The great American political-campaign trains were like the dinosaurs. Just when they reached legendary size and importance, they were on their way to extinction, courtesy of the airplane.
The greatest of all the trains ran for Harry Truman in 1948, when he clicked off 31,700 miles and delivered 356 speeches (16 in one day). Truman astonished his own political experts and the world that year by beating Republican Thomas Dewey, who was so confident of victory that he was choosing his Cabinet before any vote was cast.
"Oh, it was just great," remembers Bob Donovan, who, as a young reporter for...
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