The United States has seen two trains in history known as the Freedom Train. The first toured America from 1947 to 1949 while the second, actually called the American Freedom Train, embarked on a similar tour from 1975 to 1977. Although they took different routes across the country, each train, decorated in special red, white and blue livery, stopped in each of the 48 contiguous United States for public display.

The first, and true Freedom Train, was pulled by a specially-built ALCO PA-1 bearing the gold-lettered name, “Spirit of 1776″. This PA unit led a consist of an ATS&F baggage car, three Pennsylvania Railroad coaches and three Pullman sleepers.

The train traveled across the U.S. carrying original versions of some of America’s most treasured and historic documents. On board, under the watchful eye of carefully selected Marine Corp personnel, the Freedom Train carried original versions of the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights along with other American artifacts. Also on board were the German and Japanese surrender documents that ended World War II.

After the American experience of the Great Depression, followed quickly by World War II, the purpose of the Freedom Train was to reignite the American spirit. President Truman wanted to help connect citizens with the country’s history and help them understand the cost that freedom has had since America’s founding.  This helped provide a sense of worth and value to the sacrifices made during the War.

During its journey, 3,521,841 U.S. citizens boarded the train to view it’s historical contents, each one signing a “Freedom Scroll” which was later presented to President Truman.

The Freedom Train in N Scale

In 2003, Con-Cor International, Ltd. released an N scale set of the 1947 Freedom Train, including a PA-1, PB-1 and seven cars.

I also found information on how N Scale modeler, Fred Klein created the Freedom Train from commercially-available products by Kato, Rivarossi and Model Power.

More Information

For more information, visit The Story of America’s Freedom’s Trains or the Freedom Train Wikipedia entry.

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