The "Preamble Express" train heades out of town towards Portage.  The Preamble Express was the advance train for the steam-powered American Freedom Train and basically travelled several days ahead of the Freedom Train following the same route so that things like clearances and display locations could be checked out in person by an advance crew.

The train consisted of the four passenger cars shown powered by a U-boat loaned for the occasion by the Delaware and Hudson, which accounts for the fact that although painted red/white/blue the paint job exactly follows the lines of D&H's blue/silver/yellow scheme and also still retains it's D&H number. I seem to recall that for part of it's tour around the country this train was powered by a red/white/blue painted E-unit, but I don't remember who's it was or why the power changed for part of the route. (La Verne?) Lionel also sold a Preamble Express set that had an E-unit and four cars.

This picture was taken along East Wilson Street (note the MG&E stacks in the background) just before the Watertown and Portage lines diverged from each other. The track between the street and the train was the line to Watertown just west of where the street running began along Wilson Street.

Note that right behind the engine is an open-platform observation car, so the train is actually being towed backwards. The consist had come in from Milwaukee the night before and spent the night at the West Wash yard where the locomotive was serviced and turned on the turntable, resulting in the order shown in the picture. This was a somewhat different routing than used
the Freedom Train itself which upon arrival used the Jct A - Jct B short cut over the C&NW. Must have been a tight fit getting the 4449 around the Jct A transfer track's sharp curve! - Craig

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This site Created & Maintained by: Jim Kalrath    © 1999
Changes Last Made: August 15th, 1999