Passenger Trains > The Ferdinand Magellan or "POTUS" Car featured......

......in the October issue of "Architectural Digest". Lots of interior shots, and history of the car.

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

Wasn't this car stored at the rail museum in Sacramento at one time in the distant past? I seem to recall seeing it sitting in the old CP depot/train shed adjacent to the river back in the mid to late '70s. Or am I just having another senior moment...

It's been down in Florida for many years. Gold Coast Museum, as I recall.

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA

There was another car associated with President Truman which was auctioned off in Vernon CA back around 1970. I think it's in Kansas City now, but am not sure. I remember taking my daughters to the auction so they could see the historic car and also see Milton J. Wershow, the dean of Southern California industrial auctioneers, in action.

After the federal government disposed of the Magellan as "surplus", it's home has always been the Gold Coast Railroad Museum. During the 1970's it was on display at the museum's former Ft. Lauderdale location. It is now housed near Metro Zoo in South Miami-Dade County, where the museum moved in the early 1980's.

Crosstie-Walker Wrote:
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> Wasn't this car stored at the rail museum in
> Sacramento at one time in the distant past? I
> seem to recall seeing it sitting in the old CP
> depot/train shed adjacent to the river back in the
> mid to late '70s. Or am I just having another
> senior moment...

I am personally not aware of any other cars being associated with Truman. It is fact, however, that between 1922 and it's last official use in 1953, that the Ferdinand Magellan was the ONLY officially designated US Presidential Railroad Car. The Architectural Digest article was very accurate on the car's history. More information can be found at the museum's websit: http://gcrm.org.



DNRY122 Wrote:
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> There was another car associated with President
> Truman which was auctioned off in Vernon CA back
> around 1970. I think it's in Kansas City now, but
> am not sure. I remember taking my daughters to the
> auction so they could see the historic car and
> also see Milton J. Wershow, the dean of Southern
> California industrial auctioneers, in action.