for one special movement than Amtrak own.

Contemporary movements of presidents by rail inspire investigations into historic movements of presidents by rail, and Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman on Ferdinand Magellan come up.  So, too, do urban legends, such as President Roosevelt's armored train below the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.  Sorry, no.