I remember watching coverage of the train on TV. What has been forever etched in my memory was that at one station so many people were crowding the station platform. The preceeding train carrying the press corp (someone please correct me if I am wrong) came roaring past these people and somewhere in the background the body of a child could be seen flying up into the air!
IIRC the baby that was tossed was saved. I’m really of two minds about the cortege train. Obviously the people who overflowed the station platforms were in grief. OTOH they were warned several times to clear the tracks IIRC. I didn’t know until this thread that the train preceding RFK’s train was for the press, but it makes sense. What doesn’t make sense to me is that people would not get off the platforms when they were told repeatedly (or so I’m told) to clear the tracks, there were live trains coming thru fast.
Any other opinions or observations? I’ve been thinking about this one or 40 years, literally. - a.s.
I remember my Dad and I seeing him on a campain train that came through Kearney Nebraska in March or April of 1968 After his assisnation I remeber my dad saying that he was glad that We went to see him in person Larry
Anything’s possible. Possibly hard to sell a train so steeped in tragedy. Robert F. Kennedy always automatically reminds me of Vietnam. I remember hearing him speak when Martin Luther King was killed, on AFVN radio, and I remember reading the story of his funeral train in Stars & Stripes. On the “Penn Central Railroad.” Strange, yet familiar. Penn as in Penn Station, Central as in Grand Central Terminal.
San Joaquin Daylight Special, Fresno to Merced, Turlock, Modesto, Stockton, Lodi and Sacramento
After seeing this thread reappear yesterday I went looking on youtube to see if I could see color areial footage I recall seeing of that train years ago on TV. I’m far from familiar with how that site works so it would be nice if someone else here could locate and link up with it. I’m fairly sure I saw it in an A&E Biography episode no doubt released in conjunction with the 25 or 30 anniversaries of his death.
It was taken from a helicopter when the tecnology of the time no doubt made it no mean feat, and the helicopter and the camera man were shakinig something fierce just to keep up with the train.The trees and buildings were going by in an amazing blur. No doubt trying to make up some of that 4 hour delay. As the engineers who worked with my father would have said, the hogger on that job 'had that unit running in the BIG sprocket!"
I really hope this footage is available on the web both for historians and fans of GG1’s and NE corridor railroading.
That would be neat to see but I doubt if it’s on youtube now. Here’s a link to a silent film clip of a GG1, viewable in relatively quick time by right-clicking the 2nd choice, “download low-res,” and then click “save target as.”
Thank you very much for posting the link to this clip. I took the extra time to enjoy the hi-res version. The side shot from the field is very much like the clip I remember, except being taken from the air it went on for a longer period of time.
