Nostalgia & History > Photos from RFK funeral train

http://pictureyear.blogspot.com/2008/06/pictures-from-train.html

Thanks for posting this link. I remember watching this event on TV, I wasn't quite 13 years old yet. Very moving.

One of the pictures shows crewmen on a train on an adjacent track standing in the vestibule doors as the funeral train passed (not clear if the adjacent train is moving or not). The line number showing in the window of one of the cars is 0348 (I think, though it is a little blurry). Using number systems I am used to, this would have been train 3, car 48 on the Penn Texas, but that train wasn't scheduled to leave New York until 6:45 pm, plus it would have operated in the same direction as the funeral train, so I doubt it was that train. So was it car 03 on train 48, the Broadway Limited? That train was due into New York from Chicago at 9:30 am. I'm not sure what time the Funeral Train left New York, but if it left early enough or if the Broadway was running late, it could have been it.

Anyone know what RR ran this train and what the power/consist was?

Great Pics.

SPSF_luvr Wrote:
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> Anyone know what RR ran this train and what the
> power/consist was?
>
> Great Pics.


It was operated by the Penn Central on what is now Amtrak's northeast corridor between New York and Washington DC, and was operated with a GG1. Others will have to fill in the consist info.

Dig up a 1968 Trains magazine. It had a story and consist

> So was it car 03 on train 48, the Broadway
> Limited? That train was due into New York from
> Chicago at 9:30 am.

It could have been Car 3 on Train 49, the westbound Broadway. The PC timetable effective 4/28/1968 says 49 departed NYP at 5:05pm in those days. Arrival in Philly was 61 minutes later if on time, so they photo easily could have been taken late in the afternoon in Jersey someplace.

The last digit in the number is too fuzzy to be conclusive. The funeral train and Broadway were both going towards Philadelphia, and I don't think that photo is blurry enough for the trains to have been making track speed in opposite directions. So my guess it those Pullman porters were riding the vestibules of the westbound Broadway.

WAF Wrote:
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> Dig up a 1968 Trains magazine. It had a story and
> consist


Aha, good idea. From August 1968 issue, page 10, I obtained the following information:

Consist was:

GG1 electrics 4901 and 4903
Heavyweight baggage car 7607
Streamlined coaches 1524, 1535, 1484, 1531, 1581, 1528
Standard 48-seat diner 4484
Streamlined coaches 1501, 1483, 1503, 1530
Twin-unit diner 4609-4608
Streamlined coaches 1541, 1591, 1512, 1522
Streamlined parlor car 7146 (the Matthias W. Baldwin)
ex-NYC 12 wheel business car 30 (operated "kitchen end to rear")
ex-PRR 8 wheel business car 120 (the Philadelphia)
TOTAL 21 cars (counting the twin unit diner as two cars)

1,146 passengers were aboard.

Train was scheduled to depart New York at 12:30 pm and arrive Washington at 4:30 pm.

Train actually departed Track 12 at New York Pennsylvania Station at 1:03 pm.

Train arrived on Track 16 in Washington DC at 9:08 pm.

The last four cars were uncoupled and respotted to Track 17 for unloading at 9:27 pm, and in the words of Trains Editor David P. Morgan, "The sigh of PC must have echoed that of the brakes."

Kennedy family paid Penn Central approximately $15,000 for the train.

Two people died and four were injured at Elizabeth, NJ when "The Admiral" came upon a crowd that had surged across main 1 for a closer view of the special (after which PC halted all trains ahead of or opposing the funeral train). One eighteen year old youth was severely burned by the 11,000 volt catenary when standing on top of a boxcar for a better view.

There was also a pilot train consisting of GG1 4932, one PC and two NH sleepers.

GG1's 4900 and 4910 were the protection power.

Car 120 was and still is the Pennsylvania. 800241

pennsy3750 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It could have been Car 3 on Train 49, the
> westbound Broadway. The PC timetable effective
> 4/28/1968 says 49 departed NYP at 5:05pm in those
> days. Arrival in Philly was 61 minutes later if
> on time, so they photo easily could have been
> taken late in the afternoon in Jersey someplace.
>
> The last digit in the number is too fuzzy to be
> conclusive. The funeral train and Broadway were
> both going towards Philadelphia, and I don't think
> that photo is blurry enough for the trains to have
> been making track speed in opposite directions.
> So my guess it those Pullman porters were riding
> the vestibules of the westbound Broadway.


Except that the funeral train would have been beyond Philadelphia by the time the westbound Broadway from New York would have arrived there, and besides, PC was not running any trains around the funeral train by that time due to the accident at Elizabeth that killed two people. Another thought, though, is that this might be the Washington DC sleeper due to leave Washington at 5:00 pm for Chicago. It may have met the funeral train somewhere on the south end of the route. I agree that the last digit is too fuzzy to read.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1687575

look at the u tube link!