Funeral train

A funeral train carries a coffin or coffins (caskets) to a place of interment by railway. Funeral trains today are often reserved for leaders, national heroes, or government officials, as part of a state funeral, but in the past were sometimes the chief means of transporting coffins and mourners to graveyards. Many modern era funeral trains are hauled by operationally restored steam locomotives, due to the more romantic image of the steam train against more modern diesel or electric locomotives, although non-steam powered funeral trains have been used.

The first funeral train was run by The London Necropolis and National Mausoleum Company on 7 November 1854. Trains ran once a day from London Necropolis railway station to Brookwood Cemetery. The train carried not only the bodies of the dead, but the parties of mourners who had come to attend the funeral services. Different classes were available for both the living and the dead; a more expensive first class ticket would provide a more ornate coffin and greater care of the body during transit. The London Necropolis Railway was run on the tracks of the London and South Western Railway, who feared that regular passengers would shun locomotives which had previously hauled funeral trains, and therefore purchased an entirely new fleet exclusively for the Necropolis line. The public were initially reserved about the project; one bishop expressed fears that "It may sometimes happen that persons of opposite characters might be carried in the same conveyance. For instance, the body of some profligate spendthrift might be placed in a conveyance with the body of some respectable member of the church, which would shock the feelings of his friends".^[2] Others felt that the railway industry, which was less than 20 years old and still very much a new technology, was too hectic and loud, ill-befitting the sombre mourning associated with Christian funeral services.

The line ran daily – including Sundays – for almost 50 years until 1900, when the Sunday service was stopped and trains began to run on an "as needed basis". The railway remained in operation through the

When West Norwood railway station opened two years later it was sited near to the gates of South London Metropolitan Cemetery, founded twenty years earlier; pall-bearers would unload the coffin from its "Funeral special" and simply carry it from the side entrance to the main gates. While this practice is long discontinued, the side gates still remain.

Following the

In Sydney, Australia, there was a similar service whereby the Rookwood Cemetery railway line served the Rookwood Cemetery complex. From 1867 until 1948 trains would depart Mortuary Station in Sydney City and travel the 15 km (9.3 mi) to Rookwood Cemetery.^[7]

In Melbourne funeral services operated to the Springvale Necropolis along the dedicated Spring Vale Cemetery railway,^[8] while the Fawkner Cemetery was served by trains to Fawkner station.^[9]

In

The Berlin Friedhofsbahn (Cemetery Line), opened in 1913, ran from Berlin-Wannsee station to Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) southwest of Central Berlin. It was serviced by both funeral trains with passenger and hearse carriages, as well as regular S-Bahn (suburban rail) services. Funeral train service ended in 1952 and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 spelled the end for cross-border S-Bahn services.

Although most funeral services now make use of road-going hearses rather than trains, funeral trains remain common for the funerals of heads of state.

Prime Minister Sir

Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon's coffin was transferred from Washington Union Station in Washington, D.C. to San Diego, California using a diesel-hauled train of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway starting on August 2, 1944.^[12]

King Michael I of Romania was given a state funeral on 16 December 2017.^[13] At the conclusion of the ceremonies in Bucharest, the coffin was taken from Băneasa railway station to Curtea de Argeș railway station on board the royal train for burial in Curtea de Argeş.^[14]

In 1894, the body of

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's coffin was transported to the capital Ankara by a funeral train from İzmit where it was brought to on the battlecruiser Yavuz, ex SMS Goeben.

Every British monarch that died in the 20th century was conveyed by funeral train: Queen Victoria, King Edward VII and King George VI were both taken to the Windsor & Eton Central railway station for the funeral procession. Operation London Bridge planned for the body of Elizabeth II to be transported by the British Royal Train in the event of her death in Scotland, but instead the body was flown to RAF Northolt from Edinburgh Airport and transported by state hearse to Windsor, making her the first monarch in almost two centuries not to receive a funeral train.^[16]

Most

Presidents transported in funeral trains were

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Funeral trains.

• The Mortuary Train to Rookwood - A Recollection of the Mortuary Train
• State Records New South Wales - Images of Mortuary Station
• Funeral Train of Abraham Lincoln