Model Railroading > Circus Train

I\'d like to model the circus train. What would be a good starting point. I\'m not nit-picky so I thought I\'d start with athearn passenger cars. TIA for the info
Dennis

I believe Model Railroading (not Model Railroader) had a multi-part series a few years ago on this subject.

I don\'t know what model equipment to use, however any such project involving either 2002 RBBB Circus Train will take some work, as both have over 50 cars. (I hope your layout will take that length of train!)

Bill Hill of Denver, Colorado had a great HO (and N) model of the trains, depicted in early 1990s issues of one of the model mags. And there\'s a retired government employee living, I believe near Pittsburgh, PA, who has HO models of Blue Unit passenger equipment astonishingly accurate.

Here are TWO ACTIVE LINKS (for now) to the Trainorders.com Western Discussion, on which are now posted the 2002 HERITAGE LIST of all cars on BOTH Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Trains. THIS WILL BE THE BEST STARTING POINT for any prototypical models, as you will see, on this list, EXACTLY what cars to model. Knowing what cars came from what RR companies should make it fairly simple to find current models to start with in the kitbashing process. RBBB calls their process RECYCLING, and so can we. (They just kitbash 1:1 scale, where ours is slightly smaller...)

BLUE UNIT\'s 57-car 2002 TRAIN HERITAGE LIST can be found at this LINK:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?f=1&i=157277&t=157277

RED UNIT\'s 54-car 2002 TRAIN HERITAGE LIST can be found at this LINK:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?f=1&i=157282&t=157282

NOTE ON FLATCARS: all prototypes are 89-footers, and some were converted from SP bi-levels (converted into Circus Bi-Levels, w/ ALL NEW UPPER TIERS), or ETTX tri-levels totally rebuilt as single-level flats.

I hope this helps.

A massively detailed website of RBBB Circus railroad car photos, by a Chicago railfan, is at http://chicago.railfan.net/cgi/photos.pl/?page=Circus

This might also be of assistance when choosing what cars to begin with. Remember, a train of this unusual length should be CAREFULLY weighted for optimum performance on ANY layout, and the couplers should be in good operating condition, to help keep derailments from occuring through switches/turnouts. Make sure the layout can handle such equipment before you invest. This is an incredible project to tackle, but one that could prove worthy of getting into the record books.

Have you noticed that many of the HEMISPHERE GLOBE LOGOS (circular heralds reading "The Greatest Show On Earth") --- and the newer, large, red side-banners --- ARE IN FACT SCOTCHLITE, GLOW-IN-THE-DARK (reflectorized)? Yeap. The show is doing this to increase night-time safety at grade crossings. The prototype material is expensive.

Is there ANYTHING LIKE IT in scale modeling? Or dare we go right to the company that makes the real thing for RBBB Circus --- the 3M Company, and just ask about making them in HO (or some other) scale? I wonder if we\'d need permission from the owning company, Feld Entertainment, Inc.? I know the people who work there, and the legal department isn\'t normally receptive to such inquiries. But it\'s worth a shot, I guess, as long as the resulting decals are accurate. Note "Brothers" is always spelled "BROS." in this logo, as there were 5 active Ringling brothers when it started over a century ago. Details ARE important to this prototype company...

The banners and globe logos on the real train are peel-off decals (I used to work in the Circus, and we put them on after every re-painting of the cars). The globe logo decals are single-piece jobs, and the side-banners are SIX-PIECE sets, carefully positioned by those employees who are applying them to the cars.

Just one more detail to consider...

Another option if you want to model the train that Circus World Museum operates out of Baraboo,WI is to use the models that Walthers made of the train in 1990. You can usually find the models on ebay, or at swap meets. There are numerous ebay auctions for these right now (dont worry, theyre not mine). You can see them at
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=2&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&query=walthers+circus
They made the circus flats, two box cars (one elephant and one stock car), three specially decorated passenger cars from IHC, a steam engine that pulled the train in the 80\'s, and a good assortment of circus wagons that ride the train. I believe that IHC also made some of their own cars painted in the Ringling Bros. paint. Hope that this helps, Jeff

The current issue (#54) of The Railroad Press ("TRP"), available at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, has a whopping 14 pages of color and B&W photos of both RBBB trains AND the Strates Carnival Train. The Baraboo, Wisconsin Circus train is shown also, briefly.

And if you look closely at the B&W photo on the bottom of page 43, you\'ll see me waving to the photographer from aboard a vestibule. But that was way back in 1985, and rbx551985 was a lot younger then!

