They missed a opportunity to promote the UP and its history leading up to the big event. They could have leased Dave Kloke's Leviathan (before it was sold) along with the immigrant car Dave was building and refit out the Lincoln car as the UP Board of Directors car (as it was sold to the UP for this purpose afterward.) Yes Leviathan is restricted to 25MPH, but it would be easy to haul it between stops on flat cars. They didn't have to give rides, just display the train and let school kids tour it at various locations. In bigger cities they could have allowed it to run under its own power coming into town for the TV news crews.
Companies ofter fail to realize what how much good PR is really worth.