ABOUT THE OBAMA TRAIN RIDE: President Obama's decision to kick off his inauguration with a 137-mile trip aboard an Amtrak train was a huge success, with hundreds of thousands of people viewing the historic even, both at rallies and lining the tracks. The ride, which retraced parts of the route taken by Abraham Lincoln on the way to his inauguration in 1861, began Saturday at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station with a small gathering of 200 people who had ties to the Obama campaign. There were events in Wilmington, Delaware, where Vice-President Joe Biden joined the train, and in Baltimore, before arrival at Washington, DC's Union Station. The train itself had four Amtrak cars (including two cafe cars) and two diesel locomotives, plus the Georgia 300, a classically styled railcar from the golden era of train travel. The car has an impressive presidential history, having already carried Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. What was not impressive was Washington Post news reports calling the car a "caboose." The trip took about seven hours, and went without incidents. However, an Inaugural Ball on Tuesday evening at Union Station's Main Hall exacerbated the problems associated with the station trying to handle far more people than Amtrak's current space was designed for. [National Assn of Railroad Passengers, 1-23-09]