I was looking at the photo of the Friendship Train and the Freedom Train next to each other in a 1947 photo and was admiring the PRR Centipedes pulling the Friendship Train. That got me thinking what other engines pulled the train, or trains since there were probably 4 of them. Each road had their own engine(s) pulling them when in their territory. I thought this may be of interest to those buying the Friendship Train cars.
Well, there are a lot of photos of the cars of the Friendship Train but very few of the engines. I ran across a closeup photo of an engineer and a girl scout waiving out the cab window of a steam engine. There is a sign covering up the cab number that says "All Aboard for Friendship Train", with a 4 and 9 showing on either side of the sign. Below the sign was "AC-63 24-24/32 515 SF AC7". I assume this was a Southern Pacific AC7 Cab Forward. Apparently this was the first engine to pull the first train in California. Anyone know what the cab number was?
The only other photo of a Friendship Train engine I could find was a C&NW engine that looked like a 4-8-4. The cab number is hard to see, but it looks like 3009. The 3 and 9 are good, but the 00 is hard to make out; maybe 6 or 8. Anyone have more detail on this engine?
Also, it would be interesting to know what other engines pulled the train. If you have any information put it here.
Since I don't want to get in trouble for re-posting a web picture of the real train, here are my Centipedes pulling my Friendship Train cars.
