Shipping Caskets by rail

[Anonymous]

This ought to get a couple of posts. I am a funeral director and avid N-trak modeler (NYC early to mid 60s). I m looking for info stories etc about the railroads and ttheir role in transportaing the dead back home before we had the airlines.

I do know that in Cincinnati at Uion Terminal and other small stations that there was a list that existed with the porters on which funeral hoimes tipped well. That determined whether you had to lug the heavy wooden shipping case of the train by yourself or not. Any one remenber those days?

David CIN O

[Anonymous]

Well, not to close the lid and bury the subject, ahem... I reckon they get sent around by railcar. Since they reached the end of the line, I dont think they mind how they get to the final resting place. They are not necessarily dying to get the business because things are dead in the transport side of funerals.

[TomDiehl]

They would normally be carried in the baggage car. Most railroads back in the day had a published rate for shipping caskets.

[wjstix]

I imagine it occassionally still happens today, but probably the last time it was really common was during WW2. One of those things that was once fairly common, yet has rarely if ever been modelled.

 

I know there have been several articles in the model RR press about funeral trains. Canadian Ry. Modeller had one recently that carried the late premier Diefenbaker home. I found it interesting that he had fought against the red and white 'maple leaf' flag, so there was a debate as to whether to drape the casket with the old flag or the new one.

[steamaddict]

David,

In Queensland and New South Wales in Australia, one of the requirements to ship caskets in the steam era was that the remains had to be encased in lead sheet and soldered so it was sealed.  Even though it seems heavy, it was probably done this way since lead flashing was fairly common and the ability to solder it could have been done by people in a small town with limited resources.

In Sydney, the capital of New South Wales a branch was laid between Central Station and Rookwood cemetry for the transport of caskets and mourners.  Please refer to the following site for more info on this line.

http://www.nswrail.net/lines/show.php?name=NSW:rookwood_cemetery

Darren

 

 

 

[Anonymous]

I started my railroad carrer in the late 19501's on the GREAT NORTHERN RR and was with them until 1967 and they were accepting caskets for shipment until then t regular scheduled stops.

Also exceptions were made to stop for military escorted coffins at unscheduled stops.

 

Ringer 1

 

 

[jimrice4449]

On the SP caskets were being shipped at least into the late 60s.   My first RR job was 3rd trick opr at Ventura and I worked both the Coast Mail (westbound) and the Lark (eastbound) and during the Viet Nam war there was a considerable traffic in remains and in Govt Issued headstones.

[MJChittick]

If I recall correctly, the shipment of caskets in baggage cars was commonplace at least up to the Amtrak launch.  In fact, it was the preferred method when beyond range of the local herse.

What I'd like to know is if Amtrak continued to accept caskets as baggage after they took over long distance passenger service?

 

[Anonymous]

I may model an off loading of a casket. It would be easy enough to do. I am actually looking to present a continuing education lecture for fellow funeral directors. It will be a sort of "Remeber when" look at how the dead were shipped prior to airlines.

Thanks for the info.

David

[BR60103]

Some places could do a full funeral by train.

Near London, England, they had the "Necropolis" station.

I think some streetcar lines also had funeral cars.

And remember old songs like "Im the Baggage Car Ahead".

[agentatascadero]

They would normally be carried in the baggage car. Most railroads back in the day had a published rate for shipping caskets.

AMTRAK, as of summer '06, continues to accept caskets in "mortuary service".

[Anonymous]

The Elevated in Chicago and the North Shore both had funeral cars in the olden days. There was a Cemetery out on the Mundelein branch that saw a lot of business.

Art

 

[prbharris]

Some places could do a full funeral by train.

Near London, England, they had the "Necropolis" station.

The London Necroplis Station was adjacent to the Waterloo station of the London and South Western Railway in London, and trains ran to the Necroplis Station at the large cemetary 20 miles to the south west of London. The 'remains' of the entrance to the London terminus was there until demolished for the International Terminus for Channel Tunnel trains in the late 1980's, but the Necopolis Station at the end of a three quarter mile branch south of Brookwood can still be seen. The huge cemetary, that was required as London had run out of burial spaces in the mid Victorian times, is still active. Trains ran every day, or more frequently, from 1854 until the WWII, when the Waterloo Station was bombed, and the Necropils station platform put out of action permanently. The trains were provided, and ran by the L&SWR, and the Southern Railway after 1923. They had both passenger accommodation and 'express' box vans for the caskets.

Incidentally, the remains of Sir Winston Churchill was also conveyed by train - one of my first 'train memories' - in a consist of British Pullman cars with the casket in a specially painted express box car. The car was painted in the UK Pullman colours of umber and cream some time before the ceremony, as Sir Winston's death was expected some months earlier, and the van put at the back of the Stewart Lane carriage depot until required. This was one of the last state train burials to be held in the UK.

Peter Harris

[chad thomas]

The SP even had a funeral car. I think it was called the Descanso.