The circus rail trail
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey still crisscrossing America by train — and loving every mile
November 5, 2010
BY MISHA DAVENPORT Staff Reporter
As the autumn leaves begin to change colors, the circus — equally a harbinger of fall in Chicago — comes to town.
In the case of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, the circus is itself a self-contained town, transported here aboard a mile-long train, something it has done since 1872, before Ringling Bros. entered the partnership, and the troupe was known as P.T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Circus.
“The show’s train has 61 cars and is the transportation and accommodations for some 350 people working for the circus, as well as the elephants,” said the unit’s trainmaster Keith Anderson. “It really is a town without a ZIP code on wheels.”
Anderson is kind of a mayor, building inspector, landlord and maintenance supervisor all in one. Though he supervises a staff of 14, given the size of the train, he said that everyone on his staff pretty much does anything.
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/2863560,110510-Circus.article
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey still crisscrossing America by train — and loving every mile
November 5, 2010
BY MISHA DAVENPORT Staff Reporter
As the autumn leaves begin to change colors, the circus — equally a harbinger of fall in Chicago — comes to town.
In the case of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, the circus is itself a self-contained town, transported here aboard a mile-long train, something it has done since 1872, before Ringling Bros. entered the partnership, and the troupe was known as P.T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Circus.
“The show’s train has 61 cars and is the transportation and accommodations for some 350 people working for the circus, as well as the elephants,” said the unit’s trainmaster Keith Anderson. “It really is a town without a ZIP code on wheels.”
Anderson is kind of a mayor, building inspector, landlord and maintenance supervisor all in one. Though he supervises a staff of 14, given the size of the train, he said that everyone on his staff pretty much does anything.
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/2863560,110510-Circus.article
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