Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Ben Wallace #4


I always called these cars coaches but a lot of people called the them sleepers. From 1892 thru 94 Wallace took his name off the show due to excessive heat from the grift and used the title "Cook & Whitby".

Posted by Buckles at 11/09/2005 07:21:00 AM

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have traveled on almost every Amtrak train using sleeping cars. The rooms were so very tiny and if I had not had the experience of circus travel I really don't think I could have done this. The only good thing was the meals were included(not bad but could not compare to the Cook Tent) Also a basket of snacks and bottle of wine appeared every morning while at breakfast and the room was made up. I think I enjoyed the trips mainly because it reminded me of the circus.

09 November, 2005 08:09
Buckles said...

State rooms on a circus train were few and far between. On the Cole Show my folks shared a lower berth and I had the upper.

09 November, 2005 08:36
Anonymous said...

I'll bet you had a lot more fun then I did. Even tho there was a powder room it did not work half the time. Service was lousey except after Salt Lake City and Denver. Chicago station was a Zoo and I mean no disrespect to the zoo. Meal time you would have thought the people were starving. Pushing and shoving each time a meal was served. Give me a circus train anytime.

09 November, 2005 10:59
Buckles said...

I'm sure you know I was referring to the Cole Show train of the 1940's.
Barbara and I were fortunate enough to live in the Beverly Hills section of the Ringling train of the 1970's.
We had half a car, 40' by 10' "wall to wall" which meant there was no aisle in the car and you had access to the windows on each side.
The stateroom had water, lights, air conditioning or heat from the time we left Florida until we returned.
Today I am told that today's Ringling train exceeds 50 cars and that well over 50 percent consists of state rooms and concession storage.

09 November, 2005 11:46

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