who (re)built Abraham Lincoln's
Funeral train?
“In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass, bodies disappear, but spirits linger to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls. And reverent men and women from afar and generations that know us not, and that we know not of, shall come here… to ponder, and to dream… and the power of the vision shall pass into their souls.”
–Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
In 1999 a master mechanic in Illinois had an idea. Ten years later his “retirement project” was raising eyebrows and delighting railfans, but the story was only getting started.
It was a documentary about Abraham Lincoln that first piqued David Kloke’s interest in the model 4-4-0 steam locomotive. “I liked the looks of it,” he recalled. “It had beautiful lines and was really a beautiful engine.” A quest began.
Dave set out to purchase his own 4-4-0. Many phone calls and trips down the proverbial rabbit hole later he came to the realization that few of the American Standard models, as they are known, still existed. Those that do are safely tucked away in museums or in private collections. No one was going to sell him an 1860s-era steam locomotive, and that realization sent him back to the phones. This time, he was looking for blueprints.
. . . to be continued
