History on the Rails

One aspect of the nation's Bicentennial celebration gets rolling next April, when a 24-car American Freedom Train pulls out of Boston on a 21-month cross country journey. On the outside of ten of the red-white-and-blue cars of the train, display cases will highlight the nation's past; inside, each car will contain one segment of what the train's sponsors call "a moving monument to history": such themes in the national life as "Origins," "Exploration and Expansion," "Sports" and the like. The exhibits will include carefully culled artifacts, documents, photographs and other memorabilia--from inflammatory Revolutionary broadsides to a film of Babe Ruth hitting a home run.

Funded by $5 million from five major corporations, as well as a number of private contributors, the train will pass through 48 states, and expects to attract up to 2,000 visitors an hour at 76 stops. A four-car preliminary version of the train has already traveled 17,000 miles to 74 cities, harbinger of the full-size train to come. When that vehicle, powered by a steam locomotive, gets under way, it will be carrying such diverse samples of the national heritage as the first Bible printed in the U.S., George Washington's copy of the Constitution, a slave bill of sale, a lunar rover and a copy of the Louisiana Purchase deal.

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