Moving a president around the country has never been an easy task. Current presidents utilize a wide variety of transportation modes to get out of Washington and visit the different areas of the country.

There is of course Air Force One. The Boeing 747s (there are actually two identical jets) can swiftly take the president any place in the world. There is also Marine 1, which picks up wherever the jumbo jet lands by taking him by helicopter to his destination. The Beast, a heavily modified version of a Cadillac provides ground level transportation behind armor and bullet proof glass. Both the helicopters and The Beast can be airlifted to any place in the world. There is even a heavily armored bus that can be used.

There was a time there was also a railcar, dubbed, Rail Car 1, that could take the president anywhere he needed to go as the last car of a specially designated train. Built for Franklin Roosevelt, Rail Car 1 passed through the area later when President Harry Truman traveled through the valley while heading to Missouri and spoke from the back platform of the car during a stop in Parkersburg.

The rail car was a beast.

It was first constructed in 1928 by the Pullman Company. Named the Ferdinand Magellan, it was one of six custom rail cars named after famous explorers.

It was purchased in 1941 by the federal government for use by wartime president Franklin Roosevelt. It was then modified to become one of the most armored rail cars in the world. Steel plates more than a half inch thick were added to the roof, sides and floor of the cars. The windows were replaced with three-inch bulletproof glass. The car was converted into a rolling fortress. Inside it was extremely luxurious with a presidential suite, two guest rooms, a dining room and an observation lounge. Because it was not possible to open the windows, the rail car also had air-conditioning. Several other cars of the presidential train would provide communication, hospital and other support services, including the transportation of the presidential vehicles.

All the steel made the Ferdinand Magellan the heaviest passenger rail car ever used in the United States, topping the scales at 285,000 pounds.

Roosevelt traveled around 50,000 miles in the rolling fortress. The last trip he made in it was to Warm Springs, Ga., where on April 12, 1945, he died. The train transported him back to Washington and later to his home in New York.

Harry Truman inherited the rail car and used it throughout his term in office. Rolling some 28,000 miles through the nation’s heartland. He gave more than 350 speeches from the rear platform of the railcar.

On July 4, 1945, he stopped in Parkersburg to speak to a crowd gathered at the train station that was located near the southern end of the Parkersburg-Belpre Bridge. He was on his way to dedicate a statue in Missouri and would pass through again on July 6.

Dwight Eisenhower made little use of the railcar when he took office. The last official trip in it was made by his wife Mamie when she rode it to Connecticut in 1954 to christen the first nuclear powered submarine.

It was offered to the Smithsonian in 1958, but they declined, and it was acquired by the Gold Coast Railroad Museum in Florida, where it is on display today.

In 1984 it had one more presidential outing when President Reagan used it for a one day-campaign trip across Ohio. Reagan did visit the Mid-Ohio Valley during the campaign, but unlike Truman, came by Air Force One, not Rail Car 1.

Art Smith is online manager of The Times, he can be reached at asmith@mariettatimes.com