Washington DC

Union Station

Inauguration Day

Those of you who are regular followers of this blog (all 1 or 2 of you) will remember that I began these postings with a piece about my "home town depot, Washington DC's Union Station. Today, in honor of the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, I wish to return to this station for just a bit.

Since it opened in 1907, Union Station has been the “next-door neighbor” to 25 Inaugurations (today would have been number 26, but on his 4th Inauguration FDR, already showing signs that his condition was terminal, opted to be sworn in at the White House). While some of these Inaugurations have been memorable, others have been less so. For Union Station probably the most memorable Inauguration was the 1953 Ceremony when Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower became President for his 1st term. What made this particular Inauguration memorable actually occurred about 3 weeks before the event.

Starting in 1935, the Pennsylvania Railroad used the engine it became most famous for, the Raymond Loewy-designed GG-1, to pull the majority of its passenger train runs into and out of Union Station. For the most part, the arrivals and departures went unheralded; the GG-1 was, among other things, a very reliable piece of motive power. However, in the early days of January 1953, one of the trains comprising the Pennsylvania’s through service from Boston (via the New Haven Railroad), The Federal, got out of control. The incident started as the consist powered by a GG-1 was coming through the station trackage. As it left the station trackage and came in on Track 16 it was way too fast to stop at the bumper. Instead, it proceeded to crash through the bumper, crash through the “Gate” and roll out on the main concourse floor. Thankfully, an announcement had been made moments prior to this that a train was out of control and persons were advised to flee from the concourse. Luckily, everyone there did just that. Consequently, no one was killed or injured on the concourse floor.

Due to the weight of the engine, the GG-1 stayed on the Concourse only momentarily before the floor gave way and the huge engine crashed down into the baggage room located below the concourse. As I remember it, it did trap a baggage handler or two in there for a few minutes, and I think at least one of them did receive a few scratches, but otherwise, things were fine.

The only problem was Washington DC was getting ready for its version of "The Big Show," the upcoming Inauguration. It was only 3 weeks away. And now, Union Station had no concourse for passengers to use. So the decision was made to install a temporary plywood floor over the concourse and leave the GG-1 IN THE BAGGAGE ROOM until after the “festivities” were over. Accordingly, this was done, and except for a slowing of the baggage service, everything went on as planned. Only a few of the thousands of people coming to town through the station ever paused for a moment to reflect upon the meaning of a plywood floor on the concourse.

And after the crowds were gone, in the cold days of February, the plywood was ripped away and the GG-1 was lifted out (incidentally, it was eventually returned to service by the Pennsy). And then the concourse was re-built for use.

I remember the time well. Being a local, I, along with many others, joined in the inevitable “second-guessing” that occurred as everyone talked about what “they” would have done about the runaway locomotive. The most popular notion put forward by us locals was to question why “they” hadn’t just re-routed the train through the tunnels that led south (I suspect the answer was, in part, if there had a derailment in those tunnels, then things would have really been messed up for all the expected travelers).

In addition, there were some locals who gave pause to the possible terror such a repeat scenario might cause. For example, A. recalls that for several years after the accident, whenever she was in Union Station, particularly when she and her family were riding on the train back to West Virginia, she would always be afraid another train would come crashing through the concourse. Consequently, she was always relieved when she could finally board their train and leave.

Well, that was 1953, and this is 2009, another busy Inauguration Day for Union Station, the station that literally “re-made” a city. Happy Inauguration Day President Obama, treat Union Station and Amtrak well. They are a key to helping our country become what it should be.