Passenger Trains > Funeral Trolleys

After seeing the picture of the Descanso at OERM and the mention of the Funeral trolleys, I had a couple questions. Were the funeral trolleys used mostly in the older parts of Los Angeles with easy access to the mortuaries and cemeteries? What was used to get the casket and mourners to and from the trolley line. Any other information about their use would be appreciated. Thanks.

In my collection, I have the attached photo of the "Elmlawn" of the International Railway Co. (IRC) in Buffalo, NY. The IRC had two funeral cars available to those needing funeral cars. The Elmlawn and Greenwood. This one was built by Brill in 1895 for $5,798.00 and had 4 GE motors and Brill #27 trucks. It was 38' 5" long. Both burned in the Coldsprings Car Shop fire in April 1915, and were replaced with new cars bearing the same names. The new cars were used until 1922, when they were converted to regular passenger use.

---

Railrev Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What was
> used to get the casket and mourners to and from
> the trolley line.

Churches were usually on trolley lines.

Marty Bernard

There was a funeral trolley in Philadelphia named the "Hillside" for the Hillside Cemetery located in suburban Abington Township, Montgomery County. There was even a siding to serve the cemetery.

Railrev Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> After seeing the picture of the Descanso at OERM
> and the mention of the Funeral trolleys, I had a
> couple questions. Were the funeral trolleys used
> mostly in the older parts of Los Angeles with easy
> access to the mortuaries and cemeteries? What was
> used to get the casket and mourners to and from
> the trolley line. Any other information about
> their use would be appreciated. Thanks.
The Baltimore Transit Company also had a funeral streetcar named "Delores" and was rented to families to haul the casket and mourners from a funeral home to the church and then to the cemeteries. As someone else stated, streetcar lines went almost everywhere in Baltimore before National City Lines bought the Baltimore Transit Company and began to convert the lines to buses. NO One used a bus for a funeral, and most funeral homes began to offer transportation of their own.

LARy's "Descanso" had a "gurney" for moving the casket from the funeral parlor or chuch to the car, and then from the car to the gravesite. There are still funeral parlors on Washington Blvd. in LA, where the "W" cars ran, and several of the larger cemeteries had spur tracks for the funeral cars.