In 1864, the U.S. Military Railroad System constructed an opulent 16-wheel private car, “The United States,” for President Lincoln. Strangely, it was used officially only once for the 20-day funeral trip from Washington, DC, to Springfield, IL, with 11 elaborate open-coffin funeral stops. This talk describes the result of 20 years of historical research and special work to create a traveling exhibit about the Lincoln funeral. Among the stops for the exhibit were the Gerald Ford Presidential Library, The Lyceum in Alexandria, VA, and Steam Town in Scranton, PA.
The Lincoln Funeral Train model exhibit is now on permanent display at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.
Presenter Wayne Wesolowski was the director of the Lincoln Train Project at Benedictine University for more than 10 years. With his wife, Mary Cay, they are the authors of The Lincoln Train Is Coming and more than 180 articles on model trains.
