Thursday, November 15, 2007

RBBB 1954 #1


Scan000010464, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

This is one section of the Ringling Show train pulling out of Sarasota in late March of 1954, bound for Madison Sq. Garden and Boston Gardens.
The other two sections would leave six weeks later for the mid-May opening under canvas in Baltimore.

Posted by Buckles at 11/15/2007 06:49:00 AM

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

A great set of photos. You don't often see this scene in color, even in the 1950s. One can feel the warm sunshine as the train flies past and over the water. The steam engines are gone, which explains why the "boys" are sitting up above the truck. In past days they'd have had a shower of smoke and cinders. The paint on the wagons and train cars looks new. What a sight. Which photographer should be congratulated?

15 November, 2007 15:10
Buckles said...

I'm embarrassed to say that I can't remember. They may have come from a Circus Fan Flea Market I was browsing around near the Arena in Raleigh, NC when I was on the Blue Show in 1995.

15 November, 2007 15:54
Anonymous said...

Richard Reynolds says - - - - -

What a great set of photos of RBBB’s first section heading for NYC over the Atlantic Coast Line RR (ACL). As you may know RBBB usually alternated between the two railroads (ACL and Seaboard) when leaving Sarasota quarters. This year it was ACL’s turn. And the 1954 route book does indeed say they left over the ACL.

However, these photos were not taken in Sarasota. Its ACL depot was located on the other side of the tracks (or western side)so that the trains went behind the depot As you see here the depot is on the east side of the tracks. Besides the architecture of the ACL’s Sarasota depot was different.

So where were they taken? - -Answer: in front of the ACL depot at Bradenton. FL, just a few miles north of Sarasota. I have a photo of the ACL’s Bradenton depot, and that is what we see here.

The photographer clicked away as the train came toward him and then turned to his left and shot it going out onto the very long ACL trestle over the Manatee River. The river was right at the Bradenton depot.

There is one puzzling feature about this train consist. Namely, the flats cars are immediately behind the locomotives. I had thought it a cardinal rule that stock cars rode next to the engines so as to minimize the jerking when slack runs in further back. That could cause horses (particularly) to fall down and injure themselves. In all the photos I can recall seeing of circus trains in operation on intercity runs, the stocks are always behind the locomotives. That could change, of course, when the train was being positioned for unloading once in the destination city.

Perhaps this is what happened - - there was a miscue between the circus trainmaster and ACL switching crew in the yards at Sarasota quarters which resulted in the line up as we see it here. Rather than try to undo it in quarters, which had limited switching capability, it was decided to run the train as shown here to Palmetto, across the Manatee River where there were some yards. There maybe they were switched around so that the stocks were put behind the locomotives for the long haul north.

I can tell you that when the RBBB trains pulled into Atlanta on that snowy morning of October 31, 1954 the three horse cars were right behind the locomotives of the 1st section and the two elephant cars were right behind the diesels of the 2nd section.

Love those purple and silver ACL diesels! They debuted in 1939 on the ACL’s new Florida to New York streamliner, the “Champion.” As dieselization moved forward, all the ACL’s new diesel-electrics got that color scheme, even those for freight service such as the two F-7s shown here. Alas, the torrid and bleaching sun was bad on the purple color and they tended to fade. So, around 1957 ACL began re-painting all its diesel locomotives black – ugh!

16 November, 2007 15:52
Harry Kingston said...

Richard Reynolds,
Thanks so much for the great info on the Ringling train.
I also thought that you always put the stock cars behind the locomotives, then the flats and then the coaches.
I also noticed the Mt. Vernon flat when Ringling always used the Warren flats and that one sure stands out from the rest.
Now what was that last old coach at the end of the train???? When Ringling had all those matching Hospital coaches they got from War surplus.
Could it be used for the train crew going to New York????
Again Richard we always really enjoy your comments on the circus.
Harry

17 November, 2007 17:59
Anonymous said...

RBBB also had a single Keith flat car in the consist some years. It originated from Sells-Floto, 1922. Both styles likely ended up in Sarasota in the middle or at the end of the 1938 tour, when some aspects of the Barnes show were, to a degree, merged into the Ringling-Barnum property. Several other Barnes stock cars were modified and converted into flat cars, a couple of which ended up on the Cetlin & Wilson carnival.

18 November, 2007 13:35

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