Nostalgia & History > Switching the circus train, 1993

It is April, and the cars with the elephants are moved into Baltimore's B&O Railroad Museum for unloading. The elephants would parade down Pratt Street to the Arena.
Photos taken from the cab of Western Maryland F7 #236, heading up the museum excursion train.  Excursion train would have to hold until switching completed.

B&OBill

---

---

---

I was called as a fireman for the Circus train out of SLO to Wat. Jct. back in 69 or 70. We had to get an engine out of the house to put on the point because of the heavy tonnage. The train is stenciled "90 Lb Brake Pipe" every where on the train.

Well, we get on the point and the hogger cranks the brake pipe up to 110 Lbs, passenger pressure, on the SP. Well, we were there for a few hours, bleeding the entire train in order to get a good air test and to get the brakes to release.  I was just the fireman, you didn't dare tell the hoghead he was wrong. We got stuck at McKay for 2 hours so I walked back and had a burger in the "diner" . Not very clean but the price was right. 


Nudge



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/17 14:37 by spnudge.

I caught a Circus train out of Ark City, KS once, took it to Valley Center, north of Wichita and set it out on several tracks. A few days later, I caught the Newton-Wellington local, with a message to stop and switch some of the cars around on the circus train. I remember being there a long time, and coordinating movements with a Trainmaster who  employed by the circus, and traveled with the train. The other thing I remember is that train sucking up air like a sponge, and we almost never getting enough air to move it. They had large air tanks on most of the cars to run stuff other than the brakes, and when we cut in the trainline (@ 90 lbs) those tanks just sucked up and absorbed all the air we could make, before there was enough to make the brakes work.