Former American President George H.W Bush passed away at the age of 94 at his residence in Houston on November 30, 2018. A new locomotive has been numbered 4141 in honor of the 41st President George H.W Bush and was unveiled at the Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. The locomotive was showed off for the special exhibit at George H.W Bush’s presidential library and will be used to pull the late president’s funeral train. The remains of Mr. Bush will be carried on December 6, 2018 to the final resting place at his presidential library.
The locomotive has been painted to resemble Air Force One but George H.W Bush had joked that if it has been around during his presidency, he may have preferred to ride the rails instead of taking the flight. During the unveiling of Locomotive 4141 in 2005, Mr. Bush had quipped, “I might have left Air Force One behind”. The blue and grey locomotive was commissioned in honor of the 41st president and was unveiled at Texas A&M University.
The 4,300 horsepower machine will carry Bush’s casket with relatives and close friends for around 70 miles. The train will be travelling through small Texas towns and is expected to take about two and a half hours. The casket will be delivered from suburban Houston to College Station. The remains of Bush will be taken to the presidential library at the university and there he will be paid to rest by the side of his wife Barbara Bush who passed away in April, 2018 and his daughter Robin who had passed away at the age of 3 in 1953.
The sixth car of the train will be a converter baggage hauler known as Council Bluffs and has been fitted with transparent slides so that the mourners could watch from the side of the tracks. This will be the eighth funeral train in the US history.
Photo Credits: Trove Star
