 In reference to the question of elephant movement from the train to the arena, I thought you might be interested in these pictures. I shot these photos of the Ringling Blue Unit at Long Beach, Calif in 1994. Wagon #45, which was carried on the train, was used to transport the mother and her baby elephant to the arena. Jerry Cash  |
Saturday, February 12, 2011
1994 Elephant Gilly Wagon #1
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Keddah, the white elephant with the Ringling show in the 1890s, traveled in a converted John Robinson giraffe wagon. The placement on the flats cost the beast his life. Locomotive cinders set bedding in the wagon on fire while en route, ultimately causing the beast's death.
RBBB #45 also harkens back to 1880 and 1882 when the Great London and Barnum & London outfits proclaimed that they had special railroad cars for a pachydermatic mother and baby. The second was aggrandized in a special poster, but little other information is readily available. One featured padded Russian leather cushions.
A few other elephants were accorded special travel privileges. Forepaugh's Bolivar had a companion in the form of a Great Dane, that the elephant sometimes carried out of the car with his trunk.
Sells Bros.'s ill-fated African male Mike was apparently quartered solely with his small companion, seen in the recently blogged photo, when he was injured in the 1907 car fire.
Jumbo and Tusko traveled in their own special cars with center wells to accomodate their great height. Other selected bulls may have been placed in the spaces over the trucks.
An ominous message appeared when I left-clicked the image to enlarge it. Something about the site being infected and not to continue using it. The site is catching, but not in the way they declare.
Bob Cline's web site "Sawdust and Spangles" on Dec 31,2010 had a photo of the Al G Barnes elephant car with also a raised center section of the roof above the center well. (Middle stock car in the photo) The photo was taken above the cars and is a view you don't see too often. p.j.
Pawah, RBBB's 1927 white elephant, also had a van to carry him to the lot. It looked like a giraffe wagon.
On the train he rode in a new Warren built stock car, no. 33. He was in the short end with his handler. The rest of the car was used to haul all those zebras John Ringling bought that year.
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