The NOT so Secret - Secret rail platform in NYC

Cool, but how would you go about modeling it?

According to the posted story, "Today, the train car which used to carry Roosevelt is parked abandoned in the track which is not accessible to visitors."

I don't think Roosevelt was riding and being transported in a baggage car ?

an addition to the Lionel GCT on a subway layout with a modified Pullman car would be my guess.

Right. From 1943 thru 1958 the Presidential Car, U.S. No. 1, "Ferdinand Magellan" was used by Presidents, FDR and Truman. The car is presently on display in Florida at the Gold Coast RR Museum. The car was/is fully armor plated and was something close to 200 tons (if I remember correctly). The "other cars" that made up FDR's Presidential consist belonged to the U.S. Army Signal Corp, one of which was that baggage car. 

Perhaps the car that was used to carry the president's remains back to Washington after his death?

 

Jeff C

Geeeeeeeeezzz...

The story simply won't die in regard to that baggage car. It's actually a MOW car stuffed back there probably in the 80s or so. This care has nothing to do with FDR or anyone of note on that underground access siding.

 

 

And I'm tired of anytime this story comes up (and it comes up with some frequency), every 'reporter' thinks they've discovered something previously unknown to anyone.

amen

Good to know.

 

Jeff C

I have an exact model of this on my layout. Unfortunately, no one can see it and even I have no access to it. When you visit my layout, you'll just have to take my word that "it's there". Somewhere....

I got to go down and see the car, a mutual friend is the Metro-North Fire Chief and he took is to the "car". It is a blue, it is a old New York Central Baggage or horse car that was used in MOW service. It has nothing to do with FDR, that is just a urban legend. It was jade green until about 1982 or 1983 then painted blue per Metro-North. It was put there for storage and poker games!

The baggage car wouldn't be able to transport an automobile of the day because of that door configuration -- not wide enough. Though FDR could have used the platform it's doubtful that a baggage car would be transporting anything other than baggage. His limo would likely have traveled in an automobile transport box car. Modernly, the president's limo and support vehicles travel in a C17 cargo plane (every time he leaves Los Angeles, it flies right over my building).

 

Regardless of the story, I think it would be fun to look around in down in there. While poking around, the whole time I wonder how the workers accomplished what they did with what they had to work with back then. I can stand and stare at something and try to imagine what it was like working on it beck when it was built. What the workers must have gone through and how long it all must have taken. They employed many more workers on a project back then. I find all that old stuff quite fascinating.

I knew a guy who had a decent HO layout with subway entrances every block, with steps going down and I'm sure ending when they went around the corner. He swore there was a full working subway on his layout and did what John Allen did on his G&D line years before. He made a subway depot through a cutout window in the fascia directly below one of the entrances at street level. It was fully detailed, lit, with tracks and figures. It was on a curve and I'm sure he made maybe 24" of track total. But he swore that if you waited long enough, you'd see the subway screaming by but you'd almost miss it if you blinked. He said almost every kid who ever saw the layout fell for it. He said the really funny kids (and some adults) were the ones who'd look up and yell, "I just saw it go past!" He said he never understood if they were joking or had just gotten tired of waiting.

"the train car that served this platform is right over here"

The Gold Coast Railroad museum is in south Miami FL, Kendall to be more precise or next the Miami Metro Zoo on SW 152nd Ave.

 

Lee Fritz

 

 

What a load of... well, you know.

Look at the size of that elevator, does anyone here think a 1930's limo would fit through such a small door?

And the windows of the baggage car are thick because, well, that's normal for RR car glass to be thick. It ain't likely bullet proof and if it was, it would have been because of where it was used and for what duty. Nothing unusual in the slightest there.

I will have to agree about the elevator door. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the elevator door was 'that sure looks awfully small for a car to fit through, let alone a limo'. However, I'd still like to do some exploring down there regardless of the stories.

  

Interesting piece of history.

Attaboy, Gilly.  An answer to warm the cockles of my heart.  (I hate cold cockles.)

All interesting stuff, but as many have said, there's a lot of bull attached to the existing stuff parked under the Waldorf. "The President arrived in his personal baggage car?.......uhuh..."

I understand that FDR's Pierce Arrow was transported from his home in Hyde Park to the hotel basement, so I would assume the proper car would have been some kind of earlier side-loading auto car. 

I'm familiar with the Ferdinand Magellan private car ( wouldn't we all want one? Yes!) 

Can the passenger train historians among us give us a rundown on the FDR train consists or any associated literature?

Correct kits for this 60 foot NYC baggage car were made in O scale by both JC Models and All Nation. JC also made the kit in HO. You can still find the kits as well as built up cars on occasion at 2 rail shows. The doors on each side were of different widths, and prototype cars were painted in both two tone gray and dark green schemes.

Don't know anything about that, but the first Alco PA was down there, along with the first model of an Alco PA made from bronze castings and silver plated in 17/64 scale.

Shhh .....(whispering)  Jimmy Hoffa's buried under that car.

 

     Hoppy

When we were acquiring the grand central situation board we were all over gct. Not only is that door on that elevator too skinny to fit a car the elevator itself is only 4 feet deep.   That baggage car was used by the signal maintainers at gct to store tools and equipment.  It's still there because it doesn't meet today's safety standards to move on the rails.  There aren't any elevators anywhere in the whole terminal that would fit something the size of a car.  We had trouble fitting four foot sections of the board into the elevator. Track 61 was used by fdr to get into the Waldorf but all the nonsense about the car is bull.  Track 61 was originally the siding they delivered coal to the power plant that was there before they covered up the station

What is surprising is, the gentleman giving the BBC lady the tour and information, really had no idea what he was talking about. Maybe someone should alert the management of GCT about that totally false TV "documentary".

I think they do that on purpose to get more people to take the tour 

 

This is the control room at Grand Central before we took the board.

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 This is the day we were dismantling the situation board

 

 

Now I know where I left my Weaver New York Central baggage car.....

 

Peter

quote:

What is surprising is, the gentleman giving the BBC lady the tour and information, really had no idea what he was talking about. Maybe someone should alert the management of GCT about that totally false TV "documentary".

 

Just for the heck of it, I did a search on "NYC Track 61".
There are a number of sites with stories about the track. Most of them repeat the urban legend about the baggage car, and Roosevelt's automobile fitting into the elevator.

Bluelinec4, What did you do with the board?

 

I would like to see photos of that operation!

 

Very cool stuff.

We put it back together at the club

 

Not many pictures of the power plant  You can see it in these two with the stacks   The one with the scaffolds around it is when they started demolition to make room for the Waldorf

 

 

Hey, wait a minute here, I thought they couldn't put anything on the internet that wasn't true? Haven't you all seen that commercial?

"We put it back together at the club"

 

Can you make it light up?  

We have about 10000 LEDs that were part of the control system to display train position, signal aspect and switch positions  One of these years we will light this baby up

Now that would be an eye-catcher: The Grand Central Station board all lit up and running with an 0-27 4x8 layout below it 

No need for an O27 4x8 we have an O 185x35 below it already