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The US Post Office had
temporary post offices set up at nearly all of the AFT's stops (Jackson,
MS being one of the few exceptions).
In each city a special
cancel was produced that commonly read "Freedom Train Station",
along with the city name and date.
Envelopes were available
that had the AFT logo on them - others even had a metallic image
of the engine on them (with a second tender behind the engine and
sporting one of the proposed-but-unused paint schemes for the train).
Of course, you could
also get your cancel on a plain white envelope.
The bottom two images
on this page depict the first and last cancels ever made available.
The upper cancel is from
the ribbon cutting ceremony at Alexandria, VA March 28, 1975 - four
days before the train's official opening on April 1, 1975 in Wilmington,
DE.
The last image is the
special cancel produced by AFT veteran (and later, Postmaster) Joan
"Grape" Mitchell for the 25th anniversary reunion of the
staff of the AFT. The reunion was hosted by the Lou Nelson family
in Knoxville, TN over Labor Day weekend, 2000.
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to memorabilia...
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