Sunday, August 9, 2015

Ferdinand Magellan / U. S. Car No. 1

Presidential Rail Car, U.S. Number 1

A National Historic Landmark

A Pullman  observation originally built in 1929 as a private car and converted for presidential use during WW II. It served as Presidential Rail Car No. 1 from 1943 until 1958.

The Gold Coast Railroad Museun acquired the Ferdinand Magellan in 1958 and it  arrived at the museum on January 15, 1959. In 1984 the Ferdinand Magellan was briefly loaned to the presidential re-election campaign of Ronald Reagan, who gave a series of "whistlestop" speeches from the rear platform during a one-day trip in Ohio.




 
Above photos July 7, 2015 at Gold Coast Railroad Museum, Miami Fl.



More photos and information at:

 http://www.gcrm.org/index.php/exhibits/ferdinand-magellan-us-car-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan_%28railcar%29

Update: Thanks to Chickenmon I  found this while looking around YouTube.





3 comments:

  1. What a beautiful and historic car! Love the speakers on the first photo! Can't find the URL for it, but Google: Ronald Reagan TV Ad: "Train" and you can see him.
    Good post and links!!

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  2. Thanks for the tip. Great find. I found a video of the interior of the car looking for the Persident Reagan video and added it to the post. The Reagan video is here:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8pcMb8QuAg

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    Replies
    1. Liked that escape hatch! Wouldn't it be wonderful if our country could have that optimism again....

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