[Sharon]

The 1,700 mile journey and national funeral for Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Conducted over the railroads, this text details preparations, the eleven national funerals en route, and many trackside ceremonies. The logistics included passage over 22 railroads and two street railways involving 42 locomotives, approximately 80 pieces of passenger equipment and ferry moves. Millions of mourners gathered along the margins of the railroad tracks.

In raw, cold, chilly winds, and rain, in the dark of night, millions of people witnessed the Lincoln Funeral Train. The route that was followed home is almost the same route Lincoln followed 1861 inaugural journey to become the President. Along the way home there were eleven planned memorial services conducted en route.

Elaborate preparations and massive processional displays were conducted at the principal cities of Baltimore, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, New York City, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Chicago and burial at Springfield, Illinois. Citizens seeking a glimpse of the slain president came in throngs and filled miles of city streets. Near riots ensued at some locations in the effort to honor the remains. There were twelve different funeral services for Lincoln within seventeen hundred miles.

An archway the train passed through as it left the depot


The locomotive's engine


The inside of the Pullman funeral car which Mr. Lincoln's casket (right) was placed on as it traveled from state to state


Exterior view of Pullman carriage


The Lincoln Funeral Train Marker is located on the grounds of the Indiana State Capitol in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana

http://www.documentingreality.com/fo...-state-137657/
http://www.documentingreality.com/fo...-1865-a-11747/
http://www.documentingreality.com/fo...r-chair-23964/
http://www.documentingreality.com/fo...-1865-a-45303/

Various views of the train below

[sassieroses]

Did you know the practice of flowers at funerals began with President Lincoln's Funeral Train? People threw flowers on the tracks as the train passed through their city, thus began the practice. I read that in a book about Lincoln last year.

[blancadon]

Here's the route they traveled.

[Sharon]

Originally Posted by blancadon ↗

Here's the route they traveled.

Thank you, that's a far better image than the ones I found. Much appreciated

[blancadon]

Contribution to the thread by blancadon:

Lincoln train map.jpg

[Faline]

Interesting

[William May]

The car that carried Lincoln's body also carried the body of his son, Tad Lincoln, who had died in Washington DC at age 10. When they planned the funeral, it was decided that his son should be brought back with Lincoln, so they could be interred together.
The funeral car was actually built for the use of President Lincoln, and it was finished just as he was assasinated. It would have been the equivalent of Air Force One today. Unfortunately, the only trip it ever made with Lincoln on board was for his funeral trip home.
To make the car useable on multiple railroads, the funeral car wheels were actually 8" thick (wide) to accomadate all the potential rail sizes the car might run on.
The car was never used again after the funeral train. It eventually wound up as a railroad crew rest car in Minnesota. It was on display there for a while, but when they were burning weeds around it, it caught on fire, and was destroyed. The car ends, with the doors, may have been saved. The remains were on display for sale on a railroad sale web site, but when I contacted Wayne Wesolowsky (Probably the world authority on the Lincoln Funeral Train) he looked at the pictures and noted several differences. He did not think any part of the Lincoln Funeral Car survived.
They are currently building a replica, to be shown on the anniversary of Lincoln's funeral trip, in 2015.
Wayne built the model of Lincoln's Funeral Train that is on display at the Lincoln Memorial. He has been doing research on it for nearly 50 years. He has written a book, which I have, and I attended one of the lectures he gave on the Lincoln Funeral Train. It was EXTREMELY interesting.
(If any of the people reading this are modelers, just one truck
(wheel bogie) on the model car, consisted of 270 individual parts, all made by hand from scratch. EVERY single detail was documented in drawings or pictures.
The train crew was instructed to operate at 25 mph, but if ANY people were observed watching, the train was to pass no faster than 10 miles per hour, so they would have a chance to see Lincoln. Hundreds of thousands of people stood by the tracks that went through their communities to see the Lincoln car pass by.
The schedule was pre-announced, and even at 3 am or 4 am, there were hundreds of people lining nearly every mile of the route to see the car pass.

[Kel007]

I used to live in Plain City, Ohio. My school had pictures on the wall of his funeral train coming through town. The tracks were still there. It was kind of surreal to think he was there at one time.

[30564U]

Lincoln's trip was a real test of the relatively new process of embalming. His embalming was such a success that it became common practice in America to embalm bodies. Many years later, when his coffin was opened to check that his body was still there after a brazen kidnapping attempt, witnesses noted that the former president was in extremely good condition and was easily recognizable.

[30564U]

There were a ton of interesting things about that funeral trip. The troops assigned to the train were not regular US Army soldiers, they were like an auxiliary or reserve...made up of wounded "limited duty" Civil War Union veterans. After the trip...each solider was awarded the Medal of Honor (under the guidelines and customs of the time). Unfortunately for those soldiers, they had their medals taken back toward the beginning of the twentieth century as the requirements for the Medal of Honor were changed.