The Southern Museum - Atlanta

UserNameRequired · Aug 20, 2024

A visit to the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History recently (I didn't see a thread in this category, although there are side mentions of this museum in other posts).

The "General", famous for The Great Locomotive Chase:

French train car given to the USA as a Thank You present for helping France in WWI and WWII:

Mock up of the Glover Machine Works from Marietta GA:

Above is the mock up of the pattern shop with wooden molds for making cast parts.

Multiple Hollywood movies have been made about The Great Locomotive Chase, including the 1956 Disney production starring Fess Parker.

caravanman · Aug 20, 2024

That French wagon seems a bit of a strange gift? Any reason why they gave something with no windows. I Like the notice, 40 men, 8 horses.

UserNameRequired · Aug 20, 2024

"The French Gratitude Train (French: Train de la Reconnaissance française), commonly referred to as the Merci Train, were 49 World War I era "forty and eight" boxcars gifted to the United States by France in response to the 1947 U.S. Friendship Train. It arrived in Weehawken, New Jersey on February 2, 1949."
"The idea to send a "thank you" gift to the United States for the $40 million in food and other supplies sent to France and Italy in 1947 came from a French railroad worker, and World War II veteran, named Andre Picard." "Donations from the Merci Train came from over six million citizens of France and Italy in the form of dolls, statues, clothes, ornamental objects, furniture, and even a Legion of Honour medal purported to have belonged to Napoleon."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merci_Train

I thought our Iowa one was at the Sioux City train museum, but I see I was wrong it's north of Cedar Falls.

MARC Rider · Aug 20, 2024

caravanman said:
That French wagon seems a bit of a strange gift? Any reason why they gave something with no windows. I Like the notice, 40 men, 8 horses.

It's from something called the Merci Train, a gift of WW1 era French boxcars given after WW2 to the various states in response to an American gift train called the Freedom Train, which contained food and other supplies for France as it was recovering from the war. I saw one of the cars at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, ans apparently there's one at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore.