After World War II, it was no secret that Europe had a long road to recovery and in 1947, more than 700 American box cars containing about $40 million dollars in relief goods provided by principally individual Americans were delivered to France and Italy to help the formerly occupied nations recover. Two years later, in February 1949, forty-nine French railroad box cars filled with thousands of gifts of gratitude were shipped to the United States. There was one boxcar for each of the 48 states and a boxcar to be shared by Washington D.C. and the territory of Hawaii. The rail cars were French box cars, military transport freight cars dubbed Forty-and-Eights because they were rated to carry 40 troops or 8 horses.

Accompanied by a delegation of French officials, the train traveled throughout the United States with ceremonies of gratitude from the French people at most delivery points. The photos of the train cars show them riding on American flat cars because the wheel spacing (gauge) of track width in France is different from U.S. gauge. A link to a site dedicated to the Merci Train provides much more in-depth detail on the train and location of cars and artifacts here.

Arizona’s train car is on display at the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park, a location I’ve written about twice before. The museum in the park holds a sample of gifts provided in the Arizona car, but a larger rotating display of artifacts can be viewed at the Arizona Capitol Museum in Phoenix. The plaque in the image above is posted near the train car on display in the Scottsdale railroad park.

In the park, under a covered pavilion, protected by a large fence, you will see the Arizona train car. With the fence surrounding the car at a very close range, it is hard to get a good photograph of the shields, each representing a French province, displayed on the car’s exterior. The concept of a gratitude train was initiated by Andre, Picard, a French rail worker, and war veteran. Each of the shields on the cars represented the 40 provinces of France.

Prior to attending this park, I had not heard of the Merci Train. I got schooled in the park’s railroad museum, but it wasn’t until I started researching for this post that I was to discover that North Dakota’s 40 and 8 train car is on display in Bismarck. Artifacts are on display in the State Historical Society’s museum, but you, dear reader, don’t have to go there to see what kinds of gifts were presented to the people of North Dakota. An online interactive exhibit here will provide you with a link to view some of the objects on display as well as provide background on each of the 40 shields affixed to each 40 and 8. According to the North Dakota Historical Society website, only 43 of the original 49 cars are still in existence and North Dakota is one of the few states that still has most of the train’s contents.

It looks like a visit to the North Dakota Historical Society’s museum is in order for when we can travel more freely again, followed by an epilog to this story focusing on the North Dakota 40 and 8. France wasn’t the only country to express their gratitude for aid. Italy provided a motion picture film of the American aid being distributed to be shown in theaters across the United States, and in gratitude for helping rid the country of Mussolini and the Nazis, they provided four bronze sculptures that are now on bridge abutments in Washington DC. The people of the Netherlands also sent a gift of a large carillon now located near the National U.S. Marine memorial in Arlington.

Notice: This post is being written during the COVID-19 pandemic and at this time, both the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park is open to visitors but there are limitations. Be sure to check online for the status of the venue before traveling. Please stay safe and follow your state or country’s guidelines for travel in your region.

John Steiner

Scottsdale, Arizona.

In early May, I wrote about the miniature trains and the railroad museum at McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park (here) and promised that I’d feature a post on the model train displays housed in a separate 10,000 square foot (929 sq m) building.  Hosted by four clubs, there are three displays and several other railroad oriented exhibits. The opening photo features a sculpture of a train engine breaking through the building wall. Some of these images may look familiar as I featured a sampling of theme for the May 21, 2020, Lens-Artists Photo Challenge here. This post features more facts about the museum, and photos not previously published as well.

The three large displays are surrounded by areas meant for the club members to work on the trains, and in some cases, there are railroad bridges and sections of terrain that lift or open to allow members to access hard to reach areas of each display. A series of differing levels of display and built-in ramps allow those in wheelchairs and children to easily view the action going on in the displays.

I am amazed at the complexity and detail that goes into the displays. Just one example is the multiple levels of the “mountain” depicted in the photo above. Trains enter two tunnels as they climb the mountain. At the mountain top, a firefighting airplane is laying down fire retardant to snuff out a simulated fire.

A globe display in the building entrance features each of the common model railroad gauges (track width and scale model size.) It is an interesting way to display several different size models that are generally available. This shot might look familiar as I also used it as the opening shot for the May 21 Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. Video screens feature facts about trains, photographs, and other smaller displays along the sides of the building provide interesting facts about model railroads and railroading in general.

Each of the sponsoring clubs is provided with 1280 square feet (119 sq m) of exhibit space as well as 270 square feet (25 sq m) in a club area that can be used as a workroom for maintenance or development of new areas in the display.

Cities of several eras are used as backdrops for the railroad action as trains rumble through them. Some display items are interactive throughout the display viewing areas. Visitors can press an “orange hand” button that will cause a specific action to occur in the display area in front of them. Putting all of this together is a marvel of automation requiring over 25,000 feet (7620 m) of electrical conduit throughout the building. With that, I submit for your review a gallery of images captured during our visit to the model railroad building at the park. Click on an image below to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery (if your browser supports the function.)

Cue the music here then come back and view the gallery.

Notice: This post is being written during the COVID-19 pandemic and at this time, the park is closed to visitors. As of this writing (late May 2020), the park is getting ready to reopen but the museum and model railroad building will remain closed for now. Please stay safe and follow your state or country’s guidelines for travel in your region. More information on the park’s current status can be found here.

John Steiner

This week, the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is being hosted by Sue (Mac’s Girl) from her blogging site, The Nature of Things. She writes, “With so much time being spent at home, many of us have been looking for new pastimes or taking up old ones in order stay occupied or even sane…. It could be something that you are trying for the first time or a hobby or interest that you have enjoyed for many years. Feel free to dig into the archives or take a picture to illustrate a current pastime.” You can read her entire challenge post here. I could have focused on some of the pastimes that have occupied my time over the years, but instead have decided to focus on a hobby that has always interested me, but I’ve never taken the time or had the space to get started.

Several weeks ago, we visited the McCormick-Staillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale. It’s a combination city park, railroad museum, and home for multiple model train clubs. My opening photo is a sphere sculpture that features the most common sizes of different gauge model railroads. At the lower left of the image are example train cars in the different scales, but the sphere puts small trains on a globe. It’s a fascinating way to display what could have been displayed in a much more mundane fashion. The sculpture is one of the first things a visitor sees upon entering the model train display building.

On the day we were there, only one of the three huge setups had club members there working on the displays. As you can see by the image above, the building is quite large and this shot only captures a part of this club’s model display. At the time this photo was taken, these two volunteers were working a problem with getting one of the trains to operate properly. It was fascinating watching them work.

I found the model “billboard” on the display tells a story about the volunteers of some experience still having a happy childhood. Having sorted out whatever issue they were having with one of the trains, this lady set about putting a new train on the tracks.

The lighting in the building isn’t super bright, though it’s plenty bright to view the displays. However, I was to discover (too late), that it wasn’t enough light for the shutter speed I used for most of my images. Knowing the light was limited, I took a few images of moving trains and zoomed in on the images on my Nikon D500’s display to see if there was motion blur. There didn’t appear to be any, so for most of the shots, I discovered when looking at the images on my computer, the trains in motion were not completely sharp. A tiny bit of motion blur spoiled most of them. This train was moving slower than most, so it happened to be captured with minimal (can’t say “no”) blur.

I learned that Lego has sets that are designed with model train hobbyists in mind. One section of this display featured a Lego-based scene. Not sure of the story line, but given the Lego saguaro cacti, apparently they are building a replica Statue of Liberty in the Arizona desert.

Thanks again to Sue for the challenge topic this week. It gave me the incentive to process the images I captured at the park earlier this year. In a few weeks, I’ll be posting a more complete collection of photos from my visit there along with some of the history of the park and train exhibits.

John Steiner

Notice: This post is being written during the COVID-19 pandemic and at this time, the park is closed to visitors. Please stay safe and follow your state or country’s guidelines for travel in your region. More information on the park’s current status can be found here.

In early January, Lynn and I visited McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale, Arizona. During the Christmas holidays, the park is all decked out with lights and features evening train rides through the park. On any given weekend, the park is quite busy (in normal times, anyway,) and there are lots of activities for kids and adults alike. Though the engine and train cars in the opening photo are full size, the fun happens on little trains.

The main attraction in the park is the scale reproduction of a narrow gauge railroad. The Paradise & Pacific Railroad began in 1971 when Guy Stillman, the Scottsdale Railroad & Mechanical Society, and the City of Scottsdale began work to create the Railroad Park on 30 acres. The park opened on October 4, 1975. To give you a size comparison, the image above features the engineer giving a bit of spit and polish to the engine between rides. The park operates three steam locomotives, two diesel engines, and an electric engine. The guests ride in any of several miniature cars for a trip around the park. In the image above, the train, full of passengers is just concluding a trip around the park. In a few moments, it will pull up to the terminal station and quickly unload and reload passengers for another trip around the park. The train engines and cars are built to 5:12 scale. A complete machine shop and a long shed provides covered protection for the equipment when it’s not in use. If this train is too big for your young ‘uns, you can mosey on over to the Arboretum Train. This train runs only on the weekends and provides a 10 minute ride through the park’s desert Arboretum. This smaller train is scaled at 1.5 inches to 1 foot scale.

Another major attraction in the park is the Scottsdale Charros Carousel. The carousel was built in 1950, and was restored with the help of a local service group. This antique carousel is complete with 30 horses and two wheelchair chariots.

Another major attraction at the park for railroad aficionados is the Scottsdale Railroad Museum. The small building houses several exhibits of early railroad memorabilia and information about local and regional railroad history. The engine in the opening photo, Magma Arizona No. 6, was a copper ore hauler from Superior to Magma, Arizona; about 30 miles (48 km) or so on the line. Ol’ No. 6 was retired in 1960 and purchased for display at the park in 1977.

The museum itself is the Peoria Depot, and leaving the building on the railroad side gives the guest access to a baggage car and the Roald Amundsen Pullman Car. The car is steeped in history as it served every president from Herbert Hoover through Dwight Eisenhower, the traveling residence of the President and his entourage during the years of the Whistle Stop Campaigns. The park contains other railroad attractions that are interesting enough in their own right to have a post specifically dedicated to those attractions. I will leave you guessing until it’s time for me to share those stories and images. In the meantime, the gallery of images below features photos captured on our day trip to McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park. When it reopens, if you get to Scottsdale, you can join the million plus visitors a year to enjoy a bit of Arizona Railroad History. With most browsers, you can click on an image below to enlarge it and scroll through the gallery.

John Steiner