Golden Thread Lincoln's Funeral Train Reproduction

Southern Unionist

First Sergeant
Joined
Apr 27, 2017
Location
NC
In August of 2015, a special exhibit visited North Carolina as a part of a regional tour. It consisted of a high quality, high accuracy reproduction of the railroad car that carried Abraham Lincoln's body from Washington to Illinois for burial, and a fully functional reproduction of one of the 21 different 4-4-0 steam locomotives that pulled the train at various points along the route, between Apr. 21 and May 3, 1865. Reenactors were on hand to guard the car, as it would have been guarded by the US Army at every significant stop along the way.

The display location is Spencer, NC, at the largest surviving roundhouse in the US.

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Next post: Interior
 
The car had been built as an office car for the President, never used. Detailed records were kept on the car's construction and contents, making accurate reconstruction relatively easy. Amazingly, the original carpet manufacturer was still in business, and they knew exactly what pattern they had supplied for the original project.

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Looks like a great event and what a wonderful job on that car. Have any of you visited the Steam into History operation in Pa? They have a similar engine as the Leviathan built by the same company. It's been on my list and have wanted to check it out.

I have not been there, but somebody in Gettysburg had good things to say about it. Besides the station in New Freedom, PA, they also have the historic station at New Hanover Junction, which was part of the original route of the funeral train, as well as Lincoln's train to deliver the Gettysburg Address.

http://www.steamintohistory.com/
 
I have not been there, but somebody in Gettysburg had good things to say about it. Besides the station in New Freedom, PA, they also have the historic station at New Hanover Junction, which was part of the original route of the funeral train, as well as Lincoln's train to deliver the Gettysburg Address.

http://www.steamintohistory.com/
Thanks, was wanting to check it out when I was in Gettysburg last summer but ran out of time. Going to try again next summer.
 
The car had been built as an office car for the President, never used. Detailed records were kept on the car's construction and contents, making accurate reconstruction relatively easy. Amazingly, the original carpet manufacturer was still in business, and they knew exactly what pattern they had supplied for the original project.

View attachment 165215 View attachment 165216 View attachment 165217 View attachment 165218 View attachment 165219 View attachment 165220 View attachment 165221
Great photos, Douglas. Thanks for sharing.
 
While it's quite rare for a new steamer to get built these days, it's been an option for a long time. Quite a few Americans still know how to build a small boiler at a reasonable cost. In the seventies, two regional amusement parks that I kept up with owned relatively new narrow gauge steam trains that burned either LP gas or propane, with tanks hidden in the tender under the cosmetic woodpile. Most likely, the burners operated on automatic, based on upper and lower steam pressure settings.

Due to corrosion and metal fatigue, buying a new 4-4-0 is surely the only way to get one running now. No government inspector is going to pass a pressure vessel that's more than 150 years old for public operation.

One great thing about a tourist line in a place like rural PA, clean backgrounds are not hard to come by. The museum at Spencer has a lot of visual clutter. My avatar pic required about an hour of airbrushing to get rid of hideous power lines and nasty looking poles that appeared to be growing out of the stack. A uniformly blue or overcast sky over the stack would have made it easy, but that wasn't the case.

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And now for a shot that only a true railhead can appreciate... a practical method of pulling historic cars with link and pin coupling, with a modern locomotive that has a knuckle:

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That day, they did not allow the special car and engine to be photographed together, wanting to save that moment for Springfield, Ill.
 
While it's quite rare for a new steamer to get built these days, it's been an option for a long time. Quite a few Americans still know how to build a small boiler at a reasonable cost. In the seventies, two regional amusement parks that I kept up with owned relatively new narrow gauge steam trains that burned either LP gas or propane, with tanks hidden in the tender under the cosmetic woodpile. Most likely, the burners operated on automatic, based on upper and lower steam pressure settings.

Due to corrosion and metal fatigue, buying a new 4-4-0 is surely the only way to get one running now. No government inspector is going to pass a pressure vessel that's more than 150 years old for public operation.

One great thing about a tourist line in a place like rural PA, clean backgrounds are not hard to come by. The museum at Spencer has a lot of visual clutter. My avatar pic required about an hour of airbrushing to get rid of hideous power lines and nasty looking poles that appeared to be growing out of the stack. A uniformly blue or overcast sky over the stack would have made it easy, but that wasn't the case.

View attachment 165264
And now for a shot that only a true railhead can appreciate... a practical method of pulling historic cars with link and pin coupling, with a modern locomotive that has a knuckle:

View attachment 165265
That day, they did not allow the special car and engine to be photographed together, wanting to save that moment for Springfield, Ill.
Back in the day, we fabricated a faux knuckle to attach to vintage cars to be able to move them around with a switch engine or trackmobile. I wonder whatever happened to that thing. I guess Trinity must have it now.
 
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