What was the smaller train-travelled circus that survived until only recently? I can’t remember its name.
James E. Strates Carnival?
Hey, thanks, BaltACD, that’s the one. Maybe they can benefit from this influx of serviceable railcars.
If Strates doesn’t want it, I, for one, would love to own one of the now-former Barnum & Bailey and Ringling Brothers Circus Pie Cars.
Curiously, about the time our kids have been consumed by their smart phones. Watching animals perform tricks pales in comparison to battling the monsters and bad guys in a “first person shooter” game…
Ah, for simpler times.
Straits is a carnival operation with rides, games, etc. but to my knowledge they don’t have acrobatic acts or animals.
I thought they are still using the rail car fleet ?
They may wind up being the last traveling attraction using their own railroad equipment for transportation in the entire world…
One of the neighborhoods inside of Denver is “Barnum” where the early circus used to winter over. In a similar veign, the is also Ringling, OK (West of the ATSF Transcon at Ardmore, OK) and served by an ATSF branchline into the 1970’s.
Red Train or Blue Train couldn’t go “home” even if they wanted to.
What will happen to the rolling stock?
Likely tourist lines and private car owners, maybe a museum or so.
Based on what I’ve seen in articles on the train, many of the cars are heavily modified inside. Unless someone is buying them to preserve or for a similar use, they’ll take a fair amount of work to put back into shape as coaches, etc.
Wonder if the cars are the standard Amtrak HEP voltage and phase rotation ? Also the standard Amtrak four conductor HEP cable connections ?
There was an article about the RBBB train and railcars several years ago in “Trains,” and I believe the answer is yes to your questions, the RBBB cars are all Amtrak compatable. If I remember correctly that is.
Well that was fun to watch …and combined with the short video on “Trains” featuring the train itself today, it gives us a great sense and reminder of what will be lost to us.
So now we can’t run away and join the circus…
What are the rails , or conduit on one side of all the car tops which seem to be connected somehow. Some kind of electrical or the HEP ?
Barnum was con man, hardly someone worth honoring.
The Barnum effect is named after P.T. Barnum, the showman who declared “there is a sucker born every minute.” He found many ways to separate “suckers”, as he called gullible people, from their money.
The Barnum effect in psychology refers to the gullibility of people when reading vague descriptions of themselves. It is possible to give everyone the same description and people nevertheless rate the description as very very accurate.
Excerpt from Newsday, Jan. 17
Those wanting to catch the very last Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will have to ante up. The show, held May 21 at 7 p.m. in the newly revamped Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, is completely sold out. Seats, which normally go for $23.75 in the upper level and $191.75 in the lower level, are selling on StubHub for $245 and $2,000, respectively.
“This way to view the egress!”
Bridgeport has a Barnum Festival every year. Enjoy in silence their 1949 parade.
I was giving this some thought after hearing about it yesterday. On one hand, its a another thing that’s fallen by the wayside, but on the other…I’m 35 years old. I remember going to the circus when I was a kid and, even then, it didn’t do anything for me. I’d seen elephants and performers and stuff in other places. I grew up in the country, but it was only an hour’s car ride to a zoo. We’re a more mobile society. There’s less of a role for something like a traveling circus.
It seems to me that an enterprising city which already has railroad memorabilia would jump at the chance to permanently display a circus train. Perhaps some place like the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, or a display near the world’s biggest freightyard at North Platte, Nebraska. Such an important piece of history should not be allowed to be scrapped. Goldspike 1