The railway built for dead passengers - London Necropolis Railway
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- Опубликовано: 9 сен 2024
- It's close to Halloween, so lets have a look at a railway built to transport a very macabre type of cargo... the recently deceased...
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"So, a new fireman on the job stepped into the cab and greeted the Engineer. The Engineer explained to the new fireman that the only passengers on this train were corpses, and that it's a pretty easy gig. The Fireman then noticed that there was a pair of shotguns at the back of the cab, and asked what they were for. The Engineer just shrugged and then said "For Zombies". The Fireman laughed, the Engineer laughed, some of the passengers laughed, the crew shot those passengers in the head, it was a good day"
Nice one mate.
I don't know why but that sounds like something you would hear from a train crew in W40K.
and the entire Haston family apparently never came back from uncle Carlyle's funeral that day.
I got a nice little chuckle outa that!
On most trains if there’s an accident, people die. On this train if there’s an accident, the passengers come back to life.
Sounds like a job for the SCP Foundation.
Can we all agree that they had the most awesome crest of any rail company ever?
If you're making a railway designed to transport large numbers of bodies to a place called the London Necropolis, go all the way.
Bishop of London: "Trains are not compatible with Christian services!"
Rev. Awdry: "Ha ha, steam engine go brrrrrrr."
"Thomas had never seen such bullshit before"
I imagine the counterargument was something like "Right, and piling the corpses on the streets is pious and proper."
It does make sense though. I too would be hesitant to industrialize death.
@@TheBoshy That goes hand in hand with industralising life. You can't have one without the other.
I actually think it's more honourable and respectful. They're not cargo, but passengers making one last journey.
Engines pulling funeral trains is probably a fitting way to pay tribute to dead railwaymen.
If I'm not mistaken,In 2012, The Bluebell Railways first driver passed away so a Funeral train had to be scheduled,Stepney pulled the funeral train and when Former Prime Minister of the UK,Winston Churchill died, Bulleid Pacific named Winston Churchill pulled the funeral train
I think that was the first FUNCAR service to run since the late 1980's yes they really were known as FUNCAR services by the staff
There was also Queen Victoria's funeral train which was hauled by a GWR Atbara despite the fact the GWR had a Dean Single for the royal engine
@@knuckles1206 Neat
The Bulleid Pacific and the stowage van which carried Churchill's coffin are both preserved as part of the NRM collection at Shildon.
@@davidjones332 Yep
Fun fact. There was a similar scheme in Christchurch, New Zealand. Where the city's Tram line was built through Linwood Cemetry and a special Tram carriage was made to carry the coffins. It was a small well decorated carriage that had capacity for up to 4 coffins at a time.
“Stop please! Take me pop will ya? He’ll drop off by the time you get there”
I ran across images of this a while back researching my model railroad and fell in love with it, may scratch build it!
I believe Newcastle in NSW also had the same ordeal
Both the Chicago, Aurora and Elgin interurban and the Chicago Rapid Transit Company (over which the former had trackage rights) ran funeral trains, as did the Chicago Surface Lines streetcar system (which was not the only streetcar system to run funeral streetcars, either).
In Helsinki (Finland) a such train line operated too between 1895-1954. The train had two carriages for the deceased and four for the mourners. The cemetery is still in use but the station is the only thing remaining from the train line.
The passengers of these trains must of enjoyed their time. I heard they were left speechless.
Some of them were. Others were dead tired from the trip.
insert rimshot here
Nice.
Creative username
Nice
Fun fact: An SR Battle of Britain class, BR no. 34051 “Winston Churchill” was used in the state funeral of, you guessed it, Sir Winston Churchill. A special coach was used to contain the coffin behind a passenger coach. It was the last steam-hauled state funeral in the world and the loco was preserved at the NRM.
Those locomotives must have been pretty strong, considering how much dead weight they were hauling...
😂😂😂😂
The door is over there, please see yourself out
🤦
Take my like and go please XD
Perfect timing for that joke considering that Halloween is just around the corner.
