abraham lincoln's funeral car?

[Anonymous]

Ray hate to counterdict you, but 50' passenger cars were not around in 1865, 34' would have been the closest available, 50' cars didn't appear for another 6-10 years.

Jay

[orsonroy]

Boy, there sure is a lot of partial information on this thread! I guess it's time for a Illinois citizen and American Civil War nut to chime in.

Looking at the photo of "the engine" and "boxcar", posted above, it's pretty obvious that the car behind the 4-4-0 is actually a BAGGAGE CAR. Boxcars don't have doors and windows.

I did a search on the US Library of Congress site, the Illinois Historical Society site, the Lincoln Association site, the Chicago Historical Society, and the Denver Public Library photo archive. As usual, the Chicago Historical Society had the best online photo of the Lincoln Funeral Train:

http://www.chicagohistory.org/AOTM/apr00/graphics/funtrain.jpg

As everyone can clearly see, the train is made up of one baggage car and several coaches. One period flyer I found on the LOC site indicated that the official train was to be made up of eight coaches for dignitaries and Lincoln's own car. This train WOULD HAVE been left together for the entire route from Washington to Chicago, at least (and possibly from Chicago to Springfield, but I've heard that the Alton assembled a new train for that leg of the trip). The engines would have been changed every 100 miles or so, or whenever the train entered another railroad's territory.

As for modeling the Funeral train, your best bet is to find the AHM Lincoln car, which pops up on Ebay once in awhile. The engine will have to be either a Rivarossi or Bachmann 4-4-0 that's been repainted (it will need a Russia Iron boiler, NOT a red or silver one!). The coaches and baggage car will have to be kitbashed out of Roundhouse (not MP or IHC) 50' old time Pullman cars (the ones with the "duck bill" roofs, not the 50' Overlands with the normal celestory roofs). Remember, 1965 was the days before railroad diners, sleepers, lounges and Pullmans, so ONLY get coach bodies! Some one will have to dig through one of the Lincoln Funeral Train books to see what railroad the cars actually came from (definitely NOT the B&O, which was 5' gauge then), to see what colors they'd be (possibly yellow, from the looks of the photo).

If you have the means, I'd strongly suggest going to the Illinois Stste Historical Society in Springfield. You literally trip over Lincoln experts, and they'll be able to lead you in the right direction for research data and photos.

[dknelson]

AHM made the actual funeral car in HO -- it was a four truck car, so 8 not 6 axles. My recollection is that it did not run at all well.
Obviously the consist did not remain constant for the entire trip since it went over several different railroads. There are many photos of the train but you will see differences. The engines were draped in black crepe as were many of the cars.
Wayne Wesolowski, once of the best craftsman in the hobby, has built a funeral train in large scale and MR had an article and photos. I believe it is now in a museum unless it is still on tour.
For those with a taste for the macabre ... due to some flaw in the embalming, Lincoln's face began to turn black during the long long process of taking his body hom to Illinois. The morticians rectified the problem as best they could using white chalk. There is one and only one photo of him in his casket -- it was supposed to be destroyed by order of the government but someone hid it for years. The face looks oddly white.
What is little known is that his coffin was not actually buried at the memorial until around 1901, and for 35 years crowds of people were paying homage to an empty grave site while the actual tomb was planned and constructed. After an unsuccessful attempt to steal the body and hold it for ransom, for a while the coffin was actually hidden under a pile of rubble. When the tomb was finally ready there was a moment of panic -- what if the scheme to steal the body had actually been successful? So they called in a welder who cut a small opening in the metal coffin and Lincoln's body was viewed for the last time by a small crowd of people, including a small boy whose father brought him out of school for the event. The face was recognizable down to the mole on his face, but the white chalk gave it a bizarre appearance. They noted that Lincoln had been buried wearing gloves, which he hated to wear in life. And they noted that he had been buried with a small American flag in the casket against all flag rules of etiquette. The coffin was resealed and buried under tons of wet cement -- never to be disturbed again.
Sorry for the off topic info. One last Lincoln story, showing his humility and sense of humor. the night before he gave the Gettysburg Address, he was staying at a hotel and a crowd of people gathered under his balcony until he came out to say hello. Someone called for a speech. Lincoln declined saying "It is important that someone in my position not be heard to say something foolish." A heckler in the crowd yelled out "If he can help it." Lincoln laughed and said "And sometimes the only way I can help it is to say nothing at all" and withdrew back into his room.
Dave Nelson

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by WARRANTIES

I am interested in beginning to start a train hobby. I am extremely interested in finding a complete Lincoln Funeral Train, HO GAUGE. Am I in need of a reality check? What are the chances of finding this train?
What is the best way to start looking for it?

First off, welcome to the best hobby in the world, that being said, let's look at your questions.

I know of no one making a set based on Lincoln's funeral train, as it's not a super popular item to be mass produced. usually Set's are not the best in quality anyways, so if you wanted a Lincoln Train, the best would be as i've stated above to build one yourself. I believe someone manufactured the Special 6 axle car Lincoln rode in, try Ebay to see if anyones selling it.

In reviewing other pictures of the Train, it contained a 4-4-0 (several different railroads on the east coast PPR would probably be the easiest to find), a 36' boxcar (presumably holding the Presidents personal goods from the Whitehouse), probably 2 baggage cars (there were more passenegers than a normal train, one could be a combine holding the guards), 2-4 coaches the special funeral car and the oberservation car on the end. The passenger cars can all be get from MDC in 34' or Concor's oldtime passenger cars will work as well. The box car would be a 36' oldtime, available from a few sources, including MDC and concor.

Jay

[Anonymous]

I am a brand new member. I am a senior citizen. I do not have a train. I am interested in beginning to start a train hobby. I am extremely interested in finding a complete Lincoln Funeral Train, HO GAUGE. Am I in need of a reality check? What are the chances of finding this train?
What is the best way to start looking for it?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by IronGoat
discovered to my surprise that Lincoln's body was moved "13" times before it reached the "final" resting place.

And 29 different Locomotives pulled the train across that distance.

Jay

[MudHen_462]

I am sure that you mean from Washington to Illiois. I was watching the History Channel the other night, and discovered to my surprise that Lincoln's body was moved "13" times before it reached the "final" resting place. This should be an interesting bit of research, and car building.... good luck on your project.

[AltonFan]

There are at least two books avalable on the Lincoln funeral train. Here is one: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0925436216/qid%3D1074883488/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/103-2310326-2116654

[Anonymous]

Try this: http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/news/train.htm
A simple search revealed it.

Looks like you'll need a colorful 4-4-0, a standard passenger set (MDC Roundhouse's 36' boxcar, 34' baggage, 34' coach, 34' observation, and 34' combine are what you need, but are in kits, you'll have to paint them to fit the funeral train's line. ). Since this was a special train, complete with lots of diginatries, you'd probably want 2 coaches. the special funeral car would be in the middle, so it was probably Boxcar-Baggage-combine-coach-Funeral-coach-observation.

If you look at this picture: http://www.picturehistory.com/find/p/8887/mcms.html you'll notive there was a boxcar as the first car of the train, not sure what it's purpose was.

Then there's this site that's selling a book explicitaly on it: http://www.goldenspike.us/index.html?target=p_215.html&lang=en-us



Hope that helps.
Jay

[Anonymous]

if i where to build the Abraham Lincoln funeral train.
that took him to his resting place.

how would i go about this?
i have the funeral car already.

now what other HO cars do i need to complet this historic train ride in the 1860's

i need directions to sites that can help me build this train set.
thanks