Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Circus Train, Big Top Show in Essex
From: newtimes.com
By Dina Cashman
July 23, 2013
Danbury,CT---Step right up this weekend and enjoy a trip to the circus aboard a vintage train, as the Valley Railroad's Circus Train and Big Top Show returns to Essex for its third year.

A ringmaster will welcome visitors aboard for an authentic circus train ride from a required off-site parking lot at a nearby business, Lee Co., to the Essex Steam Train grounds.

Once there, spectators can enjoy a thrill-packed acrobat show under the Big Top Tent and laugh along to a "Punch and Judy" puppet show.

Visitors can also stroll through a circus midway that features amusement rides, clowns, a petting zoo, circus food and live entertainment.

The Valley Railroad Co. president Bob Bell, who is ringmaster, said the three-passenger-car diesel locomotive will include at its rear six historic circus wagons mounted on two flatbed cars, along with a circus box car and caboose.
Bell said that Chuck Reid of Imperial Shows rescued the historic circus carriages from abandoned fields and had them refurbished.
Aboard the train, ringmaster Bell and the clowns -- volunteers from the Essex Steam Train -- will entertain passengers during the roughly 15-minute trip to the Big Top at the Essex station grounds.

Bell said his ringmaster duties enable him to enjoy watching the children's reactions.
"I love to see the kids' eyes light up when they interact with the clowns," Bell said. "I have a show that turns the whole crowd into clowns."

Nicole Anllo, event marketing coordinator, said the old-fashioned circus train ride gives visitors a glimpse of days gone by.

"People get to see what circus trains were like 100 years ago and travel from place to place. A circus never stayed in one place. Nowadays they travel by truck, by plane, by boat, but not so much by train," she said.

"So that's what kind of makes it unique. It has that old, unique feel and the modern elements of the circus that people want to see."

The Lee Co., 55 Bokum Road, Essex. Train departs every 30 minutes 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m., returning 9:45 a.m.-5 p.m. $20; age 2, under free. 860-767-0103, www.essexsteamtrain.com. 

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