News-Info-Alerts

Re: POW Boxcar Awaits Restoration

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: September 07, 2002

"Military boxcar awaits restoration

By Brendan RileyASSOCIATED PRESS

Half a century ago, Nevada was given a rickety, gift-laden boxcar — one of 49 “Merci” boxcars sent by France to U.S. states in gratitude for this nation’s help during World War II.

Now, after decades of neglect, the old military boxcar is in line for restoration at the Nevada State Railroad Museum — providing enough money can be raised for the project.

Shipped across the Atlantic by freighter, the boxcars arrived in the U.S. in February 1949 — repaired, freshly painted and decorated with the coats of arms of the 40 provinces of France.

The railroad cars were filled with 250 tons of gifts that ranged from toys, children’s drawings and ashtrays to rare paintings, a Louis XV carriage, silk wedding dresses and a church bell.

Just a few years before, Allied soldiers arriving in France were packed into the boxcars and sent into Germany to fight the Nazi forces.

When Germany occupied France, the boxcars also were used by the Germans to transport people to prisoner-of-war and concentration camps.

Years before, in World War I, the boxcars had been put to work hauling troops and horses.

The narrow-gauge boxcars — called 40-and-8s because they could carry 40 soldiers or eight horses — date to the 1870s when they were first built.

David Parsons, 78, of Sparks, started the fund-raising effort for Nevada’s boxcar after seeing it in Carson City and recalling how he was jammed into one with other U.S. soldiers arriving in 1946 in Le Havre, a port northwest of Paris.

“They marched us down to the railroad tracks, counted us out by 40 and told us to get on,” Parsons said.

“When you put 40 men and all their gear on, you couldn’t turn around or do anything. We were crammed in, one on top of another.”

Parsons recalls riding for six days in a boxcar, scrambling for rations and getting off briefly when the train would stop for water.

“We went deep into Germany,” he says. “That’s the last time I rode in one.”

In 1957, driving through Carson City, he first spotted Nevada’s boxcar at the state Museum, still in good shape. Years later, he found that it had been moved to the state Railroad Museum and had deteriorated badly.

Parsons and his wife, Denise, who he met in France, decided to help restore the old boxcar. They’ve been able to raise about $6,000 in donations to pay for repairs.

But Tod Jennings of Carson City, also active in the restoration effort, said about $120,000 is needed to restore the rail car and build a structure to protect it from the northern Nevada elements.

Jennings said several businesses have offered steel, concrete, paint and other building materials, plus labor. But more is needed to finish the job.

Parsons said the effort is worthwhile given the 40-and-8 boxcars’ role during two world wars and their reminder of France’s gratitude.

“We should keep a little of our military history,” Parsons says. “Something has to be done or we were going to lose Nevada’s boxcar completely.”

© Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc. Newspaper"