Photos taken aboard RFK's Funeral Train

nathansixchime · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2005 4:03 pm **Posts:** 949

"An incredibly emotional train ride..." on June 8, 1968.

CNN has compiled previously unseen photographs taken from aboard the RFK funeral train on its journey to Washington, D.C

Perhaps one of the last mass presences of citizenry across the country at rail stations and trackside?

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/06/06/rfk.something.happening.here.cnn

Here are some of the photographs: http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0108/train01.htm

More information on the train:

Quote:

Robert Kennedy's 21 car funeral train left New York City for Washington, DC. The train was led by GG1 number 4901 with number 4903 trailing, and ended with Penn Central open-platform business car number 120 carrying the body of the late Senator.

A three car pilot train pulled by GG1 number 4932 ran ahead of the funeral train and GG1s numbers 4900 and 4910 followed light as back-up motive power.

At Elizabeth, NJ, the crowd moved onto the tracks to get a view of the special train, just as "The Admiral", heading to New York City from Chicago, was rounding a curve. "The Admiral's" GG1 sounded its horn, but some of the people in the crowd did not clear the track in time and sadly two were killed and four seriously injured.

After the tragic accident the Penn Central ordered all train movement stopped until the special train passed. The funeral train arrived in Washington's Union Station four hours behind schedule and had caused disruption to the entire railroad.

A family stands at attention.

Did you watch the train pass?

Kelly Lynch

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Sat Jun 07, 2008 4:46 pm

And as a result:

Aside from Eisenhower's funeral train of 1969, when was the last time we saw such a funeral train?

And can anyone think of anyone that would warrant (for want of a better way to phrase it) such a train today?

I have run into railroaders over the years who basically derided that whole funeral train as a calculated move of political expediency, part of a carefully crafted continuum of the whole "Kennedy Camelot" mystique to give the fans one last opportunity to venerate their icons. (Yeah, these folks apparently didn't think much of the Kennedys to begin with, and the fatalities didn't help their opinions. Let's not make this a political rant.)

In retrospect, for a recurrence, we'd have to find some popular politician with a huge populist (perhaps cultish) following, probably assassinated before enough dirt came out on him/her, for whom a long, drawn-out funeral procession aboard a train crossing the jurisdictions populated by his/her fans would be part of the package and "legacy".

You know, call me a cynic, but I just don't see that happening again. Maybe the Queen in England, but not in the States.

bbunge · **Posted:** Sat Jun 07, 2008 10:42 pm

Having gotten caught up in the DC Metrorail rush (850k riders that day) to see the Reagan funeral march, I suspect it would have been possible if there had been a train instead of cross country flights on the AF1 aircraft.

Bob

tomgears · **Posted:** Sun Jun 08, 2008 8:29 am

I saw the CNN report and I must have missed the new photos. Everything I saw was used in the RFK Funeral Train book published in 2000. Was there a link I missed?

nathansixchime · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2005 4:03 pm **Posts:** 949

More amazing shots here, some with railroad employees looking on from their own train.

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

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/magazine/01RFKtext-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

o anderson · **Posted:** Sun Jun 08, 2008 7:03 pm

I hope it never happens again.

Rovronr · **Posted:** Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:36 am

My sentiments exactly.
I never want to feel that way again.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Mon Jun 09, 2008 2:06 pm

Quote:

I never want to feel that way again.

Reality check, folks: people die. Even politicians, even popular ones. Some of them even die in office.

I certainly don't advocate a premature death of any politician short of, say, Hitler or Saddam Hussein, but at some point in the future we're going to be dealing with the late Jimmy Carter, George Bush (41 or 43), Bill Clinton, and others, no matter what anyone may think of them or their records/legacies.

The plain fact of the matter is that I have, and always have had, little to no use for celebrity worship, and many funerals become just that. Robert Kennedy's funeral train stood out in this regard because he had not yet had the opportunity, as elected president, to do things that no doubt would have effectively diminished his popularity among many. I shudder to think of the rude insults and protests that would be carried out today against a Clinton or Bush funeral train. (The annual "mooning" of an Amtrak train in California comes to mind, unfortunately.......)

I've heard reliable stories of clueless politicians making unreasonable or impossible demands of railroads or transit agencies, such as trying to run a "campaign train" in a county that lacked any rails except an industrial branch. I suppose if an official funeral train were ever to run again in North America, the demands of the politicians would once again be laughable at best and disconnected from reality at worst.