[4]:150, The platform was not originally intended to be used as a station, but its location made it ideal for unobtrusive access to the Waldorf Astoria when the hotel was built. A Look Inside Track 61, The Secret Train Platform Under The Waldorf-Astoria, We rely on your support to make local news available to all, Witness the crowning of Miss Subways 2023 and more things to do this week in NYC, In '32 Sounds,' NYC filmmaker Sam Green explores how what we hear shapes how we feel, Expanded summer concert series debuts at Upper East Side institution 92NY, A Bronx artist hopes to inspire and empower young readers with a debut graphic novel, SummerStage is bringing more than 80 free and benefit concerts to NYC parks this year. What is supposedly the elevator door opening inside the Waldorf-Astoria. The Department of Defense railroad carsdo end in an X as well as thousands of privately ownedcars.. Trainjotting has some more history regarding the platform, known as Track 61, and notes that the quest for it "has become a holy grail for many urban explorers.". ". Abandoned Million Dollar home in Oklahoma, History of Abandoned Putnam Hotel 20 Haunted Pictures, History of Abandoned Molly Stark Sanatorium, Pictures Show Uninhabited Rosewood Center, Haunting Pictures of Church of the Transfiguration Before it Was Demolished, Haunting Pictures of Silver Plume Ghost Town, Colorado, Brief History of Nevadaville Ghost Town Haunting Pictures, The Ruins of Radium Springs Casino in Georgia Haunting Pictures, CoolidgeGhost Town Montana Haunting Pictures. Gothamist is a website about New York City news, arts, events and food, brought to you by New York Public Radio. Haegeum. Winner will be selected at random on 06/01/2023. Because of its ideal location next the Waldorf Astoria . Michelle is the founder of Untapped New York. However, the dingy industrial stretch of track has managed to gain a fair amount of fame as the private transport stop for US presidents. Gothamist is a website about New York City news, arts, events and food, brought to you by New York Public Radio. According to an article inThe New York Post, the track was used as an escape option by the Secret Service for President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in 2003 while in meetings for the U.N. General Assembly, though the article has no named sources for this information. By 1978, the platform was known as one of the many places in Grand Central Terminal where squatters lived. Register for this virtual talk and well email you a recording of it after it ends! Today, the train car which used to carry Roosevelt is parked abandoned in the track which is not accessible to visitors. Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. There are also faint car numbers on both end doors, indicating number 7847, which I have been told are appropriate NYC baggage car numbers, and the remnants of the number 24206, seen under the MNCW #002 on the side is likely an NYC or Penn Central MOW number.. traverse the off-limits places of Grand Central Terminal, The President Travels by Train: Politics and Pullmans, Grand Central: the Worlds Greatest Railway Terminal, first ceremonial crossing on the new Kosciuszko Bridge. Final Four: April 6 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. In a very thorough piece for a Trains magazine issue devoted to rail myths in April 2012, Karl Zimmerman writes in an article about Track 61 that [Dan] Brucker is the true believer of the FDR siding mystique and the keeper of the flame. Brucker is the former manager of tours at Metro-North with whom I had once taken a group of thirty Untapped New York writers, photographers, and tour guides to traverse the off-limits places of Grand Central Terminal with. 2023 New York Public Radio. The elevator installed just to carry FDR's car. Grand Central Terminal was constructed from 1903 to 1913 on the site of an older Grand Central Depot, which was replaced in gradual steps. Most pertinent, Zimmerman writes when referencing this book, this train car model also had end doors, ideal for automobile transport. No. Download our app. The station is not much to look at, what with all the untended grime and dirt, but there is still an antique train car permanently parked in the hidden powerhouse. Conspiracies, dramas, shady covert operations, and webs of corruption have captivated our imaginations for years, this photo is of one such setting, the secret platform known as Track 61. Sam Green's newest immersive documentary, now playing at Film Forum, breaks the conventional rules in exploring how we perceive, process and feel the world around us through sound. NCAA . About NYC Sightseeing Pass 48 Hours. If the diner didnt suffice, Stan and Steve were planning to get a fire going inside the caboose for our meeting! Stan is the President and the Reference and Research Library Accessions Manager, responsible for acquiring trains for donation to the museum, and Steve is the museums secretary. Sam Green's newest immersive documentary, now playing at Film Forum, breaks the conventional rules in exploring how we perceive, process and feel the world around us through sound. Because it had been used for storage under Grand Central, it managed to escape getting scrapped all these years. So, it would have not been used while Roosevelt was in office. Elite Eight: March 30-31. Stand clear of the closing doors, please. Among the specifications: armored plating, bullet-resistant windows 1 1/8 inch thick, bullet-resistant dividers inside, and run-flat tires that could still run even if shot. Perhaps the most famous usage of the track was for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States, as this train track was actually built for him. His music can be found at zackdaniel.bandcamp.com. First round: March 21-22. Make the most of two days in New York City with our all-city, two-day package! Here's an old History Channel report on the track: How can YOU see it? A special area of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples is located inside a metro station. Before you come and spend time at Secret Track 61 Under the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan there are tips and advice for exploring abandoned places. First used by General John J. Pershing in 1938, and later by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1944, the platform was not originally intended to be used as a station . This Underground station has been a popular filming location for decades, even before it closed. The Trains magazine issue is unfortunately not available online but Stan and Steve provided me with a photocopy of it. Pierce-Arrow limousines were known to be used by previous Presidents William Howard Taft, Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, who directly preceded Roosevelt. Know before you go. The museums president at the time had turned down this train car for their collection back in 1998, but in the intervening time