The official Penn Central RFK Funeral Train file is in the RR Museum of PA Archives. I know because I collected it when I was Archivist there. It includes the train consist you are seeking as well as the tickets the Kennedy family were required to buy to ship the body in coffin per tariff rates. It was donated by a former owner of PRR private car No. 120, Anita Pins, about fifteen years ago. I also wrote a detailed article on the RFK Funeral Train published in the Friends of the RR Museum of PA's journal Milepost June 2003 issue that expands upon the folder's contents and the train consist.

Thank you for that update.

The B&O Railroad Museum has had the car brought up in this thread since 2005. The fact that it was part of the 21-car RFK Funeral train was unknown until now. Great info in this thread.

For those still interested, this just popped up on my Facebook feed.

Aaron F. thank you for that document, clearly an authentic internal memo, written exactly how I've seen such directions written by railroads, especially successor passenger road Amtrak. Something happened between the time that memo was written and Saturday morning, since the baggage car actually used was #7607, not 7534. Also, someone literally didn't get the memo in the mechanical department, since station personnel were not prepared to remove a window from the lounge end of the 120 to get the casket into the car, and the train was delayed nearly two hours doing so. And while they had the foresight to hold opposing freight movements in advance, they still allowed opposing passenger trains, which led to the horrible accident at Elizabeth with #50, The Admiral, resulting in two deaths and a number of injuries.

The other fascinating thing about this memo is it's documentation of just how many people it took to make this special move work. Just spit-balling the number of PC employees who were directly assigned to this move, it looks like upwards of 85 employees were involved (memo did not count any OBS employees, especially the two dining car crews which I added), also not counting yard crews and station personnel who dealt with the train as part of their regular shifts that day. I'm sure the Kennedy family paid dearly for this train, but I have trouble imagining that PC made any money on operating it. They certainly went to some trouble, if not great lengths to present a good image for the newly merged company. Looking at movie and still images of the train, the GG1's looked like they had just come out of the paint shop; and just about every car was lettered for PennCentral, including the 120, which clearly had the car name Pennsylvania painted out. NYC business car #30 was still lettered for the Central, and a few cars still had Keystone logos on them, but it was far from the hodgepodge look that a lot of early PC passenger trains had.

CBS This Morning did a story on the funeral train, interviewed Mr. Levin and showed the inside of the 120 as part of the story. They also used CBS archival video of the train that is not available on the internet, including aerial views. This might be rebroadcast as part of another CBS newscast later in the day, or later in the week, they sometimes do that with feature stories.

Yep:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/robert-f-k ... ral-train/

Sandy, any idea which overpass in Baltimore that one scene of the throng of people watching the train pass from the wide boulevard is?

While I'm at it, does anyone have any idea what kind of vegetation was put on the railings of Business car #120?

Yes.





Oh, you wanted to know which one???

Broadway, looking south towards Johns Hopkins Hospital area, just off the east end of Union Tunnel.

Thank you.

My father John M. McGuigan who was with PRR and PC had business car 120 for years. I basically grew up on it and remember distinctly when it was borrowed to transport RFK's coffin. I was told it was because the length of the windows in the living room area was long enough to place the casket in for people to see when the train went by. Our family has a thank you note for lending the car out.

Ms. Manze, thank you for your information. I seriously considered trying to model the train in HO scale, but there are too many of the cars used that are not available as models, not just #120, and the other private cars, but the "Congo" (Congressional Service) cars (at least that I could find), which were most of the train, a surprising gap in models that are available, since those cars have been used by numerous railroads and owners, and some are still in use today. Someone please tell me if I haven't looked in the right place for models, specifically for the former Inn series roomette sleepers?

Patricia,

Car 120 is still alive and well. It's been in our ownership since 1985. The attached photo taken by Gary Pancavage earlier this year shows the car along with it's Juniata Terminal stablemates traversing the Delair Bridge on a Conrail inspection train.

It will be on the road again this weekend supporting the USMC/Norfolk Southern Toys for Tots train running from Albany to Binghamton, New York.

EBL

Patricia, To add to Mr.Levin's posting, I have been a guest aboard the 120 recently and can report that the Levin family has kept it in first class condition. Matter of fact I'd say the car looks the best it ever has.

Best regards, Ross Rowland