Tuesday, October 16, 2007

RBBB 1951 #1 (From BJ)


51g, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Bunch of photos marked 1951.-BJ

Posted by Buckles at 10/16/2007 06:33:00 AM

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Brings back a childhood memory of watching the show offload in Utica, NY at about the same time period. Saw a big Cadillac at the train yard with a guy in a suit sleeping in the back seat. At the time, concluded it was JRN.

16 October, 2007 07:35
Anonymous said...

Do you think that many of the visitors beside the tracks were aware that they were viewing the arrival of one of the greatest traveling menageries of all time? Other than the title on the flats, there's little to identify the arrival of the cage cut. The circus had shed its 19th century decorative trappings, decorations and protective covers, as well as a good bit of its traditions; it was now a battle of utilitarian machinery and dedicated performers and staffers against rising daily expenses in the new world of television. See that in the photo?

16 October, 2007 09:32
Anonymous said...

Richard Reynolds says - -

The large cage wagon on the point is # 82 for the male African black rhino, "Bobby." He came on the show in 1945 from the Brookfield zoo and was just a pup at the time. He had been born at the zoo, the 2nd rhino ever bred and born in USA.

This cage was built in 1949. Note the jungle them painted on it. That menagerie theme was inaugurated in 1949.

Bobby died on the lot in Baltimore in 1953. He was a fine animal.

16 October, 2007 12:28
Bob Cline said...

Mr. Reynolds,
Is this Rhino cage the one at Circus World Museum now loaded on the RBBB flats in the wagon pavilion? It looks very similiar.
Bob

16 October, 2007 14:46
Anonymous said...

Richard Reynolds says - -

Yes Bob - -one and the same. CWM got the wagon from some place in the East where it had been stored ever since it was at the Dietch place. I think it was about the last wagon purchase before CWM shut such acquisitions.

CWM also has hippo cage #85, built in 1944, the last hip den built for a RR circus. It was once at the circus theme park at Haines City.

16 October, 2007 17:04
Anonymous said...

The RBBB rhino cage came from the estate of Arthur Brown [upstate New York], who had acquired and restored the wagon. There's extensive coverage of it in an issue of the LCW. Brown and crew did a very first rate job with the work. Mike Cecere was involved in making the acquisition possible.

On the other hand, the RBBB hippo den purchased from the late Allan Hill requires complete rebuilding, being in very poor condition. Mr. Reynolds has written extensively about these hippo dens in past issues of "Bandwagon."

Another modified cage that hauled a small hippo on RBBB is also at CWM, errantly retrofitted with sunburst wheels.

One of the small RBBB cages built from an ex-US Army ammo trailer is also at CWM. These are seen on the flat behind the rhino den.

17 October, 2007 08:40

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