I’ve come here to ask for advice on how to research a particular train journey that happened in 1926.
After Rudolph Valentino passed away in New York in August 1926, his body was taken by train to Los Angeles. The trains stopped at stations en route on the five-day journey.
My question is - where would I go please to find the precise route the train took, and if possible the kind of locomotive used. I’ve seen mention that it stopped in Erie, PA and Yuma, AZ, but no other mention of the route… I’ve mostly searched film history archives so far, but thought trying train forums may be a good next step.
Thank you for any help or advice you can offer.
Kindest,
Charity
Before even researching your question, one thing is for sure and that is that the train almost undoubtedly came to Chicago where the funeral car would have been switched to a railroad heading west.
The three most likely candidates for the eastern journey would be the New York Central, the Pennsylvania Railroad or the Erie Railroad.
The most likely candidate for the western portion of the journey would have been the Santa Fe Railroad (AT&SF).
For example, I read that on the five-day train trip west, thousands of mourners paid their respects. So, that would definitely indicate a stopover, undoubtedly in Chicago to switch trains.
Also, a mourner arrived at Grand Central Station and boarded a Los Angeles-bound train carrying Valentino’s… That would be Grand Central Station in Chicago, but that is curious because I am not aware of eastern railroads using Grand Central Station in Chicago.
People gathered at railway stations along the funeral train’s route: in Pennsylvania, at Chicago, and at Yuma in Arizona.
Found this, In the Homestead’s collection is a photograph taken by Los Angeles-based Fred Masters and used as a press photo by the Newspaper Enterprise Association (now Corbis), showing Valentino’s body being loaded onto the hearse at a small station along the Southern Pacific Railroad line in El Sereno, a neighborhood in the northeast section of Los Angeles.
The Southern Pacific Railroad was built through the El Sereno area in 1876, with a stop at Aurant. Catalina Batz purchased most of the excess lands adjacent to the tracks after the railroad was completed. Because of Southern Pacific’s high rates, development of this area did not follow. Competition soon followed, with the arrival of the Santa Fe Railroad, which built trackage to Los Angeles in 1887. A fare war between the two railroads lowered rates, bringing many immigrants from the East and Midwest to Los Angeles.
thank you so much for this. I think I should make a map and start plotting any indisputable bits of journey. I’m surprised it doesn’t seem to be documented somewhere though.
There is some old film of Valentino’s brother talking about the journey and it sounds like he says it stopped in Erie PA, but he doesn’t mention anywhere else, and it’s a tiny bit unclear in the footage.
Do you have a link for the film footage? That could provide further clues.
And, yes, it is suprising, given Valentino’s fame, that the funeral train route does not seem to be available. Abraham Lincoln’s 1865 funeral route is well documented.
There is one photo shown. The way Alberto Valentino talks of it, it sounds as though they had travelled overnight and woken up in Erie - but the distance doesn’t seem far enough for an overnight stop?
I read the following quote from his brother, “When the train arrived in Chicago, a steady rain fell as the police, a group of reporters, and members of the Valentino Memorial Association gathered on the runway at La Salle Street station".
So, the train will very likely the New York Central which used LaSalle Street Station. I don’t know what the earlier reference to Grand Central Station was about. If I were a betting man, I would put money on the Santa Fe Railroad as the west bound train to finish the journey. That train would have departed from nearby Dearborn Station. It was a regular occurrence for the New York Central and Santa Fe to exchange cars from each other’s railroads for transcontinental journeys back in the 1920s.
Ahh, nice find. So, the reference was to New York City Grand Central Station, not Chicago Grand Central Station.
Definitely, the route was on a New York Central Railroad train departing New York Grand Central Station and arriving in Chicago at LaSalle Street Station where the funeral cars were transferred to nearby Dearborn Station for the trip to Los Angeles on the Santa Fe Railroad. And, yes, the Santa Fe did pass through Yuma Arizona, and the Santa Fe did pass through El Sereno.
Those track routes are still there and are used today by Amtrak, so you can replicate Valentino’s funeral train route.
I just re-read your initial post. Regarding locomotive types, while diesel locomotives were first introduced in the late 1920s, I am fairly certain that in 1926, both the New York Central and the Santa Fe still used steam locomotives. The New York Central probably used a 4-6-4 steam locomotive for this purpose. The Santa Fe likely used a 4-6-2 or, possibly, but less likely, a 4-8-2 steam locomotive back in 1926.
The New York Central’s ‘4-6-4’ Hudson wasn’t unveiled until February of 1927 so the steam power from Harmon, NY (where the Grand Central electrics were taken off) Would have been a K-5 class Pacific or 4-6-2.
The Santa Fe mainline passed through Needles, well north of Yuma. If Yuma was on a branch line, why would the train go through there? Yuma is on the Southern Pacific mainline.