AGHRMatt posted:I think there is a distinction here. The Bush "Funeral Train" was a special excursion train used to transport the president to his final resting place, but there was nothing unusual about the cars as they've been all over the system in excursion/business service. To that end, the train would be nice to have for your E8/9's, Heritage units, Big Boy, Challenger, and 844 FEF. What made this train different is the purpose of the excursion it ran and that it was headed up by UP4141, the SD70ACe specially painted to commemorate the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library (I haven't seen pictures of it headed up by UP4141 prior to this). To the best of my knowledge #9696 was "just another" SD70ACe with the "Building America" tag line and American Flag (which appears on other locomotives) -- I think the locomotive type, flag and tag line were important factors.
Actually Matt, what makes the cars used in the funeral train and business train "special" is most have not been modeled before and are different from the cars virtually everyone including MTH, Lionel, and K-Line have offered in the past. If you go to the UP site you can see what the cars look like. I am not aware of anyone doing open vestibule observation cars nor the special power car seen in the photo above of the business train. MTH has done dome diners seen on this train but they are not pictured in the current catalog. Who knows, MTH is notorious for producing items which don't match the catalog so maybe the correct cars will be produced despite whats pictured.
The cars produced in the past may work for trains of the '40s and '50s, generic Pullmans and Coaches but not the modern consists.
