ThemeTrains.com--Freedom Train, Preamble Express, Auto-Train, GM Train of Tomorrow, and MORE

Carl,

That is a great site!  I relied on the site heavily during planning of putting together an O Scale 3rail auto train.  Great that someone offers this info on Train of Tomorrow, Freedom Train, Rexall Drug, auto train, and others.  

Freedom Train fans might want to check out the new maps special edition by Trains magazine. They document the route map Freedom Train operated.

A lesser heard of theme train was a Neiman Marcus department store train.  The store leased the American Orient Express consist and toured the country trying to sell $600 handkerchiefs and other "high end" needlessly marked up products.  I went down to the Cleveland Amtrak station to visit my friends who were agents there at the time.  The Neiman Marcus train was parked on the siding with the ex NYC observation car spotted right by the walkway for Amtrak passengers to board the 4 trains due in overnight.  The managers of the Marcus train tried to barricade the end of Amtraks platform to keep the commoners from getting near their buffed streamliner. A bit of arguing went on between my Amtrak friends and the Markus folks.  Amtrak won, and after the Capitol Limited finished its Cleveland business, I got invited to walk through the Marcus train.  I mainly was enjoying the train and the only merchandise that I recall was that rack of $600 handkerchiefs in the observation car.  I decided $600 would be better spent at the Amtrak ticket window than the Neiman Marcus train.  

Remember the I'll fated Marlboro Unlimited train?  It was under construction for a while. I entered the contest to win a ride even though I was not a smoker as required by the contest rules.  I figured I could try to fake it for a trip.  

Scott

As I said, I am not familiar with these "theme trains," but, for example, the Preamble Express is offered in LIONEL's new catalog and is extensively covered in this website with photos and list of locomotives and passenger cars:

http://www.freedomtrain.org/pr...ess-consist-main.htm

Perhaps that information would be useful to persons considering the purchase of the LIONEL offering.

Also, I know there are a number of Freedom Train experts on the forum who can verify/correct info on the website and LIONEL's latest offerings.

Scott is too modest to mention that his very own, custom O scale Auto-Train is featured in the website's Auto-Train "Galleries" section with credit given to Christine Braden for the custom paintwork:

https://www.themetrains.com/au...allery-cameron-1.htm