Probably worth mentioning the book 'The Necropolis Railway' by Andrew Martin. It's a full-length fictional mystery novel based around a young man going to work on the railway. Definitely worth a read for those who find this railway interesting.
😮
*train derails*
Train driver: Crap! What happened to- oh wait the passengers are already dead
Yeah, that's one rail service where the crew better hope there *aren't* people walking away after the crash....
Luckily, noone was hurt
Interesting fact for you the British Rail Telegraph Code For a Funeral Car and Cortege train was a FUNCAR source my dad and grandfather worked for British rail in the 1960's 1970's and 1980's when the code was still in use as they only stopped running them in 1989
Imagine if Thomas the Tank Engine had been assigned to pull these trains.
He would complain about that SO much!
It would be dead bodies flying all over the place
@@matsv201 Facts.
Just more confusion and delay
Hmmmmmm Annie and Clarabelle would be Coffin Coaches
I've changed at Brookwood a number of times and used said long hour to explore the graveyard briefly. I knew the funeral railway existed but I had no idea that it actually ran through the cemetery itself! That probably explains why it is massive.
Imagine if one of the trains that pulled the service was buried at the cemetery when it was going to be condemned to scrap, only to later be dug up and restored. Now that would be one hell of a story....
I respect this railway respecting the dead, I even heard the rides were to die for
In Sydney there was a Mortuary Station near Central that used to run funeral trains out to Rookwood Cemetery. . The Victorian era building still stands and has been used as a parcel dispatch , restaurant and film set . The railway mob occasionally run tours there .
Oddly enough, there was a similar solution on the Chicago L system, using chartered trains and specially built funeral cars. At cemeteries that were near elevated rights of way, they used an elevator for funeral cars in order to put them on ground level.
This was an excellent Halloween episode, I can't believe that a service like that was so common back in the day. Spooky
I still think the whole "let's put all the dead in a giant pyramid " idea purposed a few decades before the service started was a way better solution to this problem than a death train.
There's simply only one possible description for this video- of course it was dead good !!"😎😱😱
I was literally looking for this yesterday, after seeing it referenced in a Jago Hazzard video 🤣 Always love the detail in your videos.
Really interesting videos mate, thanks for making these for us.
In the US we had a similar line for the dead but it was underground
What line was it called?
I have to say it. I was watching all of your episodes back-to-back. I got through them all.
Sydney Australia had a similar railway from near Central Station out to Rookwood Cemetery, after the line was shut down Station 1 at Rookwood was dismantled and taken to Canberra to become All Saints Church.
Easily the most macabre video you have done
_Mess wit me an I'ma send you on the 255 mate_ You know that had to be an old quip.
Quite a dignified last ride I would have been proud to take.
Really interesting subject: Jago Hazzard’s video a few days ago was fascinating too
The Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin railway had special interurban cars that would carry people to the cemetery in Mt Carmel.
The Chicago Rapid Transit would also run cars to to the freight connection at Graceland Cemetery. There was even a station there at Buena Ave.
@@SynchroScore the CTA also served Concordia and Forest Home cemeteries, as both were along the CA&E near Forest Park.
to bad that concrete sleepers became a widespread thing after the closure of the Line. shurely the car would have taken over, but maybe it's life could be extended a few more years if you could cost down for no need to replace wooden ones
Like that garden where only toxic and dangerous plants grow, people have a fascination for the bizarre and macabre. Pity it's not still around, that's a railway that would boast it would never be _dead quiet_ on Halloween!
There was a lot of unrest on those coaches, often you could hear maggots fighting in dead Ernest.
As in a Monte Python movie. "GONG!!! Bring out your dead!"
The only way this could be better was if it were a collab with Ask a Mortician.
Caitlin would say “We will all die. But most of us won’t get a train ride out of it”!
@@tomrogers9467 I’m really hoping she would just spoof Thomas the Tank Engine.
The Dead Express coming through!
