There is a posting in FLIMSIES concerning an old passenger car purchased by David Kloke, the gentleman who built Leviathan # 63, the terrific 4-4-0 reproduction of the Central Pacific engine from the 1860's. Mr. Kloke is apparently going to be using parts of this passenger car to build a reproduction of the car that carried Abraham Lincoln's body from Washington, D.C. back to Illinois. The purchased car has apparently been sitting at the entrance to Smallin Cave in Missouri since the 1950's. What is missing from the story quoted in FLIMSIES is the heritage of the car. It's monitor type roof in itself is interesting. Perhaps there are no records of the history of that car, but the story seems to offer no info, one way or the other. Perhaps someone might know something.

Les

There were a couple of threads on this board that discussed this car and the actual Lincoln Car ("United States") back in 2009 and 2010 I believe. The car had been offered for sale by Ozark Railcar.

James -

I remember that thread, and the furor it caused. I think that this might be a completely different car. But I may be wrong.

Les

James -

I looked up the old thread, and you are right. It IS the same car. I guess I got confused by the fact that the car was offered for sale by Ozark at that time and the FLIMSIES report stated that the owners had donated it to Mr. Kloke. So....my bad!

Les

Interesting that Mr, Kloke picked up this car. Apparently he has Wayne Wesolowski, Lincoln Car researcher and builder of an excellent scale model of the car, as a technical advisor on the project:

http://www.leviathan63.com/donate.html

Wasn't there some debate as to whether that thing was even a rail car at all?

Steve

This one is for sale on Ozark, and is at an old attraction, this the same one?
http://ozarkmountainrailcar.com/lincoln ... al_car.htm

It WAS a very old passenger car with a monitor roof that is about the only intact portion of the original. Most of the body was modern house- style construction in roughly the shape of a passenger car, and it sat on cast freight trucks. It's a bit of a
Frankenstein, but it preserved the most distinctive part of this ancient (unidentified) passenger car.



That's the one.

I think it's wonderful that somebody of Mr. Kloke's caliber has taken on this car. It should be beautiful- and with Wayne Wesolowski on board, it will be as close to perfect as possible.

As a side note, the web site mentions a sister to Leviathan is being built- the York. No indication of who the new engine's owner will be, though.

Steve Hunter
Cardinal, Ontario

Kloke Locomotive Works is producing another 1860s era 4-4-0 for an organization called Steam Into History, which plans to run steam trips along a stretch of track outside Gettysburg, PA. I have seen only a couple of articles in the local PA papers about it, and there website isn't fully online yet.

Could that be why the funeral car is going to be replicated?

Is the passenger car "simulator" still in existence at some tourist trap in Gettysburg? I rod that when I was in grade school and its the only part of the place that I still remember.

Here is a link to the discussion of a couple years ago:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28087&hilit=LINCOLN%27S+FUNERAL+CAR

I doubt that either Dr. Wesolowski or Mr. Kloke are being taken in by any claims that the chicken coop is connected to Lincoln in any way, but examples of car-building from that period are exceedingly rare, and what better way to discover the mysteries of the joinery than to have an example you can disassemble at your leisure? This period is so far in the past that even the surviving books are not well illustrated; the drawings in the reproduction of the 1879 Car Builder's Dictionary are laughable compared to the beautifully detailed drawings that became common ten or fifteen years later.

Anyway, It's not really clear why Steam Into History should want a reproduction of Lincoln's funeral car, one would think they'd want a reproduction of the car he rode to Gettysburg, PA, to say a few words at the dedication of the cemetery at the battle site. Reportedly, the famous Gettysburg Address was composed during that train trip.

Dennis -

Well, there are photographs of the "United States" (Lincoln's funeral car) so a reasonable replication could probably by made. Are there any photos of the car that Honest Abe rode in on the trip to Gettysburg?

Les

Which one? He probably changed trains a couple times en route to Gettysburg.

Incidentally, the National Park Service had a big to-do "re-enacting" Lincoln's Feb. 1861 trip to Washington from Springfield. The last lap, from Baltimore to Washington, was done aboard a MARC commuter train from Baltimore's Penn Station over the former PRR, not the historically accurate--and still available--MARC train from Baltimore's B&O Camden Station over the B&O!

Mr. Kloke obtained the Ozark car for the hardware and as an example of certain construction methods. The reproduction Lincoln car will have to be built to be capable of meeting current FRA standards.
Right now Mr. Kloke is building (as mentioned) another 4-4-0 for the group in Pennsylvania as well an Immigrant car to pull behind his own engine that will use the trucks off the car the C&NW built to pull behind the Pioneer in the Chicago RR fair in the 1940’s. A period boxcar is also planned as well.
If you want to see Leviathan in action, it’s currently planned to be at Train Festival 2011 this summer in Rock Island.

[url]http://www.leviathan63.com/index.html[/url]

Two links to review, regarding Mr. Lincoln's funeral car, the latter featuring a gentleman named Wesolowski. Hmmm!

http://alexandriava.gov/historic/info/d ... x?id=42976

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative ... /train.htm