From Buckles
I remember Ayres Davies telling D.R. Miller a similar story about when he had been a Lieutenant stationed at some Marine Base and watching a string of flats being loaded from the side off a loading dock while a steam engine sat idling.
After a few cars had been loaded they pulled forward, stopped, loaded a few more, etc.
He said he went to his Commanding Officer and explained how it was done with railroad circuses and how to speed up the process.
Some interest was generated, even a walk thru with some superior brass but as I recall the story had a frustrating ending.
I suppose the thinking was that a half dozen U.S Marines could push he cars around by hand.
(Mr. Davies was the owner of the Ayres & Kathryn Davies Circus.)
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Sunday, April 06, 2014
Troop Train #14
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2 comments:
Interesting piece. Ayres and Kathryn Davies were very nice people. I can't quite remember were they resided here in Florida. It was somewhere on the East Coast. I coressponded with Ayres during his retirement years. Many may not know, Ayres spent some time with Kelly-Morris Circus as Boss Canvasman.
In his book CIRCUS DOCTOR, J.Y. Henderson, who had served in the Army in World War II, compared the circus' efficiency in erecting the cookhouse with how the Army would have done it: “It would take three days to set up and serve dinner. The whole first day, eight colonels would stand around and shout.”
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