Who was the first President to ride on a diesel-powered train?

Question

Who was the first President to ride on a diesel-powered train?

Answer 1

Andrew Jackson was the first American President to ride a train.

As for diesel-electric powered travel, I'm gonna go with Roosevelt as well.  The Santa Fe was the first railroad to run a diesel powered passenger train, the "Super Chief," running between Chicago and Los Angeles with regular service between these two cities starting in 1937.  

I can find no documentation for such a trip for President Roosevelt, but whoever made the first diesel-electric powered trip would assuredly have done so in or after this year.

Answer 2

I am sure an answer to your question can be found somewhere, and perhaps someone else here knows, but I cannot find it.  Having said that, railroads began using a version of the modern-day diesel-electric locomotive in widespread use as early as 1934 when the Burlington debuted their Zephyr 9900 streamlined trainset (essentially a powered car permanently coupled to two coaches), which was an instant hit (the first diesel locomotive used in service was a box-cab version owned by Central RR of New Jersey in 1925).  Others followed such as the Union Pacific's M10000 and the New Haven's Comet (the first true diesel-electric locomotive to see widespread use was the Electro-Motive Corporation's streamlined EA model in 1936, the beginning of the manufacturer's successful E series of locomotives).  Because of this I would guess Roosevelt was indeed the first president to ride behind diesel power, although, again, I cannot confirm this.  Of note, WWII was the only factor stopping the nation's railroads from completely dieselizing before, say, 1950 as all production was halted during war time to concentrate on the war effort.

Answer 3

The Burlington Zephyer went into service in 1934. So Roosevelt could very well have been the first president to ride a diesel-powered train.

"By the end of the 1930s there were 90 diesel streamliner trains operating around the country."-http://scriptorium.lib.duke.ed...

Answer 4

That would be Franklin Roosevelt who rode one on October 23, 1937, according to this source:

http://www.usatrivia.com/biofdr.html

It doesn't say what railroad it was on, but he was in office at the time. A check of his travel at the time reveals that he was at his retreat in Hyde Park, New York beginning on October 24th, so I'd guess he was traveling by train from Washington to Hyde Park at the time of his first Diesel-powered train trip.

A little more sleuthing: It's most likely that he started the trip on the Pennsylvania Railroad which was electrified from Washington to New York. From there up the Hudson River to Hyde Park he would have been on the New York Central, so I'm guessing that this was the route of his first Diesel-powered trip.

Who would like to follow up on what Diesel motive power the NYC had at the time?