Saturday, May 09, 2009

Ringling-Barnum 1932 #3


Scan11650, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 5/09/2009 06:21:00 AM

4 comments:

4pawfan said...

Flat #133 was in the 3rd section and wagon #143 carried the shortside grandstand chairs. The platform on the side would fold out, so a person could stand on it to load or unload chairs from the front of the wagon. The wagon on the rigth is #59 and carried trunks and was the dressing room for the Bradnas'.

09 May, 2009 10:15
4pawfan said...

Also note the dark color of the flats before they where painted silver. This would have been a orange with maybe a maroon-red lettering. Don't know the color of the shading of the lettering for this year. Also you can see the chain and drag shoe detail in this photo along with the extra wheel hanging from under the wagon. Note the chain holding the spare wheel up. Behind are the baggage stock cars.

09 May, 2009 11:18
Richard Reynolds said...

This is the most interesting and telltale photo in this set. Again we see the dark flats with darker letters (red with green shading). But, look at the stock cars on the track behind. Though their bodies are also dark (orange) their lettering is clearly white as in 1930 and 1931. What gives?

The answer is that these are the baggage stock cars from Peru. They were not painted in Sarasota. Beginning the previous winter - - the one following the 1930 season - - the baggage stock had been sent to the Peru winter quarters, which John Ringling had purchased in late 1929. That meant sending approximately 300 draft horses and about a dozen stockcars to Indiana for the winter, meaning that the cars were painted there, not in Florida.

RBBB sent the stock to Indiana for several reasons. The cold climate was said to better for the animals. A better reason was the cost of getting feed. The Midwest is prime hay growing country and Peru was right there. It was cheaper to winter the animals in the middle of their food supply than to pay to ship it a thousand miles to Sarasota.

The Peru manager, Jess Adkins, was told simply to wash the Ringling cars for 1932 and to re-letter any that needed it. He must have decided to stick with the white letters from the previous year. That’s why we see photos of the 1932 baggage stock cars lettered that way instead of the red with green shading that was put on the ones done down in Sarasota.

I have seen one of those Cleveland panoramas of the 1932 lakefront lot which shows the elephant cars. They were painted in Sarasota and have the same lettering as the flats.

09 May, 2009 16:54
4pawfan said...

Thank you Mr.Reynolds for the information on the shading of the flat cars. Also the information on the stock cars. Was wondering,if at the last stand of the season, did they cut the stockcars with the draft stock from the trains and send them to Peru. Or did they ship them from Sarasota? I remember photos of the box cars of hay in Sarasota before John Ringling purchased the Peru shows.
Knew an oldtimer that said hay was always a problem in the south before the new coastal bermuda grass came along after the war.

13 May, 2009 18:55

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