Sunday, May 02, 2010

Barnum & Bailey #8


Scan12909, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

On the back of these final 5 photos is stamped:

"Negative furnished R.E. Conover by
Princeton University Library."

Posted by Buckles at 5/02/2010 05:51:00 AM

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe that this is the only pole wagon ever fabricated with a steerable gear in the back. There must have been concerns about tight corners, at crossings, or in older communities, or to facilitate other tight radius turns.

02 May, 2010 07:48
Anonymous said...

Again, crystal clear photos that can be enlarged to show all of the detail in these photos. The rear steering would have been a large help in moving this wagon about. That was the problem with removing qrt poles during teardown as there wasn't enough room to move these long type of wagons in the big top. That is why they built the knock down wagons ( called smoke wagons )that could be steered from both ends in the big top to remove qrt poles. I think the reason this type of wagon didn't stay in use is because of the brakes. The brakes would have had to been worked from the rear of the wagon. Also, with the wheel having only one rear shoe, it probably did not stop very well. A single shoe on the front maybe, front and rear shoes works great, but only a rear will kill someone with a heavy wagon. There isn't even a drag shoe used on this wagon. Also note the plow next to the other wagon's front wheel used for drainage and the spike tooth harrow hanging under this wagon used to smooth the hippodrome track.
p.j.

02 May, 2010 12:25
Anonymous said...

Speaking of the, plow, sometimes they didn't plow around the big top and they got caught in a rain storm. Results, many very mad patrons coming out of the top into a lake. They plowed at least into the 1940's after that I don't remember them plowing at all.
Bob KItto

02 May, 2010 19:15

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