Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Circus Roncalli


Scan12274, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

9 comments:

Henry Schroer said...

"The journey to the Rainbow"
the name of Roncalli's first show,
I believe it was 1978

Steve said...

Henry - welcome back.

Off topic:

In the interests of historical accuracy I owe you an apology.

Earlier this year on this Blog you stated that Capt Fritz Schulz would be 99 years old this year.

Based on a conversation I had had with him earlier that same week I corrected your information to 98.

His daughter, Maryanne, tells me that you are right - Fritz will be 99 in December. My apologies.

I hope you are well.

Buckles said...

I wonder if this show travels overland or by rail?

Frank Ferrante said...

What a wonderful collection of restored wagons. Only wish that someone would have sent Buckles a description of each wagon. They look like CWM quality, but are obviously still in working condition. Buckles, I would be surprised if this show moved over the road with this many wagons. ~frank

Harry Kingston said...

Buckles, I also want to know if they travel by rail or truck.
The sleepers look like old circus railroad pullmans.
If they pull all that down the road I sure would hate to get behind them on a 2 lane road.
Harry

BritCircus said...

They travel by rail:
Roncalli Rail Transport

Found on:
www.kronefotos.de

VERY large site of mostly Circus Krone photos. You can get distracted for a week just looking at all the pics

Buckles said...

Very nice.
I would assume these are system flat cars (owned by the railroad).

Don said...

To make it easier, this link will take you directly to to some Roncalli photos showing the wagons on system flats:

http://www.kronefotos.de/roncalli2009braunschweig3.html

Don Covington

Henry Schroer said...

To answer some of the question, yes the travel by Train. The train cars are owned by the German Railways. You book them in for the date you want and the be waiting for you at the yards. On short stays in the towns, like two or three day, the railroad keeps the cars at the yard for you to use again, on longer stays of the show you have to book in again. Most shows in Europe travel by road now because the railroad has got to expensive, but Roncalli still uses the Train.
The long wagon with the number one on it, I believe it was owned by my uncle, Adolf Althoff. He sold this wagons around the time when Roncalli opened his show.
To Steve, I just returned from Aussie and was at Bert Weber's place for dinner and Capt. Schulz was there as well. He has an amazing memory, did'n think he would recognize me but he did. I only get to see him about once a year. Anyway he still has his sense of humor, told me that his daughter is inviting all this guest for the Birthday party and he does'n know if he lives that long. He has worked for Hagenbeck and Alfred Cort, long time before most of us where born.