Monday, November 06, 2017

#5 RB 50's

Mr. Concellos' Seat Wagons!

13 comments:

Chic Silber said...


Wagon seems to be pretty long

Anybody know the dimensions

4pawfan said...

two would load on a 70' flat car

Chic Silber said...


This photo sure makes them

look much longer than that

Harry Kingston said...

It is a real shame none of the Concello seat wagon's exist today.
A real feat of engineering.

klsdad said...

Did they fit two on... side by side??
klsdad

4pawfan said...

These would load two to a flat car, one in front of the other.

The last one of these was at Astro-World before the Judge had his stroke and he and Mel Miller had plans to add a circus themed attraction to the park. I took photos and measurements for Jim Caldwell of all the wagons moved from Goodman's to Houston and he used some of my photos in his articles in the LCW. Sadly I do not know what became of my photos and notes I had sent to Mr. Caldwell after his passing.
p.j.

Chic Silber said...


They would never have fit

side by side & I'd bet the

flat was longer than 70

Jim Alexander said...

OK, using my rough estimated measurements (tire was .75 in. and trailer 6.75) and assuming the tire was 4' in diameter that would make the trailer 36' long so 2 could fit on a flatcar. (I guessed they were longer too. Also, I won't be offended if someone improves my shaky science.)

Chic Silber said...


That would still be longer

than a 70 ft flat & where

would the steering poles go

Uh Uh I'd still bet the flats

were longer than 70s even if

the wagons were only 35 ft

We need some detail specific

model builder to be sure

Harold Dunn would have known

4pawfan said...

By the 50's they were unloading with tractors which backed up on the flats and pulled a string of wagons down the runs. The wagon tongue or wagon pole folded flat to the front of all the seat wagons. The removable wagon tongue had gone the way of the circus draft horse.
The Warren built flats are 70' long and the Warren stocks are 72' long. These had been on the show since the late 1920's.
The show did purchase some Thrall flat cars in the late 40's and again in the mid 50's. They are 72' long.
p.j. a student of Harold Dunn's

Chic Silber said...


I had opportunity to know

Harold for his last years

I bought his building from

his son after Harold died

His cement block fortress

is my warehouse of trash

4pawfan said...

I remember reading an article about the 72 ft Thrall flat cars by Robert Cline. Taken from his Sawdust and Spangles column, dated January 13, 2009. This is in regards to the history of flatcar #231 ( a 72 ft Thrall built flatcar) at the Circus World Museum.

"This flatcar is a 72 ft Thrall design flat. It was purchased from the Royal American Shows on January 28, 1987 by the CWM for $2000.00 . While on RAS it was numbered #35.
The origin of this car is from the Thrall Car Manufacturing Company. It was built in 1949 for RBBB. It was intended for use by two of the steel seat wagons designed by Art Concello but it was discovered the seat wagons were too heavy for these flats."

This is why the seat wagons were built to load two on the 70 ft Warren flatcars.
p.j.

Chic Silber said...


Thanks PJ but it would be nice to

know the actual wagon dimensions