the circus train is in the town as we speak and i was wondering if any company makes a up to date circus train set all the cars or not or will i have to scratchbuild them all out of walthers and athearn cars which will kill me because i dont want to pull a knife to a train that will kill me the fact that i have to cut up a train car but i might be able to accomplish it but it would take me so long that by the time i am finished walthers or athearn might have came uot with it before i even finished:tb-wacky: thanks:tb-smile:
Haven't seen one yet There is a Corkey's Carnival Train with odd oversized clowns. Otherwise, looks like a lot of scratch built trains. The big top should be easier to get.
Extreme Trains had a circus train episode two weeks ago. It looks like the train was made up of baggage cars for the animals and various pullman cars in several floorplans. 89 foot TOFC flat cars were used for the trucks and other items. The train was long about 35 cars or so. Might use the Walthers streamline passenger cars in undec and paint them aluminum. I think Microscale makes decals for Ringling Brothers Barnum&Bailey.
i dont think a 35 car train with 85'-89' cars yould fit on my layout my layout is big but not that big our next layout could fit that i hope
I believe that most of the cars for the circus personnel are refurbished Budd cars, which outwardly haven't been altered much, if any, in appearance. If you purchase a book on current day circuses that travel by rail you should be able to use the illustrations to match them fairly closely with various HO models. Animal and equipment cars may prove a bit more difficult but Walthers, for one, has issued various types of circus cars from time to time over many years...so keep an eye out on eBay (there are a considerable number of Walthers circus flat cars up for sale right now!). Competition for these can be steep, so you have to decide which such items are worth the money. Remember too that the larger circuses travel in sections, so there would normally be two or three separate trains involved. Thus, a single, enormously long, train might not be necessary. Of course, you could also contact one or another of the circus modeling groups that are out there. They could certainly advise you just what circus rolling stock is available today and from whom. NYW&B
Don't forget to take photos before they roll out of town. If you have photos I'll bet a bunch of folks could identify the cars for you to start with. Even if you don't model them, they would look good framed on the train room wall as art!
CIRCUS and STATE FAIRS Only big operators put show trains on the road. There is but ONE circus operator using railroads currently. Not since the 1970's when "Cole Bros-Beatty", "Hunt" left them, has anyone but "Ringling Brothers- Barnum and Bailey" been on rails. They operate a RED and a BLUE railroad borne show. These alternate playing venues on their iteneraries. This gets two years out of each production, and ensures that persons attending their circus annually do not see the same show. RBB&B also operate a GOLD show, that travels by road. THey no longer own tents or possess the crews to set them up. The GOLD show, and possibly one of the others have played in tents set up under the aegis of governmental authorities, and/or others. The large shows that play large fairs, which feature amusment rides, food and game concessions have in their ranks operators that use the rails to some degree or another. The "James B. Strate's" shows has a train as large as anything run by RBB&B, and it has been modelled. That is, IHC made decorated models of some of their passenger cars. They also make rides but I never paid attention to whether they made any transport flats, and unassembled rides to mount on them. The large flat cars specially de- signed for travelling shows are in the WALTHERS' catalog. WALTHERS also produced a circus train about a decade ago, but I think that it duplicated the historic train from the CIRCUS WORLD MUSEUM that operates out of Baraboo, Wisconsin to Milwaukee annually. However, that is subject to correction, as I am not certain that they did not produce trains labelled for "Sells-Floto", "Hagenback-Wallace", and so forth. AHM, which is IHC had some "101 Ranch" cars, but looking around at big train shows will let you in on what was made. Really, a great deal of material in 'HO' and 'O' that is adaptable to making circus trains was produced. Things like the AMBROID 60' NP LCL car (a/k/a grocery cars), RED BALL's Ft.Wayne Mule car, and all the WARDIE JAY stuff are just a few sources. I believe that the circus train and carnivals was more immediate to people, and obviously more popular given their numbers, in the pre- WW 2 period. In any case everything is there, just dig around for it. Good-Luck, PJB
I just watched that episode about 15 minutes ago, I downloaded it to my xbox, but anyways, the train was 4 stock cars for animals, 33 cars for crew and cast, and 33 flats, I believe...Matt annoys me so I go into look at the trains and ignore him mode about half the show.
Put the Circus Train on your desktop! Desktop Train Just went to the RBB Circus Website. The opening includes the circus train! Very cool interactive website. It appears you will need an MPI diesel to pull the current train. It's coming to Nashville at the end of Jan. I'll try to catch it. Have fun!
the circus train is pulled be CP SD40-2s up untill here and the local shortline L&S with their GP9 and two little SW1s take it downtown so they could walk the animals down to the arena so the locomotives arent a problem because i have plenty i will just check walthers and ebay occasionally thanks
