Taken from the Reno Gazette-Journal's webstie. Go here for a picture and more info:

http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/20 ... Local+News

Touring the Nevada State Railroad Museum on Friday, Ken Gobrecht recognized a familiar train car on display — a “40 and eight” French boxcar.

The 76-year-old Reno resident had ridden in the same type of boxcar while in the Army Air Corps in Europe during World War II.

But this boxcar at the Carson City museum looked brand new because officials earlier this week finished an eight-week, $5,600 restoration of the historic train car.

“That’s beautiful,” Gobrecht said Friday, looking at the freshly painted gray train car, one of 49 “Merci” Trains — or Gratitude Trains — given to the United States from France in 1949.

Decorated with the coats of arms from FranceÂ’s provinces, the trains were gifts for each of the 48 states, plus an extra one to be shared by Hawaii and Washington, D.C.

France gave the United States these trains because the same kind of boxcars had been used earlier to distribute American donations to war-torn French communities.

“They came to be symbolic of the Allied effort in Europe in World War II,” museum curator John Ballweber said Friday. “They also symbolized America’s generosity to provide food and supplies to France after the war.”

The small boxcars were called “40 and eight” because they could hold either 40 men or eight horses.

“We all couldn’t lay down,” said Gobrecht, who once spent three days in one of the cramped boxcars. “A lot of people don’t believe they would hold 40 people, but they did.”

The 49 Merci railroad cars were shipped across the Atlantic in 1949, and were loaded with 250 tons of gifts that ranged from toys to rare paintings.

Several of the donated items from NevadaÂ’s Merci Train are on display at the Nevada State Museum, Ballweber said.

The boxcar itself was displayed outside the state museum for many years and was later relocated to the railroad museum.

Sparks resident David Parsons, another Army Air Corps veteran who rode the boxcars, found out in the mid-1990s that the Merci Train was deteriorating. Since 1995, Parsons has raised money to restore the boxcar.

“Some of us had ridden in those, and I thought it would be nice to restore it for future generations,” said Parsons, 78. “I thought it would be nice to restore it for Nevada military history.

“I took on this little job, and I’m proud I did it,” he added.

Carson City residents Steve Watson and Tod Jennings have since joined the effort, and are raising funds to construct a structure on the museumÂ’s property to display the historic boxcar.

Several companies, including RenoÂ’s Q&D Construction and D&D Roofing, have pledged more than $60,000 in supplies and labor, but organizers still need some help, Watson said.

“We’re very close,” said Watson, 54, also the deputy director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau. “I’m just thrilled. It’s exciting to see the project come together.”

Meanwhile, the boxcar will remain on display inside one of the museumÂ’s warehouses.

“It really does look perfect,” Ballweber said. “When this was completely fixed up and brought to Nevada in 1949, this is the way it looked.”