Western Railroad Discussion > Ringling Bros.

News story reports that RBB&B is returning, without animals. No word on transportation.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

All I heard is coming back without animals or trains.

Adam

It would be more like the "Gold Show: which travelled to arenas with out rail near by and will be truck based.

Without animals???  That sounds entertaining.

Think “Cirque du soleil” Artsy fartsy.

Not a traditional Circus at all.

Posted from iPhone

You can still do high-wire walking and trapeze without animals - two of the marquee events during the heyday of American circuses.

If you want animal acts, there's always Wal-Mart.

TomG Wrote:
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> If you want animal acts, there's always Wal-Mart.

Or the "talk shows" on daytime TV.

I heard they are going to use a couole of spruced-up RDC's. :-)

TJY

When they quit, they sold off all or most of the rail cars.  Some were reused, but others got scrapped or just rotted away. They were all old, even though RBBX took pretty good care of them over the years.
The State of North Carolina bought some that were going to used on their State trains.  Some of those got vandalized and burned where they were storing them over in the middle to eastern part of the State.
I'm glad I got to see the RBBX Train over the years.  A lot of people didn't realize that there were actually two trains, a Red unit and a Blue unit.  Not to far from the "end", according to the schedule for that particular year, you could actually get BOTH trains
passing each other as they passed in South Carolina.  I was able to catch them once. One was heading to Charlotte NC and the other was heading to I believe Atlanta, or somewhere in Georgia.
Mostly for weather reasons they started the "Season" in Florida and then moved in the Deep South area before moving further up north or out west.
Also, the arena's where the shows were held, changed over the years.  Another thing is even when they had the train, they had a lot of the equipment on piggyback trailers that were used to get to the actual arena sights.
I lived in the West Palm Beach FL area, years ago and that was a big deal when the Circus came to town.  I'm glad I got to see it.
Michael Reid

There's still some "real" circuses around. Out here on the west coast we still have Circus Vargas who still perform under real circus tents.

IMHO, The best circus in the USA is at 1 First Street NE in Washington DC.

lapklub Wrote:
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> A lot of people didn't realize that there were actually two trains, a Red unit and a Blue unit.

I didn't know there was any train until it was too late. Even though it passed about a mile away from my house. The closest I came to seeing it was meeting a rail fan who was waiting for it while I stopped for something else (probably a track picture not a train picture as I am more interested in track and signals than most trains). I didn't have time to hang around and there wasn't a clear ETA so "maybe next year". The circus closed before the next year's train passed through my town.

The news reported "An American Icon" is returning ... Minus most of the things that made Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey the Greatest Show on Earth for 146 years.

🚂 No train.
⭕ No rings.
🎩 No ringmaster.
🐘 No elephants.
🦁 No lions.
🐯 No tigers.
🐴 No horses.
🐶 No dogs.
🤡 No clowns.

Posted from Android

Jarrod DellaChiesa
Oakley, CA

I never cared much for the circus.  Went once as a child and said to myself, "OK, seen that, no need to see it again", and I haven't. For about 30 years I could have gotten free tickets for the Shrine Circus through work, and never once went. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/22 04:10 by junctiontower.

Why no Clown's. Is this politically incorrect now?

What a joke, pointless and will fail in that format. 

We were all sad to see RBBB take the decision to cease operations in 2017 (after 146 years!) due to declining attendance, the effect of the animal rights groups, etc.
Imagine if they had not shut down in 2017 -- COVID would have killed the company in 2020.  

AmHog Wrote:
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> Why no Clown's. Is this politically incorrect now?

Politicians didn't want the competition.

I think I will wait and see what they do before making any judgement. The SPCA made them get rid of the animals.
I got lots of pix over the years in Mojave - each year the train came through twice, sometimes blue, sometimes red. Sometimes stopped in the yard to water the animals.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA