Private Railway Coach Used By Abraham Lincoln
This quaint piece of transportation equipment was valued more for its historic
worth than as a relic of pioneer railroading, because of its association
with Abraham
Lincoln, whose private car it was during the stirring period of the
Civil War. Instead of having a place among other rolling stock in the
Palace of Transportation, the old car was housed in the Lincoln Museum
with other relics of the martyred president, including the log cabin in
which Lincoln was born. The coach represented the highest type of the railroad
palace car of 130 years ago and was interesting as a comparison with the
modern Pullman of that time. Its interior was furnished in the richest of
tapestries, mirrors and upholstering, but these had become worn with age
and, like the woodwork, had fallen into decay. It was from the platform
of this car that Lincoln greeted the people in his travels during his second
campaign for the Presidency, and the parlor of the car he entertained many
of the famous men of his time. The coach was constructed by the government
in the workshop at Alexandria, Virginia, and made it s first trips over
the Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio Lines.
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Terry's 1904 World's Fair Page.
1-1997