This talk tells the story of why and how trains were, and still are, used to transport the dead, enabling their burial in a place of significance to the bereaved. Profusely illustrated with many images, some very rare, this talk details how the mainline railways carried out this important yet often hidden work from early Victorian times until the 1980s. The way trains are still used for ceremonial funeral transport of the dead on heritage railways brings the story up to date, the most recent known occasion being in 2022.
The talk is based on the speaker's book of the same title.
The subject of funeral trains is very wide ranging but the talk will cover the following topics:
- ORIGINS - the early use of trains to take deceased people ‘home’ from 1840.
- PEOPLE - a wide range of people were transported by train to their final resting place, including royalty, aristocracy (including Sir Winston Churchill), the victims of many train accidents, the victims of two major airship accidents (the R38 in 1921 and the R101 in 1930), and countless other ordinary people, some named and many unknown.
- TECHNOLOGY - several railway companies had their own corpse or hearse vans. Other railways used a variety of other vehicles in which to transport corpses and coffins.
- ENDING AND CONTINUATION - the talk explains when and why the transport of the dead on the mainline ceased, together with details of how and why the activity continues on heritage railways.
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About the Speaker
Nicolas Wheatley
Nicolas Wheatley has been a working volunteer on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway since 2012. He is also a member of many railway and tram societies. He is a retired solicitor who has spent many years researching the transport of the dead by train. This included the award ‘With Merit’ of a Master’s degree (MSc) in ‘Death & Society’ by the University of Bath in 2012 and the award of a Graduate Certificate in Railway Studies by the University of York in 2014. The research led to the publication in October 2020 of his unique book Final Journey, the Untold Story of Funeral Trains, (The History Press, ISBN 978 0 7509 9433 0, £20.00). Nicolas Wheatley has given many talks on funeral trains, and one on funeral trams, to a variety of groups, including railway societies, cemetery groups, the Western Front Association and the Mausolea & Monuments Trust.
