The private owners of 26 vintage train cars arrive in Portland for their annual convention, some traveling in ornate luxury once enjoyed by U.S. presidents.
A half-mile of vintage private railroad cars rolled through southern Maine on Sunday carrying 210 rail fans, some of whom traveled from as far away as California to attend a national convention of private rail car owners in Portland this week.
The Pine Tree Limited – a convoy of three Amtrak locomotives and 26 antique rail cars – may be the most luxurious and historic train ever to enter Maine.
The oldest car is the Federal, a 1911 Pullman that carried presidents William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson. Taking up the honorary rear position is the Georgia 300, a 1930 heavyweight observation car that carried presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Barack Obama rode on it to Washington just before his inauguration in 2009.
