Today, Nov. 7, is the 70th anniversary of the day the Friendship Train left Los Angeles bound for New York City with relief supplies for post-war Europe. Ultimately, 270 cars of donated food and other items for France and Italy arrived at port; each car had the name of the community that donated the goods on the side. In response, the French created the Merci Train, which toured the U.S. in 1949.
In 1949 France replied with the Merci Train, 49 late 1800s 40 and 8 boxcars filled with artifacts and letters of gratitude. There was one car for each of the 48 states and one shared by Hawaii Territory and the Distrct of Columbia. 40 and 8 refers to the car capacity of 40 troops or 8 horses, they were used to transport during World War 1. I recently talked with a woman whose grandfather fought in WWI, and rode one of these cars from the port to the battle front.
The Maine Merci car is part of the permanent collection at Boothbay Railway Village; the artifacts are in the Maine State Museum in Augusta. The Maine Merci car was restored in 2009. For more info:
