Start the bidding on the Barnum & Bailey circus train stock, folks--you have ten days:



https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form?EQBCT ... 9f383dafcc

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/20 ... -equipment

Dang, 10 days? You'd think they would give folks a bit more time than that to inspect the equipment and make plans.

Hi,

The circus with train was in Atlanta, GA between Feb 16-?. I wonder if the auctioned cars are from spares or the second trainset?

Doug vV

NO.

They;re selling the cars before retirement. You're buying them with delivery to be arranged from Florida after May, as I read it.

And, yes, it's short timing, but "you heard it here first"--we TOLD you to get your acts together and get ready!

For someone looking to tube some cars, this is great (though there are plenty of already tubed ones out there). I can only get excited over the idea of preserving one as a circus car.

Other than that, there are a number of truly historic passenger cars that need help now. Personally, I can't prioritize the circus cars higher than those of The Blue Comet, The John Wilkes or the Super Chief.

YMMV,

Rob

It seems when the circus is done they want to be able to move the equipment immediately than wait after the last run and wait for takers.

Looks like a few darn nice bunk cars here.

And 40+ 89-ft flats; my MOW dept decoder ring is beeping heavily.

Howard P.

Depends on how you define "nice". The decor is 1970's mobile home/RV/jobsite office trailer inspired. Functional and in good repair. Could work well for a volunteer dorm for example. Don't think you'll be reinstating the AOE with them though.

"Functional and in good repair" is just perfect as a volunteer bunk car for those wanting to stay overnight, having some distance between home and the museum/railroad/etc. No modifying a historic car (caboose, Pullman, etc), and seemingly ready to be put to use.

Howard P.

Ideally, the perfect compromise would be for a museum or operation to acquire a car or two of a heritage relevant to their mission (a Pennsy car for a PRR-focused museum, a Florida-trains car for a Florida/Va./Carolina museum, etc.), with the vaguely-fantastical hope that if ever the stars align correctly it could be restored to original configuration as a museum piece instead of a bunkhouse.

To that end, does anyone (looking at the usual suspects here....) have a current list of which car is of what heritage?

UPDATE:
This page offers what appears to be a PARTIAL list, listing a large portion of the fleet as former UP cars (scroll to the bottom for what appears to be the most recent tally):
http://utahrails.net/pass/ringling-ex-up.php

See also this 2010 set of PDFs from Trains Magazine, showing a lot of former PRR Congressional cars as well as the UP fleet:

http://trn.trains.com/en/Magazine/~/lin ... 1280E&_z=z

I'll get a heritage list typed up later today. Stay tuned.

I think the power cars are really desirable for the right operator. One of them looks to be a monster powerhouse. The other two look like they have workshop space sharing the car with the generator(s).

[quote="Howard P."]"Functional and in good repair" is just perfect as a volunteer bunk car for those wanting to stay overnight, having some distance between home and the museum/railroad/etc. No modifying a historic car (caboose, Pullman, etc), and seemingly ready to be put to use.[/quote]

Perfect? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe, maybe not. Do the applicable local zoning regulations allow residential use? What would be the impact on the "museum/railroad/etc.'s" insurance costs, and who takes responsibility for management decisions (in terms of heating system maintenance, provision of working hazard alarm devices, and so on), decisions which, if made poorly or not at all, could potential void such coverage and, more fundamentally, result in tragedy (both for an individual volunteer, and consequential impact on the "museum/rairoad/etc.'s" charitable assets)?

In deciding to subsidize volunteers in such manner (since nightly charges for use of such such a facility would presumably be less than those of a cheap motel, but the purchase,transportation and operation of the "bunk car" will have nevertheless cost real money), what portion of the charitable financial assets (in the case of a museum) are justifiably to be thus expended? And here's a politically-incorrect question to mull over: assuming your organization has certain volunteers whose net positive contribution or benefit warrants such subsidy (i.e., the museum is thereby receiving a desired service at less than true market cost), what about the hypothetical minimal-value or net-zero volunteer, whose subsidized accommodation will now result in outright cost?

Of course, as a shiny new thing, there would no doubt be those who would promise to keep an ex-circus bunk car shiny, painted and watertight forever - or until they find a girlfriend, wife, or some other demand on their time. However, how many "museum/railroad/etc.'s" don't have a considerable backlog of priceless artifacts, permanent-collection artifacts, and so on that haven't seen the business end of a paint brush (or a roof-glop brush) in twenty years? If that's true of any reader's own "museum/railroad/etc.", then prioritization of a bunk car seems misplaced indeed.

Solutions? Perhaps those coming from a distance should better prioritize available volunteer time, and thereby perhaps avoid need for overnight accommodation in order to accomplish a particular goal. While every organization may have its own particular proportion of volunteers who mostly work versus those who mostly talk, developing more of the former may partly eliminate the need for anyone to stay on the grounds overnight in order for a given end to be achieved. Finally, for certain volunteers (i.e., the steam crew needing to report early and quit late as part of a viable train ride business enterprise), the "railroad/museum/etc." may well find that paying for a motel room for them each weekend during the operating season, when considered as part of the cost of doing business, is a far cheaper option than an ex-circus car, when all true costs are considered. But then again, if all true costs are not being considered, how could the directors or trustees of a charitable organization even entertain a circus train/bunk car proposal?

Being one who who commutes an hour one way for those early morning runs, I purchased a pop up camper to overnight and basically lived my weekends in it all summer and fall till it got too cold at night.

A car to bed down in would be a great alternative but you would lose a lot of privacy and there are the legal issues with what people do in that car.

With what looks like 81 cars of passenger train consist, including baggage and stock cars, these look like they are in pretty good mechanical condition and not all rotted out. That makes a restoration a lot more possible. I know that they can't all be saved, but I would imagine that there are a lot of them that could be repurposed.

Don't jump on me for a dumb question, but would any of the railroads be interested in returning any of these to their fleets? Didn't NS recently purchase an old car for their fleet from Maine? Either in MOW service or for the business/inspection trains? Those seem to be pretty well modified when done, and as it seems, they look to be in fairly good mechanical condition.


Steve