Friday, March 15, 2024

State carriage for the Viceroy (Khedive) of Egypt drawing, circa 1860

Built by T.W. Wason & Co. of Springfield,_Massachussets; Design & lithograph of the print by Bingham, Dodd & Co. of Hartford, Connecticut.

"The bright yellow car, with blue decorated panels, is shown standing on tracks in a rural New England landscape with two small groups of admiring onlookers. The extravagant train car was 67 feet [20.4 meters] long and had an unusual open center section with scrolled iron railings and covered by a striped canopy. The train (and thus the broadside) apparently dates to between 1860, when T.W. Wason & Co. finished its contract with the Egyptian government, and 1862, when the company name changed to Wason Manufacturing Company. 

"As late as 1978, the car was still occasionally used by the Egyptian government."

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