They don’t have a full necropolis railway in Sydney but they had a necropolis station just outside the main central station which still survives today and sometimes hosts heritage trains at its platform
That Mortuary Station or Regent Street Station was indeed the eastern terminus (sorry about that) of a complete railway line that ran to Sydney's, and the southern hemisphere's largest cemetery, at the suburb of Rookwood. It was opened in 1859 and much of the line is still either in service or evident. An equally classic terminus was located at Rookwood but this was dismantled on the closure of the line around 1948 It was rebuilt as All Saints Church in the Canberra suburb of Ainslie where it still stands. A photograph of the church shows how a train would have been enclosed.
In WW1 there was a special Tram in Vienna for the same reason, only for coffins; directly out to Vienna Central graveyard.
Where was the picture at 4:09 taken? And why is there what appears to be an American porter locomotive in the background?
This picture was taken at Steamtown USA. The LSWR M7 shown in the image was under museum ownership at the time.
@@daylightman8459 interesting, thanks for the answer!
We had basically the same thing here in Sydney Australia. Funeral trains ran on the Rookward Cemetary line, it was used for two different cemeteries in the Sydney area if i am correct. The station named Mortuary Station still stands to this day and is a rather gothic scene compared to Sydney's modern landscape. check it out if you'd like.
Melbourne also had the Spring Vale Cemetery railway line too. The cemetery itself is still use today, but the railway line is long gone.
I imagine it was an excellent solution when it was founded, but the introduction and development of cars and lorries made it irrelevant quickly. Why they even bothered keeping it going after the war is beyond me.
Sydney has a Free Gothic-style mortuary station at Central Station like this. Built in 1869. There was a similar receiving station at Rookwood cemetery. The last original use of the Central building was in 1948. It was used for various purposes since, also restored in the 80s.
In 1957 the Rookwood terminus stonework was purchased for £100 and disassembled and rebuilt in Canberra as a parish church. I live a ten minute walk away.
Jago Hazzard has also done a video on London Necropolis Railway several hours ago. Great video as always.
The Chicago Aurora & Elgin Railroad, an interurban serving the Chicago area, had a branch to a Cemetery and I believe they ran chartered funeral trains. Coincidentally the cemetery they ran to is where Al Capone is buried, Mount Carmel Cemetery.
Well you learn something new everyday
"Right, Tickets Please And Playing Dead Won't Work"
Conductor: All Aboard! Oh wait the passengers are dead.
Driver: Hope i dont get delay. Wait nevermind im not pulling lived passengers
Railway Enthusiasts today: "Just one last ride after I die." :D
Why do the dead need a train?
They’re already late enough
I smell a halloween story
I didn't know there was once a train servies for the dead. At least they were in the steam age for the most part
As someone with no religious affiliation, I always find it interesting, the desire of segregation of the dead. This train further spotlighted the absurdity of differing religions, as there was little difference between the cars, other than some signage. We are all much more alike than we care to accept.
Hell, even Christian denominations can’t get along, let alone mixing them with the “others”!
As cool an idea as this is and as necessary as it might have been at the time, nowadays funeral processions seem like one of the few things I'd consider more suitable for road delivery than train.
I’ve heard about Lincoln’s funeral train and Bushes funeral train but not this 😱
Fascinating, thanks for sharing this.
"This train is for the dead but we can help you with that".
The railway of the dead
Basically, the cemetery was built on common land- which was appropriated from the local commoners who kept their livestock on it but there were powerful objectors, notably from the local MP - Henry Drummond, but he suddenly withdrew his objections for some obscure reason not divulged. A new line that deviated just before Brookwood had been opened down to Portsmouth and "most fortuitously" when the cemetery was completed there was a whole load of land spare at this railway junction and that was sold off to build the new town of Woking on it- making the cemetery's owners a small fortune in the process "almost by accident". Thus, the town of Woking is a town built on a clever scam. What Is this company called Southern Rail you mention? I have never heard of it.
There used to be a branch line to cemetry in Hong Kong too.
