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these days, american presidents travelaround the country on air force one, but in the 1940's,there was no air force one. actually, there wasn't even a u.s. air force, they were still part of the army. franklin d. rooseveltwas the first sitting u.s. president to fly in an airplane, back in 1943. but for most of his presidency,he used a very different form of travel. this is the ferdinand magellan,officially known as u.s. car number 1. 120 tonnes of armor-plated,bulletproof rail car.
- the rail car is the heaviestu.s. rail car ever built. they had to build special trucksjust to support the extra weight. the reason it only weighs 285,000 poundsis that was the weight limit for u.s. railroad bridges and trestles at that time. so, the entire car is not armor-proofed,only where the president is. the car has â…-inch thickbulletproof steel through most of the car, up to this point here. you can see where the rivets change fromdouble rivets to single rivets. regular steel here versusthe bulletproof steel here.
so, there's bulletproofing,there's 12-ply laminated glass, there are two escape hatches in the carto get the president out. it was never painted red, white, and bluelike air force one. it was always painted pullman green. when they had to park it somewhere, they would hide it withother pullman rail cars, so it was basically hiding in plain sight. - after roosevelt's death, president trumanused the magellan for a while, asking the engineers to get the trainup to 80mph, if they could.
before television was away to reach the masses, truman toured america in this train, campaigning for re-election,travelling tens of thousands of miles between tiny stations known as whistle-stops,and making up to eight speeches a day. and it worked. the famous momentwhere he held up the newspaper that wrongly announced his defeat, that was just there,on the back of this train. - now in 1928, air-conditioningwas accomplished by ice. there are ice bunkers in the car,blocks of ice were put in there,
and ceiling fans across the whole car would then blow the cold airas it dropped down. so, now we're heading intothe armoured part of the car where the president stayed. here, we have the dining room. all the rooms in the carhad a phone in them. when the car was underway, the phones were hooked up to a radio carcalled the general myer. and when they were in stations,they were hot-wired
into the phones in the station. this is the desk the president would use,he could sign papers. this is what the windows look like. this is 12-ply, laminated glass,about three inches thick, so all the windows from thispoint to the rear of the car are sealed, you cannot take them out, which is why they have air-conditioning. stateroom c here, this isthe president's quarters. the president has a fixed bed, giving hima little bit of extra leg room.
that is what a commode chair looks like. the back folds down as a sink and the seat folds up tobe a toilet underneath. the wheelchair was built specificallyfor roosevelt's use in this car, so he could get up anddown the narrow hallway. here we have the presidential bathroom, and the first of the twoescape hatches are here. what would have been a windowhas been converted to a steel plate that they could pushout and they could get
the president out thatway if they needed to. what looks like a soap dishhanging by the door here, is actually a cigar holder. roosevelt would sit inthere and smoke cigars. here we have the observationlounge of the car. this is where presidents wouldsit in the back of the car and watch the rails pass behind them, entertain their guests thatwere on the car with them. we also have the second escape hatch.
this was fashioned from a submarine. it was designed if the car wasever knocked over on its side, they could open this door and go out it. this door leads to the rear platform. the door alone weighs 1500 pounds. that's about half the weight of the car that most people cometo visit our museum in. it was fashioned after a bank vault. out here is the rear platform.
this is where presidentswould give their speeches. when truman ascended to the presidency, after roosevelt died, he pretty much lived inthis car for a few months as he did a run acrossthe campaign trail, and he made more than350 whistle-stop speeches from this back platform. that's what allowed him toconnect with the american people. - of course, air travel becameeasier and cheaper and safer
and eventually the ferdinand magellanfell out of use. nowadays it's a museum piece, but in an era where the"trump train" is just a metaphor, it's interesting to note that there wereother presidents whose train was...a little more real. - america as a country,except for certain parts of the country, doesn't embrace railsthe way that we used to. this piece is historic, it is unique, it is hearkening back toa simpler place and time,
and a simpler pace of life. and that's what i wish we could kinda...get a little piece of that back. still keep our cell phones,i'm not giving that up(!) - thank you to everyone atthe gold coast railway museum. pull down the descriptionfor more about them and about the ferdinand magellan.