No less a magazine than Architectural Digest called Presidential Rail Car U.S. Number 1 "the Air Force One of its day."
Built for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the five-car train had armored plating on the outside and cream-colored woodwork on the inside. The train helped FDR hide his paralysis from the public.
“It was designed for the fact that he was handicapped,” says Phil Schoenberg, a historian and the founder of Ghost Walks NYC.
FDR rode the train on a private track below Grand Central Terminal to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, where he often stayed.
That private track is closed now, but Schoenberg says: “There’s still a ghostly presence — Fala.”
The first dog frequently accompanied FDR on trips by car, train, and even ship. One such journey led to scandal in 1944.
“The Republicans said that FDR left the dog behind in Alaska and sent a battleship to get the dog back at taxpayer expense,” Schoenberg says.
FDR denied the allegations, and said at a campaign event: “Well of course I don’t resent attacks, and my family don’t resent attacks. But Fala does resent them.”
That resentment may have kept Fala from resting in peace after he died.
“Apparently he still appears in Grand Central, still looking for his master," Schoenberg says. "He’s been spotted late at night by various people who are in the station to fix things or clean up.”
The popular first dog is one of the most popular stories on Schoenberg's ghost walks.