Funeral tram from Vienna - 1:45

[Marcin Jakubiec]

I started to build model of Austrohungarian tramway 7031. This car was designed to carry coffins. Model was originally designed by my friend in 1:87 scale. I've changed scale to 1:45 and added some improvements.

That's the only one photo of this wagon:


That's the only one blueprint of this car I found.

[Butelczynski]

I think there was a similar car made for New York system. Pictures of one was posted on Reddit last year. They had a outbreak of some disease around break of the Century.

[MacSongLi]

A very unique project. You're off to a great start.

Gary

[Marcin Jakubiec]

Originally Posted by Butelczynski

I think there was a similar car made for New York system. Pictures of one was posted on Reddit last year. They had a outbreak of some disease around break of the Century.

Well, once I read about this kind of cars in several big cities in Europe – so they probably were used in NYC too. I became form Bielsko-Biala (former Bielitz) from 18th century to 1918 my city was laying in Austro-Hungary and Vienna was our capital city. That's why I'm interested in this particular tram.

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

And hello, Marcin Jakubiec. You’ve made an excellent start on your most interesting project. I had never heard of a coffin-carrying tram before, and seeing your photograph and drawing brings to mind some questions.

Your 7031 seems to be unpowered and would need to be towed to its destination. How did the powered tram receive its power? There don’t appear to be any overhead wires, or catenary, and I don’t see a slot between the rails for a cable to pull the cars along. Was it pulled by a horse?

Also, was the tram used only for transporting empty coffins? It would be pretty difficult, (and in poor taste) for the pallbearers to wrestle down a heavy coffin from the top shelf.

The drawing shows the clerestory openings as windows, while the photo shows them as slotted vents. If we look through one of the open doors on the tram, we can see the image of an open, slotted vent on the far side of the car.

A quick internet search revealed a number of sites that touch on the funeral streetcar/tram subject. See below…

"The Black Mary": The Tram That Carried Coffins Instead of Passengers

https://sf.curbed.com/2019/10/31/20942265/san-francisco-streetcars-
funeral-dead-bodies-colma-trains

Funeral streetcar removed from "dead storage"

Just A Car Guy: 100 years ago Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Buffalo, Philadelphia, and other cities provided special trolley cars for funerals to transport the mourners and casket

A very interesting project, and I wish you the best of luck.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[Marcin Jakubiec]

From 1918 to 1928 deceased were also transported by tram in this stylish sidecar. The first of these lines existed between the hospital and infirmary in Lainz as well as the Pflegeanstalt am Steinhof and of course the AKH to the Wiener Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery). The hearse tram was pulled by regular tram car like Type A or Type B (painted in red) - for passengers.


As you see - scheme (orangeprint ) has some inconsistencies, I'm going to make vents. But I can't imagine how to make a roof with proper curves :|



Thanks for the links

[Philip]

Such an unusual subject, and coming along nicely.

[jamoldover]

Some additional links (some with plans as well) to information about funeral trolleys in other couple of other cities - there usually wasn't more than one or two in each location.

Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Streetcar Museum - Two Bells - Delores Funeral Car
0011 - Oh Dolores - Its the end of the line - Baltimore Streetcar Museum
Baltimore & Chicago, IL: American Funeral Director - April 2021 Death takes to the Rails