compiled
by Fred Klein, 2010
“Following
World War II, the American Heritage Foundation assembled a special train to
tour the country in order to display historical documents. Headed by a brand
new Alco PA-1 diesel, the train consisted of seven cars - AT&SF baggage
1896, three PRR P70R coaches converted to display cars (the windows were plated
over) and three Pullman sleepers to house the staff and Marines assigned to
protect the train's contents. The train was assembled at Pennsylvania
Railroad's Wilmington, DE, shops. The tour began in Philadelphia, PA, on
September 17, 1947. During the year-long tour, the
train traveled 33,000 miles in all 48 states on 52 railroads. The train's look
was created by Alco designer Chester Mack.”
Its 37,160 mile tour lasted from September 17, 1947 to January 22,
1949. It was the only trainset ever to operate in
every state, and it did so using 52 different railroads. Over 3 million people
(officially, 3,521,841) went aboard the Train during its display stops in 326
cities and towns across the land. At many sites, people waited in line more
than six hours to go aboard. The highest single-day attendance was 14,615.
All
passenger cars were heavyweights:
Car 1. ATSF
Baggage Car #1896
Cars 2-4. Pennsy P70R coaches #3465, 3489 and 3510, with windows
plated over. (historic document display cars)
Cars 5-6.
Pullman 6 compartment/3 double bedroom sleepers "Glen Fee" and
"Penn Square"
Car 7. Pullman 3 compartment/2 drawing room/observation/lounge
"Central Plains".
The Pullmans
were used to carry and house the Marine Corps guards and the site managers who
accompanied the train.
Unfortunately, there are few published photographs of the 1947 train. Additional photos can be found on the web. None of photos give a good view of the sides of the cars, but descriptions and types of the cars from which the train was built allow modeling of many of the details. I have found two web pages devoted to the 1947 train that have information and some photographs. There are color photos in Pennsy Diesel Years v.6 by Robert Yanosey (Morning Sun 1996, page 110).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Train has basic information including links to station stops.
Another good web page is http://www.lincoln-highway-museum.org/ft/ft-index.html
http://www.freedomtrain.org/ft_home.htm (this link no longer works)
This (former) site had a timeline, including all the cities visited and their dates. These are thumbnails of their photos:
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/1947freedom.html
has basic history and a few train photographs. These are thumbnails of 6 of their photos:
The book Model Railroader Cyclopedia v.2, Diesel Locomotives by Bob Hayden (Kalmbach 1980) has this good B&W photo on page 83, here split into two segments to fit on my scanner.
Riley Robinson sent me this Marine Corps photo. I don’t know whether it is on line.
This photo by Otto Perry is of sleeper-lounge observation car "Central Plains", and is hyper-linked to the Colorado Historical Society site from which it came. Russell Straw found this one.
