Following a two-year restoration process in Wyoming, the Utah Merci Car was lifted into place in a new display space at the Utah State Railroad Museum at Ogden Union Station.

The Utah Merci Car is one of 49 cars that were presented as gifts from France in 1949 in response to the 1947 “Friendship Train,” which collected boxcars full of food to help in the rebuilding of France following World War II. The Merci Train’s cars were filled with gifts for the peoples of each state in the United States at the time with the 49th car representing Washington D.C. and the Territory of Hawaii.

“We sent the Merci Car up to Vintage Rail Restorations in Cheyenne a few years ago for restoration work,” Hope Eggett, museum administrator for the Museums at Union Station, told the Standard-Examiner on Tuesday morning. “Since then, our contractor, Mike Pannell with Vintage Rail Restorations, has done a terrific job of restoring the Merci Car and really stabilizing it for future generations. We’re really excited to have it back today.”

She praised the work that was done on the boxcar, saying it’s much closer to its 1949 state than when it was sent to Wyoming for restoration.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

“It’s been really high-quality work that we are seeing here today,” she said. “It’s back in the historic charcoal-gray color it went in. Mike was actually able to uncover the original color of paint that was on there. All of the original pictures of the Merci cars arriving in 1949 were in black-and-white, so that was a bit of an ordeal to figure out what the correct color was. … It’s been numbered with the correct numbering schemes.”

Michael Pannell, owner of Vintage Rail Restorations, said restoration included replacing wood paneling and floorboards, replacement of springs, metal restoration, roofing replacement, bolt replacement and casting of new hardware.

He added that, as restoration went along, they made a couple of discoveries about the car.

“The wheel sets are two different dates,” he said. “There’s a 1903 and there’s an 1890. A lot of stuff came to light that we hadn’t noticed on the car. It has the correct running numbers on it now because it originally had the wrong numbers and we found those details out and put those right. We tried to make it as accurate to how it arrived here in the ’40s as we possibly can.”

Following the hype of the Merci Train, each car and their respective gifts went to their respective states. Many displayed their cars while some saw their cars disappear from the record or in others even ended up being scrapped.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

The Utah Merci Car had originally been displayed in Salt Lake City before being acquired by Ogden in 2003 and placed on display in 2006.

Judy Lewis recalled to the Standard-Examiner her late husband Byron Lewis’s efforts to bring the boxcar to Ogden for restoration and display.

“When he first found out that Salt Lake City took it out of the park and put it in what I call ‘the graveyard’ where they take all of the things that they remove out of the park to store, he went and talked to the mayor of Salt Lake and said he was interested in getting the boxcar out of the graveyard, so-to-speak, and bring it to Ogden,” she said. “It took him a year or so working with the mayor of Salt Lake and the Mayor of Ogden to get that to happen. Finally it did, they got it to Ogden and he and the 40 and 8 people and (American) Legionnaires restored it.”

Due to poor maintenance at its location, the car’s condition quickly began to deteriorate.

Lewis said her husband made the city an offer to once again do restoration work but was rebuffed by Ogden City at the time.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

“When they came down as a group again and said, ‘Let us restore it seeing as you have not done it,’ they refused the help to do it,” she said.

Byron Lewis would pass away in 2022, before the Merci Car was taken to Wyoming for its latest restoration.

Judy Lewis said she is hopeful that better care will be taken of the Utah Merci Car from here on out.

“I am watching very closely to see that they have it covered with something so that the rain and the sun and that doesn’t destroy the paint and wood and everything  like it has done in the past because it wasn’t protected from any of the elements,” she said.

Unlike the Merci Car’s old display on the northeastern side of Union Station, plans are to protect the car with a canopy.

“We’ve been working on Union Station’s end to get ready for the Merci Car,” Eggett said. “That included grade work, laying the appropriate kind of rails to make the display look great and making sure the drainage is going to happen properly. … Once the Merci Car is in place, we can start work on the canopy above it. The canopy isn’t in place yet, but it is coming. The Merci Car had to come first.”

She said that the full display, including canopy, is expected to be completed this fall.

Pannell said he was pleased with how the restoration turned out as well.

“It’s always hard for us to let things go,” he said. “We’ve had it for two years and when you work on a project for that long or you have a project for that amount of time, it’s hard to see it go because it becomes part of you in a way. But this is where it lives and this is where it should be, so it’s a good day to see it back.”

Lewis said she was excited to see the beginning of a more positive chapter in the Utah Merci Car’s display history.

“It’s very important that people learn about history because once you forget about history, what’s your future?” she said. “My husband would be so very, very tickled and thrilled to see that his boxcar now is going to be in a resting place, and I’m excited to think that once they’re done renovating the boxcar will be inside a building out of the elements. He passed away four years ago, but I’m sure he’s here today watching.”

The Utah Merci Car will be the subject of a rededication ceremony on July 4. More details are coming about the event.