It's so sad that such a piece of history was just carelessly discarded. What even bother's me a little more is that they sold partrs of America's Freedom train to Canada? Why would we do that? It's a piece of history and we sold sold to the Canadiens.
I don't have anything against Canada or Canadiens, but that was our history.
Scott
Are you planning on using 4-8-4 daylight to pull this model train??
The train itself really wasn't historical. It was the artifiacts on board, which had been collected from all around the country, and represented many rare and one of a kind items. They are all still in the US, but returned to the museums that owned them.
The locomotives were historic of course, and all 3 are still around, in various states of preservation. The display cars were simply former baggage cars, and nothing special. The passengers cars were a bit more unique, and were preserved.
The train was simply a means to transport the artifacts. Once it was completed, you had an empty shell, with no potential use here in the US. They found a buyer who could use the consist as is, and the revenue was probably appreciated.
Even if the train had been preserved, intact, without the artifacts there really wouldn't be anything to see. It was pretty much just the moving van that brought the display to town for the most part.
Are you planning on using 4-8-4 daylight to pull this model train??
NIce work Johnny! Looking good, can't wait to see the whole consist sitting together on a layout.
Scott
Looking good Johnny. I would have painted the stripes anyway. It looks better in the end.
It wasn't just what was in the cars Bob. It was the cars themselves because they were specially designed to be able to carry those historical items. So in my opinion, that makes the cars just as valuable.
Scott
But Bob,
Isn't that what most of the rolling stock is at museums? I mean If you've seen ONE heavyweight passenger car, you've seen them all. I think that because these cars were constructed, and/or reconfigured, they DO have some historical significance. Years ago they used to transport whales and other oddities in specially designed cars, I happen to think that at least one of those cars should have been preserved as well. In Baraboo they have rolling stock preserved from various circuses and carnivals. Cool to see but they are after all just big flats, stocks and coaches wearing bright paint.
I wasn't saying to preserve the whole train persay, just a couple of examples of the cars in their original paint.
Johnny
I understand what you're saying, but I guess I don't know what you'd do with the empty train. Aside from a few railfans, nobody would be interested in seeing it. Where do you store it? What do you do with it?
On the other hand, the idea of restoring a few of the cars as a display about the Freedom Train itself sounded good to me. Or for that matter, maybe they could have converted the whole thing to a mobile railroad museum.
Unfortunately, the idea of selling it to Canada was the best option available at the time, so that's what they did. It was perfect for that application, so it's understandable why they did it.
I think selling it for a fast buck, which is always the case, wasn't the right thing to do.
Scott
Johnny,
I saw something that might have interested you this weekend. I was at the WGH show in Portland and one of the vendors had the original Lionel #4449 in AFT colors for $175.
Wish I had the sort of discretionary income that would have let me pick it up - I would have simply grabbed it, either for you if you needed it or me just for fun.