State Funerals
Although most funeral services now make use of road-going hearses rather than trains, funeral trains remain common for the funerals of heads of state; all British monarchs since Queen Victoria have been carried by funeral trains; King Edward VII and King George VI were both taken to the Windsor and Eton Central railway station for the funeral procession. Most British Prime Ministers do not receive funeral trains. However, as part of his state funeral, Winston Churchill's coffin was carried by the Southern Railway "Battle of Britain" Class locomotive Winston Churchill to Blenheim Palace. Presidents of the United States are also sometimes transported by train; Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower were all given funeral trains as part of the procession.
Canadian Prime Minister Sir John Alexander Macdonald (Canadian Pacific Railway), John George Diefenbaker and Pierre Elliot Trudeau (Via Rail) had their bodies transported by train.
On January 23, 1924, body of Vladimir Lenin was carried by funeral train to Paveletsky Rail Terminal in Moscow. Later Museum of Lenin Funeral train was established in the rail terminal building. This is now the Museum of the Moscow Railway.
Read more about this topic: Funeral Train
Famous quotes containing the words state and/or funerals:
“The greater speed and success that distinguish the planting of the human race in this country, over all other plantations in history, owe themselves mainly to the new subdivisions of the State into small corporations of land and power.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Since the last one in a graveyard is believed to be the next one fated to die, funerals often end in a mad scramble.”
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)