Guys,
I’m just curious and would like to know why Union Pacific did #4141 for George H.W. Bush, they never did one for any other president. What was so special about G.H.W. Bush in relation to U.P.?
It was done for the G.H.W.Bush presidential library.
Didn’t it have something to do with the opening of the George Bush Sr. library?
Union Pacific and the GOP have been good freinds for years. Wasn’t this especially true during the Drew Lewis years ?
AntiGates ?
Career
In the 1950s he held several positions at Henkels and McCoy, Inc. In the 1960s he rose up the ranks of National Gypsum Company becoming their assistant chairman in 1969. From 1972 to 1974 he was president and CEO of Snelling and Snelling, Inc. In 1971, he was appointed as trustee in bankruptcy (along with Richardson Dilworth) for Reading Company, the railroad company headquartered in Philadelphia, and guided the company through its successful reorganization and discharge from bankruptcy in 1980. From 1974 to 1981 he headed Lewis and Associates, a business consulting firm. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, he served in several political capacities: county committee member, chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party’s finance committee, GOP candidate for Governor in 1974, chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation to the 1976 GOP convention, and Deputy Chairman of the Republican National Committee. During the 1976 Republican presidential campaign, Lewis, as head of the powerful Pennsylvania delegation, had backed Gerald Ford. At the Republican convention, Ronald Reagan announced that if nominated he would name Richard S. Schweiker, Lewis’ good friend, as his running mate. Lewis had already committed to Ford and so honored his word, and kept his delegation in line to help nominate
The engine was painted in relation to an exhibit on railroads that was opened at the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station, TX last year. The locomotive was part of the exhibit, parked on a stub end of track across from Kyle Field on the Texas A&M campus (site of the library) for about a month and a half, until it was released for captive service between Ft. Worth and Houston on UP trains. The UP was one of the main contributing railroads to the exhibit, and this was a way for the railroad to celebrate their involvement, while at the same time honoring the person the library was named for. If you read the side of the unit it says “George H. W. Bush Presidential Library”- therefore it is more of an homage to the exhibit than it is to GHWB himself (even though he did christen it and ride in it when the exhibit opened.) Now that the exhibit is closed- expect the unit to begin wandering system wide for a while before it is repainted.
Look at the map - the GHW Bush Library in Collage Station TX is right in the middle of one of UP most lucrative markets. UP does not do traditional advertising any more as they found the operations PR such as the steam program, 4141, and the heritage series generate them much more press interest than their ads ever did.
dd
why would UP repaint it? it’s not disruptive. i really dont think it will soon sport armour yellow when UP has enough ACEs out there in the scheme already. and they arent repainting their heritage fleet either. why would you think they would repaint this unit when its current scheme is fine and not faded or anything either?
Same thing happened with the Desert Storm unit.
Atmo,
Actually the UP has already mapped out the timetables for when the Heritage units will be repainted as well- it won’t be any time soon, the last report gave them at most 8-10 years. All of these units are special scheme locos- which requires additional paint stocks to be held for them, the upkeep on a special scheme costs money, and eventually the cost outweighs the benefit, and the unit gets repainted back to it’s original number and armour yellow (think back to the Bicentennial units of the 70s- it was the same thing for them. Paint them up- let them run around for about 5 years in that scheme, then repaint them.) These engines will not be like this forever- that’s why they were delivered as 83xx, 84xx and 85xx series units- they have a blank spot in the SD70ACe roster waiting for them. Not to mention the GP60s that were renumbered to clear the heritage number spots, and one SD70M for the 4141. While the engine may be good looking it actually is a little “disruptive” to have one SD70ACe slotted out in the middle of a roster of 1250 SD70Ms. To UP- it would be preferrable to have ALL their units in Armour Yellow, so let’s all be thankful that they have taken this step to paint these units specially for the time being.
Bottom line here is that 4141 was painted as it was due to GHW Bush being a big supporter and proponent of U.P. when he was President. This is called “stroke”.
Cut and past from TRAINS NEWSWIRE:
"UP to devote licensing income to Heritage Program
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August 2, 2006
OMAHA, Neb. - Union Pacific announced Tuesday that income generated by its licensing program will be allocated to support the railroad’s Heritage Programs, including its steam program, heritage passenger fleet, and museum. UP said it was allocating the funds to Heritage Programs as a result of growth in the licensing program and in response to suggestions from model railroaders and railroad historical societies.
Union Pacific charges a fee to manufacturers who produce and distribute model railroad equipment items bearing the Union Pacific name and those of railroads it has merged with over the last two decades, such as Western Pacific and Chicago & North Western.
The company says it is protecting the integrity of the names and trademarks owned by Union Pacific by controlling commercial use of those marks. The program has been controversial since some smaller model railroad manufacturers claim they can’t afford to pay the fees, and one producer of a Union Pacific calendar claims