On 5/10/13 7:57 PM, Charlie Vlk wrote:

There were TWO "Friendship" trains. The one the Q painted up the XM for was
the Abraham Lincoln Friendship Train. There was an earlier one that ran coast
to coast MTH has done a car in O tinplate and I did art for DeLuxe
Innovations to do on their XM32 in N Scale. I don't know if its ever been
done in HO I have some material from online sources on both trains. There
were some other special paint cars but good pictures are elusive I am going
to cc this post to the Steam Era Freight Car List to see if anyone there has
any additional information Charlie Vlk

Not sure if Charlie is referring the the French Merci Train

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

when he notes a train that ran coast to coast.

Photos on the above site show buffers; other possible
incompatibilities such as brake systems may have prevented
the cars operating in a train on U.S. rails. Perhaps
someone else here can provide more information.

I always thought Sunset/MTH/Lionel have missed the boat on
this one, since collectors would have to buy all 48 cars to
have a complete collection.

Rod

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