“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tour the country in order to display historical documents.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 tour, which lasted a bit over a year, the train
traveled 33,000 miles in all 48 states on 52 railroads. The train's look was
created by Alco designer Chester Mack” (quoted from Microscale
decal sheet 60-1065).
Unfortunately, there are few published
photographs of the 1947 train. None of
the photos I have found 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 many of the details of the train. See the accompanying prototype page
for some web links, and a few of the photos I have found. A bit more
information may be found on the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Train.
Please forward any other web page addresses, or references of other published
Freedom Train photos to me. There are color photos in Pennsy
Diesel Years v.6 by Robert Yanosey (Morning Sun
1996, page 110).
The locomotive was one of the first Alco PA1’s built, and
was on loan from Alco. The A unit,
powered by a 2000 hp 16-cylinder engine, pulled 7 heavyweight cars and had no B
unit. The cars were loaned by the
railroads from which they came. First
was ATSF Baggage Car
#1896. The following 3 cars were Pennsy P70R coaches #3465, 3489 and 3510 with their windows
plated over. These were the historic document display cars. The next two cars were Pullman 6-compartment/
3-double bedroom sleepers "Glen Fee" and "Penn
Square". The last car was the
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. A golden eagle and the words
“FREEDOM TRAIN” alternated on successive cars, except for the large seals on
the lead baggage car and the last Pullman.
The eagle on the PA1 was removed partway through the tour due to
concerns that it looked like a symbol found in Nazi Germany. In fact it was an art deco eagle typical of
the time.
This color photo was
taken at Harrisburg PA and is from Railfan.net.
The Freedom Train in Reno Nevada. From the website http://www.northeast.railfan.net/1947freedom.html
and the Railfan.net
ABPR Archive.
The Freedom Train, painting by
Howard Fogg.
You can
make a nearly prototypical train from available n-scale cars. I modified some of the cars, and the train
was custom painted by Ernie Giese of Model Railroad Customizing. Decals and a basic diagram are available from
Microscale on sheet 60-1065. The Microscale
instruction sheet falsely indicates the Pullman-observation has “Freedom Train”
lettering, but photographs show the US seal instead. I do not believe the 1947 Freedom Train made
by Con-cor is very prototypical because it is made
from stock Rivarossi cars not matched to the correct
car type, and because the eagles and large lettering are painted on the sides
below the windows rather than over them.
The PA1 is
a custom painted Kato model. The
Rivarossi heavyweight baggage car, which is a model of the 85’ Santa Fe baggage
car #1849, is a good model for the Freedom Train baggage car. The prototype is a similar Santa Fe car. The Model Power heavyweight coach is an exact
model of the Pennsylvania P70 coach (see the section on Prototypes for N
scale passenger cars part 1: Wood and Heavyweight steel cars).
The windows of the 3 coaches were plated over. I used Model Power heavyweight coaches, and
cemented small squares of styrene into each model window opening. I have not found a face-on photo of a coach
to see if the windows were individually covered, or if a smooth steel plate
covered the whole car side.
After the coaches, the prototypical Freedom Train used two Pullman 6-compartment/ 3-double bedroom sleepers. An off-the-shelf plastic 6/3 Pullman model is not available, but I used two Rivarossi 12-section /1-drawing room Pullmans of the early 1920s as an approximation. The last car in the Freedom Train was a 3-compartment/ 2-drawing room/observation car with an outside observation deck. The Rivarossi model is the Santa Fe Cafe-Observation-Lounge car of 1930. The last 3 cars give the feel of the prototype cars, even though the window arrangement is not exact. The “FREEDOM TRAIN” letters were actually cut out and suspended away from the Pullman windows on the prototype car (see photo on the prototype page). I glued a strip of clear styrene over the windows and applied a decal to it to simulate floating lettering.
Microscale
decal sheet 60-1065.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Train
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/1947freedom.html
http://trn.trains.com/railroads/railroad-maps/2016/07/routes-of-the-freedom-trains
Pennsy Diesel Years v.6 by Robert Yanosey, Morning Sun 1996, page 110.
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