Ringling's "Wisconsin"

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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Did any of our esteemed members get pictures of the Ringling Museum of Art’s move of the “Wisconsin” business car into the museum recently?

The car, which was owned by John Ringling, is being restored on site in the museum, but I am told it came from the North Carolina Transportation Museum via CSX/Seminole Gulf to a spot near the Sarasota Greyhound track and then transported by truck (?) the one mile to the museum at 2 a.m. when traffic was light. The move was not without incident, staff tell me, because the truck backed into a large section of brick wall along the front of the museum and it is now being replaced.

By the way, I got a sneak peak at the Wisconsin during its restoration when at the museum last Sunday and it is BEAUTIFUL. Did any of our Sarasota members (or anyone) get pix of the move and if so, would you share them?

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Just to add - I was able to see the “Wisconsin” in restoration on the provision that I not take pix. A great price to pay, huh?

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Looks like the museum folks I talked to had a few facts wrong…here’s the official version of the move:

A mansion of the railways

By SUSAN RIFE

Published: Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 3:00 a.m.

From Wisconsin to Virginia to the Carolinas to Florida, with a lengthy stop in Alabama for an overhaul, the luxuriously appointed private railcar of John and Mable Ringling has arrived at its final resting place.

COURTESY PHOTO Exterior of the Wisconsin railcar in Montgomery, Ala.

The 79-foot railcar, built in 1905 by the Pullman Co., originally cost $11,325. Its overhaul, funded by a grant from the Florida Department of Transportation, cost $400,000.

After interior restoration is completed, the car will be on display in 2009 in the Circus Museum at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota.

The railcar’s journey began more than 100 years ago, when John Ringling ordered it from the Pullman Co. The car, christened the Wisconsin, was built in Chicago and began its journey at Baraboo, Wis., in March 1905, just before John and Mable Ringling were married.

“Which made sense, because they would’ve wanted their privacy,” said Deborah Walk, Tibbals Curator of the Circus Museum.

Walk was among a giddy flock of museum personnel who unveiled the railcar on Aug. 15, hours after it was delivered under cover of darkness. illis Smith Construction had moved the 64-ton behemoth from a flatbed truck in the parking lot of the Sarasota Greyhound Park onto a house-moving rig.

It crept along University Parkway and Bay Shore Road, where a perimeter wall and gate of the museum complex