Whistle stop train tour

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For the original railroad term, see whistle stop.

A whistlestop or whistlestop tour is a style of political campaigning where the politician makes a series of brief appearances or speeches at a number of small towns over a short period of time. Originally, whistlestops were conducted from the open platform of an observation car or a private railroad car.

Use of the term has spread to cover any travel done very quickly and with only brief pauses. It is common to hear this expression in the United States where the term originated as well as the United Kingdom.

In the 19th century, when travel by railroad was the most common means of traveling long distances over the vast expanses of land as in the United States, politicians would charter tour trains which would travel from town to town. At each stop, the candidate would make a speech from the train, but might rarely set foot on the ground.

"Whistle stop" campaign trips would be made from the rear platform of a train. One of the most famous trains to be used in the U.S. whistlestop tours was the Ferdinand Magellan, a unique railroad car in that it is the only car ever custom built for the President of the United States in the 20th century. Originally built in 1928 by the Pullman Company and officially the "U.S. No. 1 Presidential Railcar", the Ferdinand Magellan is currently on display at The Gold Coast Railroad Museumin Miami FL.

The famous news photo of Harry Truman holding up a copy of the Chicago Tribune with a banner headline stating "Dewey Defeats Truman" was taken on this platform on Wednesday, November 3, 1948, at the St. Louis, Union Station. The Ferdinand Magellan Presidential rail car was also used by Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman and, to a much lesser extent, by President Dwight Eisenhower. - The Magellan’s last official trip before retirement was in 1954, when first lady Mamie Eisenhower rode it from Washington, D.C., to Groton, Conn., to christen the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, the U.S.S. Nautilus. President Ronald Reagan used the Magellan for one day, on Oct. 12, 1984, traveling 120 miles in Ohio, from Dayton to Toledo, making five stops to give "whistlestop" speeches along the way.