During March 1-4, the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey circus is coming to Ottumwa, Iowa, about an hour away from where I live. I was wondering if the RBBB still runs their entire circus by train. Of course, Ottumwa is on the busy BNSF Powder River Basin route, so the train could easily travel there, but I’m not sure. If they still travel completely by train, I would like to somehow try and videotape the train coming into town or something. Does anybody have any idea when the train would actually pull into town?
They don’t talk about it much on the circus website, although they do imply that all their tour groups are transported via train, and Ottumwa’s site doesn’t even have it in their list of upcoming events.
Ringling Brothers still transport their shows by rail…The Red Train and The Blue Train.
It isn’t mentioned on their website but, RBB&B also has a truck circus sized for smaller cities. It is called the “Gold” tour.
Ottumwa is only 23 thousand, so I suppose that may be a small city. However they said there would be elephants and stuff at this event…can you really transport them well by truck?
Update - if you follow this link http://www.ringling.com/schedule/index.aspx?show=GL-0, there is a list of the RBBB Gold Tour dates. Ottumwa is listed, so I guess this isn’t a big show. You would think they would still bring them by train, though - it would be a lot easier.
Here is a video of one of the trains.
Does anyone have a list of the previous owners for B&B’s passenger cars.