Riding the Rails

Riding the Rails


Senior Photo Editor Lonnie Major and I have boarded the Amtrak train leaving for Delaware. The Obama train, the Georgia 300, was built in 1939, is the length of 2.5 football fields and holds passengers in 10 cars. The train has carried past presidents Herbert Walker Bush and Bill Clinton. The 120-plus journalists from media outlets, ranging from the Washington Post to Vogue, have been placed in three cars at the front of the train. One of the cafe cars have been converted to a communications center where journalists can file their stories with Wi-fi cards taped to the window. The networks — CNN, NBC, CBS — are producing live reports.

President-elect Barack Obama is in the back on the train in specially designed quarters. My media brethren and I are hopefully that Obama will visit us at some point during the day.  As we head to Wilmington, De., we will meet and interview many political dignitaries but most importantly the people who are facing a unmerciful economy. After all, Obama has decided to take this train ride for the people.

Derek T. Dingle is the editorial director at Black Enterprise magazine.


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