Presidential Visit

The presidential race in the fall of 1992 in the USA was a heated affair, with Democrat Bill Clinton working to unseat the incumbent Republican, George H W Bush, who was running for reelection. An added complication that year was the presence in the race of a third major candidate, independent Ross Perot, whose success in business and unorthodox approach to running for president appealed to many voters.

In plotting out how and where to spend the final days of the campaign to appeal to voters President Bush and his staff decided to take a “Southern Whistle Stop Train Tour” up the Norfolk Southern railway line from Atlanta through Northeast Georgia and on into South and North Carolina. The trip started in Atlanta on the morning of Tuesday October 20 and made stops in Norcross, Gainesville and Cornelia in Peach State before stopping in Spartanburg, South Carolina for the night. (The campaign train then made more stops up the rail line the following day.)

The Bush campaign had toured the Midwest by train earlier that fall, and they used the same equipment for the most part for the October trip. David Beasley, a staff writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution in those days, wrote an extensive article about the rolling stock used and preparation for the train trip. The President traveled that day in a 15 car train, accompanied by his entourage, the press corps, the Secret Service detail accompanying him, and assorted White House and railroad personnel. The President’s car was the last on the train as it headed north and had its own name - the “Baltimore”. Built in 1924 and owned by CSX Transportation, the luxuriously furnished Baltimore was 85 feet long and 9.5 feet wide and was outfitted with a brass bed among other features. In its early days It had been used to provide transportation for railroad executives and to entertain railroad clients, but by the 1990s it had not been used heavily for some years. Prior to the 1992 Presidential trips bulletproof glass had been installed, and likely other security-related work had been done at the request of the Secret Service (but they were mum on any details.)

In addition to the main train there were two other trains traveling up the Norfolk Southern line through North Georgia that day, one in front of the President’s train and the other behind the main train, both providing security for the main train. Between official stops in towns such as Norcross and Gainesville the trains were in a hurry, reaching speeds approaching 50 mph. But personnel on the lead train would keep an eye out for people who were gathered along the tracks to see the President go by, and when this was identified word would be sent back to the Presidential train and its speed would be lowered substantially so the President could be seen waving to those who came out to greet him.

The choice of a stop in Norcross was due at least in part to the persuasive sales skills of local businessman Carl Johnson. Several weeks before the big day Johnson noticed a group of neatly dressed strangers looking around in town one day, and he struck up a conversation with one of them to see what was going on. He learned that they were an advance team that was scouting potential locations for stops the President’s campaign train might make. Johnson’s glowing description of Norcross and its history that day convinced them that the town would be a good place for President Bush to visit, and on October 20 it actually happened.

While plans for the whistle stop tour had been underway by early October, the schedule for the events of the day was not released to the public until a few days beforehand. The stops for the day were listed in the newspapers as shown in the figure below.