Railroad Forums 

Discussion relating to the Penn Central, up until its 1976 inclusion in Conrail. Visit the Penn Central Railroad Historical Society for more information.

Moderator: JJMDiMunno

 #959448  by CarterB
 
[quote=
Dr-Asterisk, re that train order, where was "Mexico" on the Wabash?
motor[/quote]

Mexico, MO
 #961320  by Bigt
 
Not to do with the RFK funeral train, but, Trains Magazine once did a great piece on the preparation
and running of the funeral train for President Eisenhower. A great deal of planning was involved by a
number of railroads. Because of the President's health condition (a number of heart attacks), there was
the time for advanced planning - something that PC did not have for RFK. Nevertheless, with all the
planning that was in place, there were still last minute glitches. Really a great read!
 #1019051  by Noel Weaver
 
ThirdRail7 wrote:Speaking if which, I was looking at the consist information for this train. What is a "Congo Coach?" I tried to find pictures, but nothing came up.
"Congo Coaches" were built by the Budd Company in the years following WW-II, I think the early 50's especially for the Pennsylvania Railroad Congressional betwen New York and Washington and the Senator between Boston and Washington. They were great to ride, had decent seating and all systems worked well. In the Penn Central years the fleet got busted up and the cars appeared on many different trains mixed with almost anything else. At least a fair number of them ended up with Amtrak which ran them again mostly in the northeast. Some were rebuilt for New York State service but eventually they were withdrawn from service. They probably had some miles left on them when Amtrak pulled them out of service and I think they were every bit as comfortable as anything else that were running on Amtrak through the years. There were other cars in this order besides the coaches; parlor cars, observation/lounge cars and dining cars.
Noel Weaver
 #1020813  by sixroute
 
I recently saw film from RFKs funeral train.
PRR (or PC) 120 was the observation car. It was in Tuscan livery , but had "Penn Central " on the letterboard and PC worms on the car.
 #1021236  by ThirdRail7
 
Noel Weaver wrote:
ThirdRail7 wrote:Speaking if which, I was looking at the consist information for this train. What is a "Congo Coach?" I tried to find pictures, but nothing came up.
"Congo Coaches" were built by the Budd Company in the years following WW-II, I think the early 50's especially for the Pennsylvania Railroad Congressional betwen New York and Washington and the Senator between Boston and Washington. They were great to ride, had decent seating and all systems worked well. In the Penn Central years the fleet got busted up and the cars appeared on many different trains mixed with almost anything else. At least a fair number of them ended up with Amtrak which ran them again mostly in the northeast. Some were rebuilt for New York State service but eventually they were withdrawn from service. They probably had some miles left on them when Amtrak pulled them out of service and I think they were every bit as comfortable as anything else that were running on Amtrak through the years. There were other cars in this order besides the coaches; parlor cars, observation/lounge cars and dining cars.
Noel Weaver

Thank you for the information. So, it is safe to assume the converted "Clocker" coaches that ended their career on the Adirondack were the Congo coaches?

As for the 120, yes it was the last car of the train. It had 21 cars and even stopped at Chester, PA and Perryville MD.
 #1455833  by treinjelle57
 
Dear All,
I came across this thread while doing research for a project of Dutch artist Rein Jelle Terpstra. He's working on a book about the Robert F. Kennedy funeral train, and it will be entirely based on photographs that people, who stood along the railroad that day, have sent him. Although the book will be published soon, we're still looking for contributions while we can. As I read your comments, some of you were actually standing along the tracks the day the train made its way to Washington DC.

I am assisting Rein Jelle in this project, and I would like to ask if those of you who were there would be willing to share any memories (photos, film, stories) of that moment. Anything is welcome, even if you remember at what time the train passed through your town.

If you're interested, you can contact us via email: [email protected]
For some background information on the artist and this project, you can visit his website http://www.reinjelleterpstra.nl/artikel/34582/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

Thank you very much for any kind of help.
Isabel