It is a very cold morning in Harrisburg, PA on Nov 17, 1947, when 7,906 people stood in line to tour the Freedom Train. What many were not expecting to see was one of the Friendship Train consists coming into the station and stopping next to the Freedom Train. This was the only time the Freedom Train met one of the Friendship Trains and the crowd loved it. There were bands, a parade, and speeches by local and state officials to mark the meeting of these historic trains.
They were parked next to each other for 12 hours as nine PRR X-29 boxcars full of food and other essentials, donated by the people of Harrisburg and surrounding communities, were coupled to the Friendship Train.
I have the trains but not the hundreds of people that surrounded the Freedom Train as the Friendship Train rolled in. If I ever collect enough figures, including the bands and pom pom girls who must have been freezing in their minimal outfits, I'll do a better re-creation of the meet.
The Friendship Train boxcars are MTH, everything else is Lionel.
