To celebrate our nation's 200th Bi-Centennial Anniversary an idea from the past was resurrected to create an exhibit train that would move around the country with significant documents and other exhibits of historic and cultural importance from our nations proud history.

This would enable citizens who were unable to travel and visit Washington DC or Philadelphia and other famous areas in our nations history a chance to view memorabilia from our nations' history.

Southern Pacific Loco 4449 had not been under its own steam for 16 years and was moved from a Portland,Oregon City park in 1974 to be rebuilt for use on the American Freedom Train.

When the 4449 emerged from the Burlington Northern Portland Roundhouse in late 1975 it not only was ready for service on the Freedom Train, but had been repainted in a breath-taking patriotic new paint scheme as shown in the photo above.

The American Freedom Train traveled the country in 1975 and 1976 and brought part of America's history to millions of Americans from the large cities to the smallest hamlets.

Invited to participate in the opening of the California State Railroad Museum in 1981, it seemed most appropriate to return her to the famous Daylight paint scheme that she had worn during the heyday of passenger service in the Golden State. This restored paint scheme was met by overwhelming approval by the railfan community.

In her Daylight scheme the 4449 again traveled to many parts of the USA for fan trips and display during the 1980's and early 1990's.

In 1999 the BNSF leased the locomotive to use for employee and shipper appreciation trips and 4449 was repainted back to a black paint scheme with BNSF lettering on it.

In early 2002 it was learned that the Insurance carrier for the engine was going to raise their insurance premiums 2X in the Spring of 2002 and it was decided to run at least one more fantrip before the insurance was increased.

It was also decided to repaint the loco for the fantrip...most fans just assumed it would be repainted back into the famous Daylight Scheme. But on March 23rd 2002 when railfans showed up to board their fantrip they were stunned and pleased to find out that the 4449 had NOT BEEN repainted in the Daylight Colors, but in the American Freedom Train colors in honor of the 9-11 tragedy.

PS: You can check out information on the 4449/Freedom Train on your own on the Internet by checking out www.freedomtrain.com, sp4449@aracnet.com and at www.4449.com. Also see article in the July 2002 Railfan Magazine.

Note: At this time we have no plans to make models of the 1976 Freedom train cars as they were highly modified passenger cars, and the tooling cost to create models of these unique passenger cars makes it unfortunately, not a practical project. But we are making a limited run of cars from the 1948 Freedom Train...see information on that project below.

American Freedom Train 4-8-4

$298.98

Features
# 5 pole skewed armature motor (high-torque and quiet)
# Proven reliable smooth running Con-Cor 4-8-4 mechanism
# Runs traditional 12v DC 2 rail out of the box, but has a DCC friendly NMRA 8 pin PC board in tender, ready for your
favorite DCC decoder if you wish to convert to DCC control.

The Orginal 1948 Freedom Train

While many people do remember the American Freedom Train from 1976 travels and the publicity associated with it, not many know there was an earlier freedom train that toured the US in 1948.

The 1948 Freedom Train toured 33,000 miles throughout the United States and consisted of 7 passenger cars decorated with the flags of the 48 states, Alaska and Hawaii and carried 127 Documents symbolizing significant events in our nations history. It was pulled by the famous PA-1 diesel locomotive which had been donated for use on the train by Alco and GE.

Routing sometimes presented special problems. To gain access to the Hudson River tubes and avoid tight clearances at Penn Station in New York, the air horn had to be removed as well as the ventilator stacks.

Of course, the irreplaceable documents aboard required the utmost in safekeeping and security measures. These documents spanned a range of over 350 years from a copy of a letter by Christopher Columbus to the flag flown on the USS Missouri when the Japanese surrendered in Tokyo Bay in 1945. Twenty tons of steel were welded into the exhibit cars to reinforce them. Special locks were used on the doors, and 24 Marines were on continuous duty to give the train full protection.

The Con-Cor model of the famous 1948 American Freedom train will be available in two sections. Each section will be sold separately as some customers may choose to purchase the passenger car set only to run behind the 4449 Steam loco shown above.

Section #1)

Will consist of our "N" PA-1 diesel (with the new Flywheel drive mechanism as described on our N PA-1 web page) and with a matching "B" unit with a factory installed SoundTrax brand DCC Sound Decoder including a Speaker in the "B" Unit. ..So this pair of PA-1 and PB-1 will include TWO Decoders, one for the "A" unit speed and light control, and a Separate Decoder in the "B" unit for Sound.

Section #2)

Will concise of our 7 car heavyweight passenger car set.

Set will include 7 of our heavyweight passenger cars imprinted in as many as 6 colors to match as closely as we can the orginal artwork on the Freedom Train cars of 1948.

The Special 7 car collector's Set will also include a Re-print of the "Good Citizen" 74 page Booklet that was passed out to those who toured the train in 1948.

Section #3

For those of you who do not use DCC, the Special Freedom Train PA-1 and matching PB-1 set will be available with the conventional Analog power mechanism and "B" unit without any sound unit.

Con-Cor was honored to host a factory tour for the American Freedom Train Reunion held in Tucson in Sept. of 2002. The reunion consisted of about 50 people, including some of the original Marines that acted as guards on for the 1948 train. Above photo: The Freedom Train group that toured the Con-Cor factory. Jim Conway, far rght.