Coffins by train

[deltic]

Bodies were occasionally sent back to Ireland from the UK for burial and presumably moved around the country as well. Were they treated as parcels and would they be packaged in some way?

 

[Gloster]

Bodies were occasionally sent back to Ireland from the UK for burial and presumably moved around the country as well. Were they treated as parcels and would they be packaged in some way?

There was a thread on coffins sometime back, but they were treated as their own category of traffic and dealt with specially. They would normally be carried in the van on passenger trains, usually with an accompanying ‘mourner’: if going to to Ireland they would almost certainly need someone to handle the customs paperwork. I don’t think that they had any special packaging or similar, but the railway probably required the coffin to be of a minimum quality and strength.

 

[Snow1964]

I think in days before refrigeration, it was standard practice to embalm bodies before being put in the coffin, especially if going to be sent long way.

I am guessing those who could afford to send it, could probably afford a decent coffin, so was probably treated with dignity and not just thrown in a van with lots of other parcels piled on top.

The coffin was often accompanied by members of mourners families so presumably could travel in a van attached to passenger train.

Some cities had dedicated funeral station buildings, eg Necropolis station next to Waterloo and the one just outside Kings Cross

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 10 May 2023 ==

There was a thread on coffins sometime back, but they were treated as their own category of traffic and dealt with specially. They would normally be carried in the van on passenger trains, usually with an accompanying ‘mourner’: if going to to Ireland they would almost certainly need someone to handle the customs paperwork. I don’t think that they had any special packaging or similar, but the railway probably required the coffin to be of a minimum quality and strength.

Ireland was not a separate country until a century ago, so presumably didn't need customs paperwork until it became independent

 

[Gloster]

Some cities had dedicated funeral station buildings, eg Necropolis station next to Waterloo and the one just outside Kings Cross

The Waterloo Necropolis station was just for the dedicated trains going to the burial ground at Brookwood. Coffins going anywhere else on the South Western would have been handled in the main part of the station.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Solely on the basis of what was shown in the 1961 short film / documentary "Terminus" (filmed at or near to Waterloo station) weren't coffins sometimes wheeled on to the platform on a large trolley, then lifted into the train's luggage compartment (that many/most trains of that period used to have).

 

[Snow1964]

This is quite an interesting history of coffins on trains

https://rchs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/FINAL-Parsons-Coffins-by-Train.pdf

 

[D6130]

On 21st June 1912, the worst accident in the history of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway occurred when a late-running Liverpool Exchange to Leeds express - hauled by the Manchester Victoria station pilot, an Aspinall 2-4-2 radial tank engine, following the failure of the train engine with a hot axle box - entered the Charlestown reverse curves, just over a mile West of Hebden Bridge, at excessive speed. Four passengers died - and nearly seventy were injured - in the resulting derailment. However five bodies were recovered from the wreckage, as the body of a gentleman from Wakefield who had allegedly died in the Titanic disaster earlier that year, was catapulted from its coffin, which was being conveyed in a six wheeled van between the first and second of the six bogie coaches. Although the primary cause of the derailment was excessive speed by the driver trying to make up time on the downhill section of the line, the inspecting officer also criticised the marshalling of the coffin van, stating that having it immediately behind the locomotive would have made the consist inherently more stable.

Following his death in 1965, Sir Winston Churchill's body was conveyed in a specially-painted and decorated ex-Southern Railway General Utility Van as part of a Pullman special from Waterloo to Hanborough, to be taken to his final resting place in Bladon churchyard near Woodstock....hauled, of course, by the eponymous Bullied Pacific no. 34051, which is now preserved as part of the national collection.

