Lincoln's funeral ghost train

A story told along the Hudson River Railroad says a phantom copy of the train that carried Lincoln runs each year on 25 April, the date the real train passed Hyde Park in 1865.

President Abraham Lincoln's funeral train reached New York City on 24 April 1865, according to the Hudson River Maritime Museum. His casket was taken off the train and carried in procession through the city for thousands of mourners. On the evening of 25 April 1865, the train passed through Hyde Park, New York, heading north toward Albany, according to the William G. Pomeroy Foundation.

A newspaper writer quoted by the Hudson River Maritime Museum recorded a tale of a phantom train haunting the Hudson River line. The writer said that laborers and trackmen working the line claimed to have seen it, and described it as a phantom twin of the train that bore Lincoln's remains.

The Pomeroy Foundation's marker records the Hyde Park version. Each year on 25 April, it says, clouds are said to hide the moon, a black carpet appears to unroll along the rails and silence settles over everything. Then the funeral train, hung with black crepe, is seen creeping toward Albany. The marker adds that similar stories are told in other communities along the route.