A Model Of President Lincoln's Funeral Train

The depot of the Chicago and Alton Railroad Company at Independence, Missouri, is now a museum. One of the interesting exhibits was a replica of the funeral train that brought the martyred President Abraham Lincoln's body from Chicago to Springfield, Illinois for burial. The route of Abraham Lincoln's Funeral train can be found here (Tuesday, May 2 shows timetable for Lincoln funeral train specifically on the Chicago and Alton Railroad Company).

[Picture of Model Train - Independence, MO, Depot by Jim Palm]

Lincoln represented the Chicago & Sangamon Railroad Company (an earlier "ancestor" of the Chicago & Alton) in an 1851 court case in Illinois. According to this article (under "The Great Railroad Lobbyist" heading), "In addition to working for the Illinois Central, Lincoln also represented the Chicago and Alton, Ohio and Mississippi, and Rock Island Railroad corporations." He was brought home by a railroad train line that had helped shape his career and therefore his future.



The funeral car was burned in Minnesota in 1911 (see framed newspaper article).

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