 

[Hadrian]

When I was a Traffic Management trainee (early 70s) we were set a project, at The Grove near Watford, to assemble a proposal for the revival of transport of coffins by train. At that time the demand had shrunk to nil or negligible scale. Various improbable operational and marketing ideas were proposed by the competing teams. I do not remember all the details, but one clear winner was the brand name 'Dead Star'. I recall investigating whether a coffin could be fitted into a modified BRUTE (diagonally from a bottom corner to the opposite top corner). I think the idea was that it would not be obvious what a covered-in BRUTE was carrying and so would not offend the sensibilities of passengers when being wheeled around stations.

Of course, following judging by several very senior managers, the project was never implemented or heard of again!

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Telegraph code back in the day was "Funco" I believe.

Knew a lovely old lady (who I did Sat am chores for many years ago - bringing in coal etc) , brought up in Forest Gate in the Edwardian era , whose father was quite an engineer - involved in the Elan Valley dames , ditto in India - ended up in London (hence posh then Forest Gate) , who was involved in the electrification and expansion of the LCC tranways. Anyway - he passed on in the 1930' s and was buried in Wales - his homeland - his coffin went by rail from East London to Mid Wales ......wish I had asked more details.

My father in law , not with us any more , recalled a very rough night crossing Holyhead to Dublin in the 1950's when the crew urgently asked for (sober) passengers to help in securing deck cargo - which turned out to be coffins being returned to Eire . There was a risk of said cargo being buried at sea......

 

[Calthrop]

Mention of the combination as per thread title, always calls to mind for me the Westport -- Achill (mainland terminus, for crossing strait to the large Achill Island) line in County Mayo -- its "life-span" 1895 -- 1937. While the railway was under construction, a local seer prophesied that the first and last trains to travel on it, would carry (occupied) coffins. The prophecy came true: involving in both cases the need of many islanders, to travel to Great Britain in search of work there. Concerning the first train, thirty-plus fatalities were involved -- en route for G.B., drowned in Westport harbour in an incident of disaster to the boat they were on; concerning the last, a group of islanders working in Scotland, dead by mishap there: in both cases, returned to the island for burial.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Mention of the combination as per thread title, always calls to mind for me the Westport -- Achill (mainland terminus, for crossing strait to the large Achill Island) line in County Mayo -- its "life-span" 1895 -- 1937. While the railway was under construction, a local seer prophesied that the first and last trains to travel on it, would carry (occupied) coffins. The prophecy came true: involving in both cases the need of many islanders, to travel to Great Britain in search of work there. Concerning the first train, thirty-plus fatalities were involved -- en route for G.B., drowned in Westport harbour in an incident of disaster to the boat they were on; concerning the last, a group of islanders working in Scotland, dead by mishap there: in both cases, returned to the island for burial.

Mention of the combination as per thread title, always calls to mind for me the Westport -- Achill (mainland terminus, for crossing strait to the large Achill Island) line in County Mayo -- its "life-span" 1895 -- 1937. While the railway was under construction, a local seer prophesied that the first and last trains to travel on it, would carry (occupied) coffins. The prophecy came true: involving in both cases the need of many islanders, to travel to Great Britain in search of work there. Concerning the first train, thirty-plus fatalities were involved -- en route for G.B., drowned in Westport harbour in an incident of disaster to the boat they were on; concerning the last, a group of islanders working in Scotland, dead by mishap there: in both cases, returned to the island for burial.

They had problems apparently in finding crews for the latter special working.......

 

[Intercity110]

In London there was an underground rail line going from Waterloo to one of the suburbs. It was called the brookwood necropolis railway. Fabulous video by jago hazzard on the subject.

 

[Spartacus]

I do not remember all the details, but one clear winner was the brand name 'Dead Star'.

No doubt that would have gained a slightly altered moniker after a certain film was released in 1977

Ireland was not a separate country until a century ago, so presumably didn't need customs paperwork until it became independent

It was a custom until pretty recently though.

 

[Henffordd]

In London there was an underground rail line going from Waterloo to one of the suburbs. It was called the brookwood necropolis railway. Fabulous video by jago hazzard on the subject.

Freudian slip? I think only the last bit of the journey went underground....