The Lincoln Funeral Car

James Fouchard · **Joined:** Thu Jan 12, 2006 11:56 pm **Posts:** 126

Ron Travis wrote:

I don’t doubt that it was designed by Haupt. After seeing the exceptional beauty of some of his bridges and that of the Lincoln funeral car, I would say that they almost have to be connected to the same creator.

The Car was designed by B. P. Lamason, Superindendent of the Car Works of the US Military RRs at Alexandria, Virginia. Here is a copy of the article about the car from Railway Car Journal, with the drawing of the double-truck assembly, as well as a link to a posting with further details on the cars construction, written by a member of the Car Shop who worked under Lamason on the car:

http://cs.trains.com/ctr/f/3/t/206639.aspx

James Fouchard · **Joined:** Thu Jan 12, 2006 11:56 pm **Posts:** 126

Here is the builders plate that was mounted on the door to the car:

Ron Travis · **Joined:** Sun May 15, 2005 2:22 pm **Posts:** 1543

James,

Thanks for that information. That sheds a lot of light on the subject and I will look it over carefully, including the thread on Classic Trains. The drawing of the span bolster shows kind of what I expected with it attaching to the bottom of the truck bolsters. The configuration shows why it is hidden in the side photographs.

Building the replica of the funeral train is an amazing project.

J3a-614 · **Posted:** Sat Dec 08, 2012 10:10 pm

From the Classic Trains link provided by James Fouchard:

This is the clearest photo I've ever seen of the Lincoln funeral car.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3 ... 01832v.jpg

I'm afraid I don't recognize this station; could this be the old station in Harrisburg, Pa.?

http://publications.newberry.org/lincol ... 917e16.jpg

A bit of dreaming. . .one wonders what other cars could be replicated today, either as running mates to this one, or just to replicate vintage stock for something like the Golden Spike Historic Site.

A more practical question might be how to mount air brake equipment on this thing. It certainly didn't have it in its funeral service, and may have never had it while it had four trucks.

bigjim4life · **Posted:** Sun Dec 09, 2012 12:45 am

Jeff Lisowski wrote:

daylight4449 wrote:

Jeff Lisowski wrote:

Could they have put a little more effort into that video? Sheesh.

Jeff, this is the first video that the group has put out and produced on its own. I couldn't have done any better when I edited (and later assisted in filming of) our first news program in Photojournalism last year. Now, if the camera wasn't shaking the whole time, then I'd wager that the quality would be far better, but it's the first promotional film for the project. Now, if only someone could convince Sourcefed to do a story on this project...

My argument is if you are are looking for donations, take a little more time.

The shaky footage of the Leviathan and the interview portions not being audible were a turn off.

Tripods, people...even a basic one will go a long, long way.

James Fouchard · **Joined:** Thu Jan 12, 2006 11:56 pm **Posts:** 126

J3a-614 wrote:

From the Classic Trains link provided by James Fouchard:

This is the clearest photo I've ever seen of the Lincoln funeral car.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3 ... 01832v.jpg

I'm afraid I don't recognize this station; could this be the old station in Harrisburg, Pa.?

A bit of dreaming. . .one wonders what other cars could be replicated today, either as running mates to this one, or just to replicate vintage stock for something like the Golden Spike Historic Site.

Yes, this is the depot at Harrisburg, during the train's stop there.

One piece of rolling stock from the Golden Spike ceremony still exists- the Central Pacific's Directors Car which brought Leland Stanford (and the spikes) out from California for the event. Later owned by the Virginia and Truckee, it now resides at the Nevada State RR Museum in Carson City.

Zak Lybrand · **Joined:** Tue Jul 06, 2010 1:57 am **Posts:** 210

Jeff Lisowski wrote:

My argument is if you are are looking for donations, take a little more time.

The shaky footage of the Leviathan and the interview portions not being audible were a turn off.

Amen to that. I'm really interested in the project, but that video was a huge turn off. The shaky footage, the inaudible interviews, and the narrator speaking at a million miles an hour was incredibly frustrating.