WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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These days, American presidents travel
around the country on Air Force One,

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but in the 1940's,
there was no Air Force One.

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Actually, there wasn't even a U.S. Air Force,

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they were still part of the Army.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt
was the first sitting U.S. President

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to fly in an airplane, back in 1943.

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But for most of his presidency,
he used a very different form of travel.

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This is the Ferdinand Magellan,
officially known as U.S. Car Number 1.

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120 tonnes of armor-plated,
bulletproof rail car.

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- The rail car is the heaviest
U.S. rail car ever built.

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They had to build special trucks
just to support the extra weight.

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The reason it only weighs 285,000 pounds
is that was the weight limit

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for U.S. railroad bridges and trestles at that time.

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So, the entire car is not armor-proofed,
only where the President is.

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The car has ⅝-inch thick
bulletproof steel through most of the car,

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up to this point here.

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You can see where the rivets change from
double rivets to single rivets.

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Regular steel here versus
the bulletproof steel here.

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So, there's bulletproofing,
there's 12-ply laminated glass,

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there are two escape hatches in the car
to get the President out.

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It was never painted red, white, and blue
like Air Force One.

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It was always painted Pullman green.

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When they had to park it somewhere,

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they would hide it with
other Pullman rail cars,

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so it was basically hiding in plain sight.

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- After Roosevelt's death, President Truman
used the Magellan for a while,

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asking the engineers to get the train
up to 80mph, if they could.

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Before television was a
way to reach the masses,

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Truman toured America in this train,

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campaigning for re-election,
travelling tens of thousands of miles

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between tiny stations known as whistle-stops,
and making up to eight speeches a day.

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And it worked. The famous moment
where he held up the newspaper

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that wrongly announced his defeat,

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that was just there,
on the back of this train.

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- Now in 1928, air-conditioning
was accomplished by ice.

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There are ice bunkers in the car,
blocks of ice were put in there,

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and ceiling fans across the whole car

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would then blow the cold air
as it dropped down.

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So, now we're heading into
the armoured part of the car

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where the President stayed.

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Here, we have the dining room.

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All the rooms in the car
had a phone in them.

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When the car was underway, the phones were

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hooked up to a radio car
called the General Myer.

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And when they were in stations,
they were hot-wired

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into the phones in the station.

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This is the desk the President would use,
he could sign papers.

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This is what the windows look like.

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This is 12-ply, laminated glass,
about three inches thick,

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so all the windows from this
point to the rear of the car

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are sealed, you cannot take them out,

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which is why they have air-conditioning.

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Stateroom C here, this is
the President's quarters.

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The President has a fixed bed, giving him
a little bit of extra leg room.

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That is what a commode chair looks like.

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The back folds down as a sink

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and the seat folds up to
be a toilet underneath.

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The wheelchair was built specifically
for Roosevelt's use in this car,

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so he could get up and
down the narrow hallway.

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Here we have the Presidential bathroom,

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and the first of the two
escape hatches are here.

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What would have been a window
has been converted to a steel plate

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that they could push
out and they could get

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the President out that
way if they needed to.

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What looks like a soap dish
hanging by the door here,

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is actually a cigar holder.

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Roosevelt would sit in
there and smoke cigars.

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Here we have the observation
lounge of the car.

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This is where Presidents would
sit in the back of the car

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and watch the rails pass behind them,

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entertain their guests that
were on the car with them.

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We also have the second escape hatch.

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This was fashioned from a submarine.

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It was designed if the car was
ever knocked over on its side,

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they could open this door and go out it.

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This door leads to the rear platform.

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The door alone weighs 1500 pounds.

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That's about half the weight of the car

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that most people come
to visit our museum in.

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It was fashioned after a bank vault.

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Out here is the rear platform.

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This is where Presidents
would give their speeches.

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When Truman ascended to the presidency,

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after Roosevelt died,

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he pretty much lived in
this car for a few months

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as he did a run across
the campaign trail,

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and he made more than
350 whistle-stop speeches

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from this back platform.

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That's what allowed him to
connect with the American people.

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- Of course, air travel became
easier and cheaper and safer

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and eventually the Ferdinand Magellan
fell out of use.

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Nowadays it's a museum piece,

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but in an era where the
"Trump Train" is just a metaphor,

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it's interesting to note that there were
other Presidents

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whose train was...
a little more real.

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- America as a country,
except for certain parts of the country,

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doesn't embrace rails
the way that we used to.

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This piece is historic, it is unique,

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it is hearkening back to
a simpler place and time,

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and a simpler pace of life.

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And that's what I wish we could kinda...
get a little piece of that back.

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Still keep our cell phones,
I'm not giving that up(!)

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- Thank you to everyone at
the Gold Coast Railway Museum.

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Pull down the description
for more about them

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and about the Ferdinand Magellan.