tomscott.com - @tomscott - When there's no room left to be buried, the dead will... take a train? It's hard to believe, but the London Necropolis Railway has a history.
Or a heavy metal song. Like if Ozzy's Crazy Train and Iron Maiden's Dance of the Death had a child together. Which would mean Railway of the Dead's sibling's name is Crazy Dance? Who knows.
And it wasn't just the Necropolis railway. Think about it; if you died in Victorian Britain away in a different town from where you lived then how were your family going to get your body home? It might take more than a week by road; can you imagine the smell if that trip was made in a hot summer? Most of the major railway companies had special Hearse or Corpse vans for transporting bodies. It's something that continued long after the war when you could buy a ticket for your relatives body from British Rail. Winston Churchill's body had an entire special train to transport him and the mourners to his funeral. Also don't forget that Britain's railways worked through 2 world wars. In WW1 and WW2 there were special Ambulance trains that carried the injurred and the dead back from the theatre of war to hospitals around the country. The trains were kitted out with beds, pharmacies, operating theatres, morgues and even padded cells for shell shock victims.
Indeed, as late as 1979 when I started work for BR, the Conditions of Service included a provision of reduced rates for the conveyance of corpses, though I’m not sure if they still had the vans then. One of the perks of working for the railway!
I guess macabre minds think alike, because I had to let out a little giggle when he was pointing behind him and said "...to this terminus, here in Waterloo". My brain just went to "Terminal Terminus, end of the line indeed".
I can imagine how this made for good closure for friends and family who went for the ride. It was one last thing they could all do together with the deceased.
You know what, it sounds weird to us today but any practical method that managed to secure enough dignity in death to at least get everyone, even the poor and destitute who couldn't pay for it, a proper grave in contrast to the mass graves of old, is truly worth celebrating in my book.
You might not know, but Vienna had a similar situation with the new Zentralfriedhof build in the 1870s. So they thought about building a railway, but in the end, tramways carried the dead until end of WW2
Melbourne used to have (at least) two of these. One, in Springvale, was a siding that no longer exists, but the more interesting one is Fawkner, because while funeral trains no longer run, the line became a commuter line and the cemetery is just an intermediate station on the railway line, so the trains still run through it, and all still stop there.
It is called Brookwood, not Brockwood. It includes the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the United Kingdom. It is still in use and many well known people are buried there.
It's BROOKwood cemetery - and it is thriving. Fascinating place. Nearby Woking station is equally odd with its main entrance NOT on the town side but facing away for funerary purposes. Worth a visit.
It's interesting because Sydney also had a railway of the dead taking people to the largest cemetery in Australia, Rookwood Cemetery. Which even has its own postcode
Rookwood Necropolis! Lidcombe was originally known as Haslam's Creek, then they built Haslam's Creek Cemetery with the same idea as Brookwood, but the locals didn't like their suburb associated with the namesake, so they renamed the suburb Rookwood. Then it happened again, so they renamed it Lidcombe.
I like this video, with the extra bit information, about why it was stopped being used. I don’t remember hearing it in any other video, about this train service. Also I did know this before I saw any video on RU-vid about it.
I always thought that Sunless Sky (an amazing Game, give it a try if you haven't heard about it) had invented the railway of the dead...but noooo it was historically accurate. I keep underestimating how amazing reality can get sometimes^^
I believe, and I could be wrong, that there is a US military war graves section within Brookwood cemetery, and there was a siding off the Waterloo/Portsmouth mainline. Not sure if the siding is still there or operational.
Another U.K. writer, Charles Stross, featured the Necropolitan line in his Laundry series. Think James Bond meets H. P. Lovecraft. The folks who work at the agency tap into the necromantic energy where the rail line used to be in order to shorten the distance between the suburbs and the office downtown, making for a shorter commute. The main character narrowly misses being sacrificed by a cult to Nyarlahotep at Brookwood Cemetary as well.
SYDNEY AUSTRALIA had one as well, biggest cemetery in southen hemepshere. i think its called rockville and it had a chapple the trian actually drove through.
Due to Waterloo international, its unlikely the railway would have still run today as it took over alot of the space of that railway. Its also worth noting however funeral trains do still run on special occasions, winston Churchill comming to mind
I did know this one because the Necropolis played a major role in the third season of "Ripper Street." I had to look it up on Wikipedia to make sure it was a real thing.
The Chicago Elevated Railways and the the interurbans operating over them, as well as the former streetcar lines, used to have a similar service as well. The CTA is still authorized to operate funeral trains in their charter, although they have not yet done so.
The line which goes to brookwood is still there but the cemetery was just a branch line. One of the entrances to the station still involves walking through the cemetery and walking directly out of it and into the station.
It’s taken me this entire time since the video was released to realise this was for Brookwood Cemetery. I drive past the cemetery every day and it never freaking clicked.
I live not that far from brook wood (it's not brok wood). I heard about this quite a while back and it's still there. I believe the line is still there but I haven't actually visited.
I know this video is years old but its Brookwood not Brockwood, my family recently owned 5 acres of cemetery land that was sold off due to not being suitable for burial in the 60 or 70s. Which has now been brought by the local council of Woking.
I have heard they have a queen living there and a palace of some sort. Might be worth getting a glimpse of. Those things are getting obsolete pretty fast.
Some great places to visit here in this link...a lot of places are very close, so it is possible to plan a small excursion - I'd probably end up in the pub with Kate Moss, though...oh wait, that happened in Oxford :) www.secret-london.co.uk/Welcome.html
It would unlikely run today. Sydney also had a necropolis railway to a cemetary called Rookwood (pronounced rockwood) that no longer runs today. Though all the stations and some of the tracks are intact. Newcastle, a city north of Sydney, has a necropolis railway that ran until the 80s.
Sydney's Rookwood is pronounced "Rook Wood". The tracks and stations have all vanished except for the little bit still used at the Lidcombe end for shunting and storage. Sandgate Cemetery in Newcastle is on the main railway west and the station is a regular suburban one.
My thought on the issue is summarized by the Budgie song: All At Sea. Seriously, the ocean is the world's largest, easiest and safest graveyard for a 1700's society.
Something else I don't know is what the Latin motto - "Mortuis quies vivis salus" - means. Google translate says it's "Rest safety of the living dead" but I don't think that's quite right, even though my high school Latin was a long time ago.
NeilSonOfNorbert I learnt of these railways in the Young Sherlock book series,and thought it was merely fiction until I saw this video,the railway is quite and ingenious plan indeed.
Now I want to play a ttrpg set in victorian london as a necromancer and steal the bodies from the death train in an odd rip-off of the great train robbery.
