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Locomotive 220 and Grand Isle Private Rail Car

All aboard! Visitors are welcome to enter and explore this medium-sized 4-6-0 locomotive, which pulled freight and passenger trains across Vermont in the early 1900s.

The engine, built in 1915, was the last coal-burning steam ten-wheeler used on the Central Vermont Railway. The inscription “28%” on the coal tender indicates that the engine could drag 28,000 pounds of dead weight. No. 220 became known as the locomotive of the Presidents because it pulled special trains carrying Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was retired from service in 1956 and given to the Museum for preservation.

The private rail car Grand Isle was built about 1890 and presented to Vermont’s governor; the Museum purchased it in 1960. Visitors today can tour the luxury car’s mahogany-paneled parlor, dining room, and staterooms and gain a sense of the high style in which America’s wealthiest citizens traveled.