Display Cars...
The American Freedom Train had 10 display cars. These cars were all made from ex-Pennsy baggage cars and were special in that new ends were created for a special conveyor belt that moved people from one end of the car to the other. This process kept the large crowds moving at a constant pace through the cars. A system that worked quite well. It is because of this unique system that the outside of the cars were different on either side. On the engineer side of the train the windows were shadowboxes with three dimensional items inside. On the firemans' side the windows were panels that were lighted. It was along these panels on the inside of the car that the conveyor was installed thus not allowing for deeper 'shadowbox' windows. The display cars are all identical in appearance from the outside, the only difference other than car numbers were that the display windows had chronological dates on the bottoms starting at 1776-1786 and moving a decade at a time till 1966-1976 was on the car numbered 110.
These 10 display cars were filled with various types of historical artifacts ranging from early documents from the formation of the U.S. Government to the Ruby Slippers that Judy Garland wore in the movie 'Wizard of Oz', and Abraham Lincolns' rocking chair, and so on.. The cars were climate controlled and they were the only portion of the train that were toured by the general public.
The cars I'm using as a starting point are the original cars from the Lionel sets from the 70's. These cars were almost exact copies of the prototype. The only thing Lionel didn't do was to produce all 10 cars AND they did not have accurate window displays. The cars Lionel produces were the numbers 101, 110 and the more rare 105 car that only came with the steam sets. Why they chose these cars is a mystery.
No real progress shots as the cars in this batch of 5 could not have the roof removed after having been cemented in place. This required masking the roof during the gloss/dull coating steps that happened numerous times.
All cars have been stripped of original paint, been repainted with acrylics, and decaled.
The cars will get:
Blackened ends and underbodies.
Wire grabs and rails.
36" Metal wheels in original Lionel trucks.
Body mounted knuckle couplers.
And of course, the PROPER window treatments in the display windows. These are reproduced from photos of the actual windows from the prototype.
AFT 102...
AFT 103
AFT 104
Group of five.
More to come,
Johnny