Need some math help concerning a special train trip?

Question

I looking to possibly do a video on the Lincoln Funeral Train for Halloween and Math isn't exactly my strong suit. Folks familiar with the train have probably also heard of the ghost stories associated with it. One particular story is about a doctor who lived in the Albany, NY area some time in the last century as the doctor is depicted driving a car in the story. He'd had to make a house call one night in late April and it was around 10:30 PM while on his way home from that call that he came to the tracks and supposedly witnessed the train. The train appeared to be traveling at 20 MPH. The story does make it clear the doctor had to travel thirty minutes from home so it wasn't in Albany he witnessed this.

For years I paid where it took place no mind, it was just that it had to happen late at night. But as I said I'm thinking of doing a video for Halloween that would feature this story and got to making a map of the route. And I found this site, http://www.lincoln-highway-museum.org/WHMC/WHMC-LFTR-01.html which included times for the train's arrival in various towns.  The train reached Albany April 25, 1865, but the night before seems to suggest the doctor's story happened April 24th. What I'm looking for is around what town this might have been as it arrived in Hudson at 9:45 PM then passed through Stockport, Stuyvesant, Schodack, and Castleton before arriving in Greenbush at 10:55 PM. If it was going 20 MPH that night, about what town would have been reached at 10:30?

? · Accepted Answer

Distance between present-day Hudson, NY and East Greenbush, NY is about 28 miles.
This is if you are traveling roughly straight North, which is what the map at the first link you posted seems to indicate.
This is also assuming, that present-day East Greenbush is the same city as the "Greenbush" you mentioned above. East Greenbush is just South-East of Albany, so on the map you linked to, it would be North of Hudson, and just South of Albany.

A distance of 28 miles, covered in one hour and ten minutes, assuming no stops in between, works out to:
28 miles / 70 minutes
= 0.4 miles/minute
= 0.4*60 = 24 mph

This is a bit faster than the 20 mph you mentioned, but I noticed in the link you posted that it said "usually between 5 and 20 mph", so I suppose this is still reasonable.

So at 10:30, the train would be 45 minutes North of Hudson, which is:
45/60 hours = 0.75 hours
0.75 hours * (24 miles/hour) = 18 miles

18 Miles North of Hudson doesn't line up exactly with any town.
Here's a map to give you a general idea of where it is:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/42.247621,-73.7826811/42.4716127,-73.6878116/@42.4040692,-73.8966804,11z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m10!3m4!1m2!1d-73.7564232!2d42.2814722!3s0x89dd947d77c6023f:0x7a8e45ba137921ad!3m4!1m2!1d-73.7474221!2d42.3466367!3s0x89ddec9d594236f5:0x1f4ff8a09c19cbca!1m0!3e0

Like I said it's not an exact town, but hopefully you can trace it somehow to your map and figure out a general location.
It's a little more than halfway from Hudson to Albany.
...

Hope this helps.

Fazaldin A · Answer

The train traveled between 5 and 20 MPH depending on the conditions

Need some math help concerning a special train trip?

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