I am currently working on a HO version of Blue Unit circus train. The animal cars are Riversosi baggage cars with extra windows cut into them. They my not be the right length, but the door openings match the prototype. I also kitbashed the power car using another baggage car, and the auto rack car using the articles mentioned in earlier messages. The rest of the train is regular passenger cars.

The decals where created by using photographs of the wagons and then edited with Corel photo paint. The banners are hand made using Corel Draw.
For the wagons, I plan to use 20\' smooth side containers and add the wheels and bogees.

Once I get the animals cars decalled, I will post the pictures.

Didn\'t I see UNION PACIFIC 6-axle baggage cars recently released by some company in HO Scale? Perhaps I was seeing UP regular passenger equipment, but I could swear I saw the 5700-series and/or 6300-series baggs in HO, within the last year, in a magazine add. (These are the cars RBBB uses for animal carrying, since the 6-axle swing-hanger trucks can carry the weight easily.)

Regarding decals, I read some time back that Feld refused to allow anyone to make decals of the lettering on their trains. Looks like they\'re missing an opportunity for some free advertising.

That may be true for commerical decal operators. But I made mine only for my personnel use. If I was going to sell them, then it would be an issue. Is Coke going to sue you if you use the logo on the side of an HO building? I don\'t think so. And since how anybody with a laser or inkjet printer will be able to produce decals from any source, the problem for some companies will only get worse.

The only things I used from pictures that I took was the globes and the decals on the side of the wagons. They are a little hard to produce by hand.

After having been an employee of the show for over 5 years (late 1980s and early 1990s) I can say that the decal issue is over useage, and also because so many people (including the media) get the official title WRONG so often, the legal department just throw their hands up in disgust and deny the title\'s use by anyone, for anything. Yes, anyone can reproduce them as decals for personal use, and I know many people in the show who LOVE to see models people have constructed.

When Bill Hill of Denver, Colorado displayed his HO version of the Red Unit\'s train for employees backstage during 1989, everyone was very excited: "Hey, there\'s my window!" they would say. And the decals were close enough that Bill\'s INTERPRETATION of the train\'s appearance was inspiring to people in the show. That\'s what modeling is all about---sharing the vision, the dream. Not to mention seeing trains running as they were meant to be run. (And having been on the show during all of that time, I came to know many employees, road bosses, and company officers who were railfans!)

I have had many dealings with the show\'s legal department over details concerning use of the title in written form (books), and every time it\'s like pulling teeth. (Heck, you whould have sat through the conversations I had with the company over just posting the car heritage list last week on the Trainorders.com Western Discussion board. They said "NO!" But then I went back and deleted a LOT of information, and the only part put up on TO.com was the 2002 number and original number. That was not objected to, at least not to me.)

I was not paid for posting it, either. (Sure, the detailed info is already on the net, at the Chicago railfan photo website mentioned in an above thread... so the "CYA" portion is taken care of with no sweat).

But these Feld, Inc. legal department people MUST protect the use of the title; it\'s their job, and since Congress has decreed "Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus" is a LIVING NATIONAL TREASURE, I would imagine the legal department\'s efforts would surely be stepped up. I\'ve seen so many bad (or even hostile) use of the title, such as setting up a website with "The Greatest Show On Earth" title only to find it was an animal-rights group with misleading info about the show; they were ordered to take the site down by a court order.

The company simply wants to be certain any useage of the show\'s title and heralds are as accurate as possible. They do have legitimate concerns, but I also know they are at least flexible within honest personal usage laws; the above post is quite correct in that matter. Letting "just anyone" [in legal terms here] have free access to a company title would be potentially damaging, as the company would experience a loss of control over just how a title could be used. THAT\'s why they have to scrutinize the name\'s use...

THIS IS WHY I\'M OFFERING THIS VERY LONG THREAD: just to make you aware of various reasons for such legalities. Your use of the title will obviously be fun (and inately supportive to the show) so I would say your usage is acceptable.

Bottom line? Go for it! Build the models and make the decals. After your project is finished (even ONE car) perhaps you could offer photos to the company. As for more details on such "legalities" with Feld Entertainment, perhaps the Circus Model Builders of America might offer some good tips and advice. I think they have their own website.

Keep at it, and let NOTHING discourage you from building your own model of these two incredible trains (or perhaps just one---as much as your personal finances will allow. That\'s a LOT of equipment!).

ENJOY!

Don\'t worry, I plan to post pictures of the completed cars. The only problem is I don\'t have a digital camera yet. And for sending the picture to Feld home offices, I don\'t work across the street anymore. In fact I work for a company that does maintenance on the Acela\'s here in Ivy City, DC.