IN THE QUIRKS


Waving Goodbye to the Circus Trains: By Glen Mikkelsen, CFE


Photo provided by Glen Mikkelsen, CFE


All Aboooooard! As the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s (RBBB) Circus touring comes to an end, not only does it end the “Greatest Show on Earth,” but it also signals the end of their circus trains. For al- most 150 years, these trains have criss-crossed America, bringing with them joy and thrills and carrying with them human drama, intrigue, and vitality. We may never see the likes of them again. Dating back to at least 1724, circuses are older than America itself. By the 1820s, there were approximately 30 animal circuses touring the eastern states. These early shows traveled by horse and wagon, on country roads, often coated in mud.             Gradually, the term “Railroad Show” became synonymous with large circuses. This was in contrast to a “Mud Show” – that still moved by horse and wagon. If a show traveled by rail, it must be big and modern!   wagons to be transported. Barnum’s crew devised a system to load the  


40 Facility Manager Magazine


the next city, a system so clever it was copied by the U.S. Military in World War I.  - proximately 4 am, an engineer of an empty Troop Train fell asleep. He was following the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus Train. Plowing into the rear of the circus train, 86 of the 300 people on board were killed,   before resuming work). In 1923, following World War I, and again following World War II, the Ringling Bros. Circus purchased surplus hospital cars, and con- verted them for circus use. In 1947, RBBB moved a train 109 cars - en Age for circus trains. Then, as today, stock cars were coupled directly behind the locomo-


tive to help minimize jolting the animals. Here the elephants (in circus parlance, the “bulls”), and the horses rode. The horses were the backbone of circus operations. Prior to trac-


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