A friend of mine is doing a school report on the Ferdinand Magellan and possible use of platform 62 underneath the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, and asked me if I could find some information for him. Does anybody know anything about the them?
To anybody that replies, thank you in advance and sorry if there is another post on these two subjects
Well I know it was mentioned on the History Channel in the New York episode of “Cities of the Underworld”…and I think on the PBS show (“American Experience”?) on Grand Central??
Anyway, I’m not sure there’s much to the story. Grand Central’s trackage extends under many buildings in that part of New York, and supposedly one of them was used by President Roosevelt when he took the train from Washington to New York. There was an elevator near the track so they could take FDR up into the hotel in his wheelchair without anyone seeing him. There appears to be no real evidence that he used it in that way…not that he couldn’t have, but if it was used, it was a secret, so it apparently wasn’t documented.
BTW the Ferdinand Magellan was a Pullman car, the president often used that car when travelling but IIRC it wasn’t exclusively used by the president, other people could hire it just like any other Pullman car - if they had the money of course. Plus the president sometimes travelled in other cars when the Magellan was unavailable.
In 1961 dozens of people were standing on the sidewalk. My father asked somebody what’s going on. President Kennedy was enroute to the Waldorf. So we waited too and in a few minutes there came the motorcycles and the Cadillac. He was smiling and waving and everybody cheered.
http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/abandoned/gct61.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan_Railcar
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I think the car is at the Gold Coast railroad Museam in Miami i think you might try them they should a history on the car Hope this helps Larry
Yes, the last I heard the car was at Gold Coast. I would suggest checking back Trains Magazine files for stories on POTUS trains and The Magellan as both have been covered many times over the years. Also check local library for railroad books which might contain history of such.
Classic Trains special edition Railroads and World War II contained an article entitled “FDR’s Wartime Train Travels”. It describes the President’s train travels throughout the war and includes a sidebar specifically about the Ferdinand Magellan.
