Eastern Railroad Discussion > The elephants

With all the discussion here and elsewhere about the elephants' last RBBB performances, it brought back memories from the late 1990's when my family would go to Hershey on Memorial Day after the last performance to catch the elephant and animal walk from the old Hershey Park arena to Park Drive to be loaded onto the waiting animal cars.  Here are some pics from 1998 of the elephant walk and the pachyderms climbing into their cars.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/16 19:25 by sscannella.

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Some pics from 1999, this time the elephants, horses, and zebras marched together, and the elephants were loaded into the rear two cars and the others in the first two.

The third view of my wife and children who always enjoyed the the show after the show.  They often attended one of the shows when the children were younger.  (BTW, for those worried about us trespassing, we had permission from the trainmaster in charge to pose where they're at.)  Incidentally, this was May 31, 1999, the final day of Conrail, the entire circus train moved west the next morning, I believe as the first westbound NS train across the Pittsburgh Line.

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For the heck of it, here's the 'NS' CIR201 departing Harrisburg and then passing thru Marysville just after sunrise, that first day of the NS takeover - June 1, 1999.

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Reminds me of a time when I was a kid, out riding my bicycle around the neighborhood, many years ago.  Somehow we stumbled onto the elephant parade as they marched about 3 blocks from where I lived. To this day, I don't know exactly where the were going to or from.  Could have been walking the 4 miles from downtown to the L&N South Louisville shops area.  The one thing I do remember was that there were a bunch of softball size "droppings" along the way.

I was probably riding to the tracks looking to see if there were any train action and the elephants were a half block from the tracks.  Ah, the good old days when you could run all over the neighborhood and you were OK if you got home before dark.  

John

Great set of the tain and loadking, Thanks Bob

Great shots! The same day as your '98 photos was a pretty significant day on the then CR Reading line too as a major tornado rolled through Lyons that evening.
I distinctly remember a CR crew approaching the town right after the storm and calling the dispatcher to report, "Uh, there's a house on the tracks we're going to hold here."
In hindsight, I wish during that period of time I had driven further out of my local area to railfan. Hershey is only an hour away but seemed too far to go for a 23 year old right out of the service and attending school full time while working 30+ hours a week pumping gas and fixing flat tires.

Dan

Posted from iPhone

Thanks for sharing these.....

sscannella Wrote:
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> Some pics from 1999, this time the elephants,
> horses, and zebras marched together, and the
> elephants were loaded into the rear two cars and
> the others in the first two.
>
> The third view of my wife and children who always
> enjoyed the the show after the show.  They often
> attended one of the shows when the children were
> younger.  (BTW, for those worried about us
> trespassing, we had permission from the
> trainmaster in charge to pose where they're at.) 
> Incidentally, this was May 31, 1999, the final day
> of Conrail, the entire circus train moved west the
> next morning, I believe as the first westbound NS
> train across the Pittsburgh Line.

Um, even in 1999, there was no such thing as trespassing on ROW - except perhaps on a bridge or in a yard or tunnel.    This is largely a post-911 issue - helped along by frivolous lawsuits and social media. 

I guess I am getting to the age where I can now say that there are a lot of things that I was used to growing up that you can't see or do any more.  Now adding 'see the elephants at the circus' to the list.   :(