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| Postcard 1946 Florida State Archives |
By Jane Feehan
Fort Lauderdale frequently made the pages of Sunday newspaper
travel sections in the north after airlines began nonstop service here in the
1950s. Ads for and tips on what to see and do in the seaside town have peppered travel pages from January until April each year since.
With tongue in cheek, a reporter from The New York Times claimed in January 1967 that Fort Lauderdale was becoming a major railroad center. Why?
There were four miniature “railroads” in the city that ran in circles for
tourists. The little trains hardly made for a rail center but the premise did
catch the attention of those heading south for a winter vacation. Some long
time residents may have also availed themselves of the four sightseeing venues:
The Gold Coast
Railroad Museum ran eight cars on tracks near U.S. Highway 1 (near today’s
Snyder Park) and into Port Everglades
so visitors could view cruise ships and freighters. The museum, originally
based in Miami, was first known as the Miami Railroad Historical Society. The
group had asked for and received from the federal government in 1959 the
presidential Pullman car
used by Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower. They moved the
vehicle, known as Ferdinand Magellan and later as U.S. No. 1 Presidential Car, to Fort Lauderdale in 1967 and
housed it along with other railroad cars in their new site near the port. (The museum
has since moved back to Miami and the U.S. No. 1 was placed on the National
Register of Historical Places in 1985. See www.GCRM.org for more information. This deserves an entire post.) |
| Magellan Rail Car Florida State Archives |
Hugh Taylor Birch
State Park featured a small diesel-powered train that ran on a three-mile
narrow gauge track. Visitors rode the
train along the Intracoastal, atop a trestle and over a fresh water lagoon
in the 180-acre park. This was also a great source of amusement to some locals who
wore masks and pretended to be raiders swooping down on unsuspecting visitors
who rode the rails at little over 10 mph. I only heard laughter on these
jaunts and never saw a fearful face. The popular ride ceased to
operate in 1985.
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| Birch State Park Train Florida State Archives |
Pioneer City
operated a train 15 miles west of Fort Lauderdale in Davie. The train, known as
the Jenny Lynn, was a replica of a steam locomotive used in 1890. It
transported “dudes” to a sternwheeler headed for a mock-up of a 19th-century
cow town featuring a saloon, shops, shoot outs and staged bank robberies. Visitors
could take the train past an artificial mountain and a real buffalo grazing on
a prairie sprinkled with whitened steer skulls. Pioneer City opened in 1966. It
was closed and up for sale by 1968 due to poor ticket sales. The buffalo was
also included in the property sale.
Not really a train, but a string of cars pulled by a
rubber-tired vehicle, the Voyager Sightseeing
Train took visitors on a 30-minute tour of the city landmarks. Based at 600
Seabreeze Blvd. and launched in 1962, the Voyager
became a landmark itself. We knew tourist season had arrived when the cars were
filled to capacity and the Voyager became a traffic nuisance. It no longer
operates.
Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.
Sources:
Miami News, June
6, 1966
The New York Times,
Jan. 8, 1967
Lakeland Ledger,
Apr. 16, 1978
Evening Independent,
Mar. 19, 1968
www.GCRM.org
Tags: Fort Lauderdale tourism, Pioneer City, Hugh Taylor Birch Park, Gold Coast Railroad Museum, Voyager Sightseeing Train, Fort Lauderdale history
