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“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tour the country in order to display historical documents.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 this page for some web links, and a few
of the photos I have found. Please
forward any other web page addresses, or references of other published Freedom Train
photos to me.
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.
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.
http://www.freedomtrain.org/ft_home.htm
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/1947freedom.html
