Lionel's American Freedom Train

What about the Lionel 1948 American Freedom Train with the ALCo pa-1 in the lead!

I was lucky in that I didn’t miss it. But I was a week shy of my 7^th birthday at the time when it came to Tallahassee Florida. I still have the program my parents got for me that day when we toured the train (but didn’t get ANY photos, darn it).

I actually went to the Freedom train reunion in Portland last September and finally got to meet Ross Rowland. I got him and Doyle, the two AFT main engineers, to sign not only an extra copy of the program, but my copy of “All Aboard America” as well.

As for the 3-rail version(s) of this train, a few have fantasy cars. I’ve seen a Freedom Train-marked dome car. Never happened, though I bet Rowland would have liked to have had one.

If I modeled standard gauge at all, I’d have to have it taking place sometime between 1975 and 76 so I could build and run a model of that train!

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

What about the Lionel 1948 American Freedom Train with the ALCo pa-1 in the lead!

The 1947 train was called the Freedom Train, the 1976 train was the American Freedom Train, or AFT. Not too many folks left that remember the Freedom Train.  

Unlike the AFT which had 26 cars, the Freedom Train only had seven cars plus the PA.  This makes it easy to run the whole train produced by Lionel.

CAPPilot posted:

Not too many folks left that remember the Freedom Train.  

My dad, who recently turned 81, remembers seeing each of them. In fact, he took these shots on the freedomtrain.org site.

Mom took my brother and I out of school that frigid November morning when 4449 rolled into town, hours late, with the Freedom Train in 1976. I've never forgotten how cool that was of her to do that, as the train, to me, was the biggest thing that ever happened to me until that age. No large steam locomotive had come to that town since steam originally got bounced from mainline railroads, other than SRR 4501 on a ferry run to Jacksonville two years previously. Yes, Mom made sure I saw that, too.

Years later, I got to ride behind each, and saw 4449 again in Freedom Train colors, under steam, with Doyle at the throttle! I even rode behind her painted like that. It wasn't the only time I rode behind 4449, but it was the most impressive to me. You can go home again, sometimes.

p51 posted:

As for the 3-rail version(s) of this train, a few have fantasy cars. I’ve seen a Freedom Train-marked dome car.

The only accurate O gauge version of the American Freedom Train (AFT) was done by K-Line.  All other versions are pure fantasy, especially MTH's.   

Unfotunately, K-Line only did 17 of the 26 cars.  I hope Lionel keeps it word on doing all the cars.

We were lucky to see (and visit) the AFT early on a January morning, 1976, in Santa Barbara, CA.  The 4449 was glorious in its red-white-blue paint.

Oh.  I do have the K-Line AFT loc ... waiting on Lionel's cars.  Should be a beautiful consist.

If Lionel comes out with an accurate version of each car, the k-line ones will not be as accurate because the K-Line cars are only 18" long instead of full scale coaches of 21" long. 

I really wish I would have seen the Freedom Train. I know my sister saw it, she had some coins that were run over by it. I was living in the Greenville, SC area when it stopped there. My scoutmaster volunteered our scout troop to clean the mess left behind after it left. I had never seen that much trash in my life. Yuck and I didn't even get to see the train, just the mess.

Scott Smith

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

If Lionel comes out with an accurate version of each car, the k-line ones will not be as accurate because the K-Line cars are only 18" long instead of full scale coaches of 21" long. 

If the Lionel cars turn out to be 21" I'm sending them back. Nearly all the AFT's cars were ex-NYC 70' baggage cars, so Lionel's cars should only be 17.5" long.  Also, 4 of the 5 crew cars (passenger cars at the rear of the train) were ex-72' commuter cars.  Overall, I think the AFT had only two cars, not counting the 85' flatcars, that were 80': the #201 Sleeper and the tool car.

There was some confusion about their length in the Lionel catalog when they were first listed, but when I asked a rep their response was the 70' cars will be 18", and the 80' cars will be 21".  They have never clarified this in the later catalogs, so we will see.

CHANGED: I originally said the Pie Car was 80'; it was the Sleeper.

