Lincoln Funeral Train

[toklap]

Dear Sirs, I would like to suggest the possibility if Bachmann could issue a HO (or O) scale Abraham Lincoln Funeral Train set in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth in 2009. Sincerely, Tom

[the Bach-man]

Dear Tom,
I've made that suggestion myself...
Have fun!
the Bach-man

[poppy1129]

Howdy,  been working on it myself in Nscale.  A few Bachmann old days passenger cars embellished with gold paint ,craft store gold dudads and cut out window on a baggage combine car.  I take some freedon from exact copying but it actually looks reasonable.  Even a tiny coffin inside made from a couple of modified crates.  All painted gloss black.  With Nscale you need a magnifying glass to see anything any way.  I may even do some research to see if I can get closer to the real thing.  A few left over passenger cars and  imagination.  Thats the fun of model railroading.
         

[jayl1]

I may be mistaken but didn't AHM (now IHC) produce a Lincoln Funeral car many years ago??

[Royce Wilson]

 
AHM did make the funeral car . just try to find one!
they are collectors items now.    Royce

[Royce Wilson]

If Bachmann made the funeral train in American O scale it would be the wrong gauge for the Lincoln funeral train.
O scale was made to same gauge as the old tinplate 3 rail in the U.S. so it would be a 5 foot gauge instead of the standard gauge used in the northern states.    Royce

[ebtnut]

O scalers have had to live the too-wide gauge for about the last 80 years.  It was a compromise based on the toy train manufacturers who decided to make the gauge a nice round 1 1/4".  By the time the NMRA got into establishing standards in the 1930's that was what O gauge (not scale) was, and still is.  The P48 guys have been doing great work, and I for one would support eventually changing the standard accordingly. 

Now, In re: the funeral train, I believe the funeral car was standard gauge--it had two sets of trucks under each end, if memory serves.  However, there were thousands of miles of 5 foot gauge track in the country back then.  Granted, most of it was in the south, but it stayed that way until the early 1880's, when most of it was regauged (in one day!).  The Erie Railroad was still 6 foot gauge back then, too. 

[Royce Wilson]

 :)1886 was the day of change in the Southern states. the Mobile & Ohio Railroad made the change to standard gauge of 4'81/2" with the L&N R.R. staying with its 4'9"..........Royce Wilson

[BaltoOhioRRfan]

I'd get one. if done in HO scale. If I'm not mistaken the baggage car that was on the train was destroyed when the B&O Musuem roof collapsed, same with a coach that was also said to be on that train. 

[Hamish K]

O scalers have had to live the too-wide gauge for about the last 80 years.  It was a compromise based on the toy train manufacturers who decided to make the gauge a nice round 1 1/4".  By the time the NMRA got into establishing standards in the 1930's that was what O gauge (not scale) was, and still is.   

Actually Royce was right. The gauge came first. O gauge is 32mm or 1 1/4 inch in the USA, Britain and Europe and, as far as I know, elsewhere. The scale varies. In the USA it is 1:48 , which makes 32mm too wide for standard gauge. In the UK O scale is 1:43.5 which makes 32mm too narrow for standard gauge. In parts of Europe 1:45 is used, which is about right. The difference in scales seems to be a result of ease of measurement, 1:48 being 1/4 of an inch to the foot which is why it was adopted by American (and only American) manufacturers. 1:43.5 is 7mm to the foot, a peculiar mix of measurement systems, but one used in the UK for modelling.  O gauge was used in europe prior to the USA settling on 1:48 as the scale.

However I agree that Royce was rivett counting in extreme to object to an American O scale Lincoln train on those grounds. In any case if Bachmann did a Lincoln train I would expect it to be HO and possibly N as well. I can't see them introducing an O scale standard (or 5 foot gauge) line just for the Lincoln train.

Hamish

[Royce Wilson]

Hamish, the pun in my statement about the 5 foot gauge is that ,5 foot was known in the U.S. as the Southern gauge(Confederate).

actually a HO model of the Lincoln funeral car probably would sell very well. heck Bachmann needs to make the whole train!.....Royce

[Paul M.]

I'm not sure, but didn't Model Railroader have diagrams of the Lincoln funeral train a while back?

[SteamGene]

MR had something about the Lincoln funeral train.  It was back in the late 80s or early 90s.
Gene

[toklap]

It was the February 1995 issue of Model Railroader.

[toklap]

In 2003, PSC had made a limited edition Lincoln Funeral Train set in O scale. It consist of the 4-4-0 "Nashville" locomotive, the funeral car, and the officers car. Only 35 sets were issued at the price of $4,000 each. Tom