period, the museum volunteers have witnessed the proliferation of the FDR train car myth with both amusement and chagrin. According to Grand Central: How a Train Station Transformed America, FDR, who most famously used the secret entrance, did so "in part to hide his disability from the public." The Danbury Railway Museum sits proudly behind the Worlds Tallest Uncle Sam, in a handsome brick and sandstone station, the former Union Station on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad line. [11] As of May1, 2014[update], it has been reported to still be in occasional use. The two-hour tour explores the area where the Ramones, the New York Dolls, CBGB's, Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground, the Fillmore East, Led Zeppelin, Madonna, Iggy Pop and many more all called home. The track was also used for the exhibition of American Locomotive Company's new diesel locomotive in 1946; in 1948 Filene's and the New Haven Railroad staged a fashion show on the platform. It was demolished in 1930 to make way for the Waldorf Hotel. The Peace Fountain at Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The Municipal Arts Society offers daily at 12:30 pm, 75-minute tours of the terminal. Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2023. Side note: Track 61 and 63 were originally built to serve a steam powerhouse that once existed on 49th Street that served Grand Central and other buildings in the area, and may have been used by New York, New Haven & Hartford train engines waiting to go into service. On Untapped New Yorks visit to the Danbury Railway Museum, where the train car was recently relocated to, we busted this myth and found out that the car which had been sitting on Track 61 all these years was actually baggage car MNCW #002. The powerhouse served Grand Central Station and other buildings in the immediate area. Track Night NYC. The train track was made for the President to travel to NYC without any fuss from the public and arrive at the Waldorf Astoria from Track 61 in pure style. So I can send you awesome freebies, weird events, incredible articles, and gold doubloons (note: one of these is not true). And he kind of made it sound like Roosevelt would be sitting in his limousine and it would drive onto the elevator. The mysterious track, known as Track 61, still houses the train car and private elevator, which were both large enough for FDR's armor-plated Pierce Arrow car. There are treasures hidden in plain sight in America's most commercial neighborhood. Once beneath the Waldorf Astoria, the limousine would emerge from the railcar, onto the platform and be carried via elevator directly into theWaldorf-Astoria Hotel. We have another baggagecar in our collection that we got over 20 years ago with the MNCX reporting mark. In addition, Stan says that Brucker had described the X as denoting a military car, but that is partially incorrect. Track 61 is a secret railway platform for the Metro-North Railroad, located beneath the famous Waldorf Astoria hotel. The arrangement is made possible because of the fact that the New York Central tracks pass directly beneath the block, which has been obtained by the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria Corporation from the New York Central Railroad on a sixty-three-year leasehold, the lease being in reality only for the "air rights" on the site.". We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. But a Pierce-Arrow limousine that was used by Hoover was replaced by a Packard and Cadillac V-16, sometime after his inauguration, according to the Chicago Tribune. Roosevelt is also rumored to have entered and exited via the station in order to hide his worsening case of polio. A Brief History of East vs West Coast Rap. Down to more of the details, the widest door of this baggage car on its side could potentially fit an armored plated limousine but it would not have been able to make the turn to fit within the train car itself. Track 61 is one of many secret locales Untapped New York has uncovered in our years of exploring New York City. In fact, there is one Secret Service-documented trip in which Roosevelt used it, on October 21, 1944 for a campaign trip in New York City. ::scientific terminology:: The first known usage of this train platform was for famed WW1 General John Pershing in 1938. Everyone from military generals to celebrities have been said to use Track 61 for any number of clandestine movements, but given the amount of secrecy involved, all are hard to confirm. It remains however a holy grail for many urban explorers. Nowadays, looking at the pictures here, it looks like some spooky underground crypt, but apparentlythe Metro-North is still mindful of its worth. It has been out of service for decades, but back in 2011 we visited the underground space, which still houses the tracks, the train car, and even the private elevator. A Manhattan office building is home to the world's largest chess board. Update as of January 2020: The train has been moved to theDanburyRailway Museum in Connecticut. It was eliminated from use in 1962, and reinstated for the company, Minnesota Corn Processors, Inc. in 1985. With Museum at Eldridge Street docent Richard Soden, stroll through. Discover the citys most unique and surprising places and events for the curious mind. Posted on . In fact, an auto lift on the 50th Street side of the Waldorf serves the basement, ground level, and floors 1 through 3, and once brought automobiles into the ballroom for shows. Zimmerman writes in the Trains article that the siding, the platform next to Track 61, actually predates the hotel (and Roosevelts presidency) by decades. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor. 748. However, current construction on the new LIRR extension has probably taken care of that (though despite the construction, MTA spokesperson Dan Brucker tells us the train car will remain). The platforms at tracks 61/63 and 53/54 were originally used to carry ashes away. This train track is still in use now, albeit very sparingly. To use our mobile site, please enable JavaScript. Next, check out 10 Hidden Place in NYCs Grand Centraland August Belmont Jr.s Private Subway Car! Already an Insider? Track 61, a secret train track hidden in the depths of Grand Central Terminal Photo: Emily Nonko / 6sqft Grand Central Terminal is one of the busiest and largest railway stations in the country. One of the terminals most persistent tales (in addition to the myth of the Redstone rocket poking a hole through the ceiling), is that of the secret FDR Train Car. The story has become more dramatic over time, if you follow the writing and hearsay, and the latest version goes like this: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, paralyzed from the waist down from polio, would frequently be transported in his bullet proof, armor-plated Pierce-Arrow limousine onto his own train car, which would pull into Grand Central on Track 61.