*There are literal piles of corpses on the ground*
This dude: A fUnEraL trAIn woUld bE dIsrEspeCtfUl.
Vic Rail (Victoria , Australia) had a hearse wagon that would take coffins to the Fawkner Cemetery
I've been to Brookwood, it's a very different cemetery then what I'm used to in Belgium.
The Earthbound music lol
People are dying for a ride
Perfect for Halloween 🎃
Why would the soil at the cemetery degrade the sleepers? They're laid on ballast, not soil. Was it that the soil didn't provide enough support for the track meaning that it had to be re-ballasted frequently?
The sleepers were made from dead wood. Like Politicians.
I'm old enough to remember Winston Churchill's funeral train which took his coffin from Waterloo station to Handborough in Oxfordshire for his burial.
I don't, however, recall the Southern Railway of 1923-1948 being referred to as "Southern Rail" before, as it is in this film!
Australia had one in Sydney as well called Rockwood cemetery had a building for train to drive into.
Makes you wonder how he would have felt about the cadaver trains of WWI and WWII carrying those who were KIA back to their loved ones (Gold Star Trains which were used for cadaver trains and medical evacuation)
Hi:
Leí que en Australia existió un ferrocarril similar.
Dejó de prestar servicio antes de WW2 pero la falta de petroleo debido a la guerra obligó a volver a usar el ferrocarril, que usaba locomotoras de vapor.
Bests Regards.
Sorry I missed coming, to this Video When it was uploaded My house Lost it's power Yesterday so I could not Watch this because the Internet was also down.
Like an old school Metro State, imagine Jeremy Dewite driving that thing lol
Excellent!
5:19 So the gravesite railway got its own grave oh the irony
If the Phantom Express from Cuphead's "Railroad Wrath" level was a real train, this is it.
We heard of trains taking people to their death, that shocked many of us
What do you call a Bluebell Railway engine that pulls a funeral train?
A Terrifying-er
Some would claim they wouldn't let death stop them from riding
The real Train of the Dead
Is this a Halloween special? Cause it could pass as one
I do wonder what it was like to use it? Also in a way a train at slow speed would be kinda reminiscant of church bells.
hello
Now the big question: did anybody actually ever die while riding on this train?
Some days my train of thoughts is like rails only two feet long between joint bars.
This is why Cremation is better... and less grim(ish).
Japan - with around twice our population - would drown in unburiable corpses otherwise.
So that’s why brookwood cemetery is so big….
I also heard that brookwood is the largest military cemetery in the whole of the uk witch is separate. So they must of used the trains to transport the soldiers of ww1 and ww2 there too?
Plot twist: the only alive in the train is the driver and fireman
Hu tao just found a new way to transport bodies now
At that point, they would ride until they died and beyond in some cases.
Unlike the Death Railway in Burma.
This should be a Thomas & Friends episode.
Nice turn.
Spent weeks at Brookwood for a new book on this
Which kind of locomotives were used again? I hear N7 but I can't tell if he's saying N or M.
It's M7. The M7's were much loved suburban tank engines that later, due to third rail electrification were farmed out to cross-country and branch line duty. (although they were technically too heavy for some branches!) Often, they had very long lives, lasting long into British Railways days.
@@robertwilloughby8050 Thank you! Sounds like a very reliable workhorse! Already planning on making my own Necropolis Railway train for next year and was wondering. Again, thanks! :)
@@samgineer9857 Glad that I could help. There is a M7 at the National Railway Museum in York, number 245 I believe.
Bishop of London. My goodness, people can be tools.
Hi:
¿Se ha conservado algún coche, furgón o locomotora de este ferrocarril?
Best Regards.
a perfect video for halloween
Shame they shut this railway down. I heard the passengers never complained about their trip.
I guess the Germans wanted to make sure it was a dead railway
they missed the opportunity to call it the necropolitan
adjustment to inflation makes costs cheap?
That's the point though they weren't adjusted for inflation so it progressively got cheaper over time