Organizers behind efforts to recreate the train car that carried the body of assassinated President Abraham Lincoln back to Illinois say it is nearly complete. The exterior and windows are finished. All that remains is the interior.
The funeral car is expected to be briefly on display May 1 in downtown Springfield. The 48-foot-long train car will be then be displayed at a May fundraising gala at a Springfield hotel.
Spokeswoman Shannon Brown says the car will serve as both "an educational program and a rolling piece of history."
David Klocke of Elgin is master mechanic who created the Leviathan train engine and is now building the funeral car.
In 1865, a funeral train carried Lincoln's body more than 1,600 miles from Washington D.C. to Springfield.