Sadly, the best out-of-the box American Freedom Train I’ve yet seen was a “one at a time” style release of the cars in N scale.

I’ve seen a train put together with these cars. Even in such a tiny scale, it’s quite impressive, to be honest.

CAPPilot posted:

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

If Lionel comes out with an accurate version of each car, the k-line ones will not be as accurate because the K-Line cars are only 18" long instead of full scale coaches of 21" long. 

If the Lionel cars turn out to be 21" I'm sending them back. Nearly all the AFT's cars were ex-NYC 70' baggage cars, so Lionel's cars should only be 17.5" long.  Also, 4 of the 5 crew cars (passenger cars at the rear of the train) were ex-72' commuter cars.  Overall, I think the AFT had only two cars, not counting the 84' flatcars, that were 80': the #201 Sleeper and the tool car.

There was some confusion about their length in the Lionel catalog when they were first listed, but when I asked a rep their response was the 70' cars will be 18", and the 80' cars will be 21".  They have never clarified this in the later catalogs, so we will see.

CHANGED: I originally said the Pie Car was 80'; it was the Sleeper.

If you look at the 2017 Signature Edition catalog, p. 42-43, it describes their AFT 6-83111 4-pack and AFT 6-83116 2-pack as 21" cars.  I was unhappy when I read that so I emailed Lionel to clarify.  Their response (which was pretty quick) was "We have confirmed that these cars are 18".  Only the stationsounds car is 21"."  Great!  The stationsounds car is a model of car #201, the Sleeper, which was 80'.  Now I don't have to cancel any orders.

For NYC fans, these cars were advertised as new tooling of the 9100-series baggage cars.  If that is true, I would assume these cars will start turning up in NYC livery soon (if not already).

CAPPilot posted:

 

If you look at the 2017 Signature Edition catalog, p. 42-43, it describes their AFT 6-83111 4-pack and AFT 6-83116 2-pack as 21" cars.  I was unhappy when I read that so I emailed Lionel to clarify.  Their response (which was pretty quick) was "We have confirmed that these cars are 18".  Only the stationsounds car is 21"."  Great!  The stationsounds car is a model of car #201, the Sleeper, which was 80'.  Now I don't have to cancel any orders.

For NYC fans, these cars were advertised as new tooling of the 9100-series baggage cars.  If that is true, I would assume these cars will start turning up in NYC livery soon (if not already).

Ron,

Over in another thread about the Lionel shipping schedule,  I posed a question about the AFT #100 entry car that is pictured in the 2017 Signature catalog.  I know that you had concerns about this car also.   I asked Dave Olsen of Lionel to confirm the painting scheme on the car doors and also if the car would have windows per the prototype.   His reply was that he confirmed with Ryan Kunkle the doors will be painted correctly but there will be no windows on the car.   So,  I'm happy the paint will be correct.   Thought you'd like to know.

Nick

Nick,

Thank you.  Looks like AFT #100 may be my first attempt at modifying a car

Outside of #100, I hope they get the rest of the cars right (or close).  They can use #100 again re-numbered for #33 and #34.  Since they made the #111 Exit Car, this same car can be used for the #200 Power Car.  The flatcars should not be that hard, although I'm not sure if Lionel has 85 footers.  The big question are the two Showcase Cars, the other three crew cars and the observation.  If they get those wrong, I can always use the ones from the K-Line set.

Glad your getting the entire train. I was lucky enough to film it for TV and hang around it for a day when it came to California. Even had time to shoot stills for myself. Glad i shot Kodachrome. Don

I chased the AFT when it was on the eastern part of the country.  The train with 2101 came right behind my house on it's way into Boston.  I spent a complete day going through it in Boston.    I also have ALL the cars on order from Lionel.  I already have the GS-4 AFT from Lionel.

I am Passing on the Lionel AFT.  I am happy with the K Line cars I have all 18. Big hit when I take it to our clubs modular set ups. You never know I may pick some Lionel cars up will just have to wait and see. Have the MTH GS4 and T1.