77 years ago tomorrow (18 Nov 1947) a train with 170 boxcars pulled into New York City. These boxcars were filled with food, and were just a small part of the 700 boxcars with food collected from American donors from all over the nation. In New York the food was put on two cargo ships and sent to France and Italy to provide much needed assistance to those people trying to survive in war torn Europe.
This “Friendship Train” concept to provide needed food to Europe was proposed by a newspaper reporter and the idea of it quickly caught on. A plan was put together, and on 11 Nov 1947 a small train left Los Angeles for New York City. The promoters hope to get at least 80 cars of foodstuffs, but as the publicity of the train grew as it crossed the US, more and more people donated food, clothing, fuel, and money, adding more cars to the train. Many of the donations were made by individuals, such as items collected by junior high students. While a token gift considering the extensive carnage of WWII, it was effective propaganda for the ideological conflict with the Soviet Union. It made Americans feel good about their country.
Some of the cars were professionally painted by a sponsoring railroad, like NYC, SP, CB&Q, and CNW, but most just had a banner attached to the outside of the car saying who donated the food. There were also passenger cars to support the workers that accompanied the train, two of them painted with a Friendship Train scheme. There was also a flatcar with a podium, loud speakers, and three searchlights where local politicians could thank the always large crowds for their support. Each railroad used its own engines when on its tracks, and the Pennsylvania used a new Centipede set to pull the train.
Here is a video of my current Friendship Train. I am still buying and making cars for it as I am a bit short of the 170 that were on the main train. Most cars were store bought (MTH and Lionel), and I have made 7 more with four different slogans. I have added photos of the cars I have completed. I plan to have a lot more next year.
On November 17, 1947 the Friendship Train picked up boxcars in Harrisburg, PA while at the same time the Freedom Train was there. There are some great photos online of these two trains next to each other. Here is my attempt to show the event with my Lionel Centipedes and Freedom Train.
- never knew about the MTH cars. The hunt begins!!! 
