Strates Circus Train Status in New York

Strates shows arrived in Buffalo around 4pm. Should be going into Frontier Yard, and then on to Bison Yard to go south for the winter!

Thanks for the updates! Keep 'em coming (please...) ;-)

I'm in PA, and last year this forum really kept me updated well and I was able to catch the train. I've since taken interest in the Southern Tier / Buffalo lines.

Thanks in advance,
Ted G

Apologies, first, if this belongs elsewhere. Wasn't sure where to post it, so I posted it based on the destination of the train. Moderators/Admins, please feel free to relocate this post if there's somewhere better for it. Thanks!

I've been informed that the Strates Shows' carnival train left Orlando, FL today, heading north to unload in Middletown, NY. It appears that the train will be parked in Port Jervis, NY, similar to last year, while Strates is at the Danbury City Fair in Danbury, CT and the Orange County Fair in Middletown, NY.

Get your cameras ready, as this is the only carnival that still travels by rail. If you haven't seen it before, it's worth catching. I unfortunately don't have details of the timing, however I'm sure there are others here who can elaborate on that further.

EDIT: Per the Strates Shows facebook page, routing is CSXT to Jacksonville, FL, then NS to Middletown, NY.

cnyrailfan wrote:Get your cameras ready, as this is the only carnival that still travels by rail.

Ummmm.....Ringling Bros/Barnum & Bailey still runs 3 circus trains around the US.

My wife and I stumbled upon the RBBB "Blue"(?) train on the CSX Chicago Line near Churchville NY on May 3. It was headed east for an engagement in Albany a couple days later.

I posted several photos of the circus train here: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/archiv ... ?id=57342#

Definitely worth catching!

...FB

Ringling Brothers isn't a carnival, it's a circus. So yes, Strates is the country's only remaining carnival train in existence. I always go out of my way to see the Strates Shows pull into town, a tradition that goes back to my grandfather. You can see Ringling a couple times a year, and yea, its neat to see, but Strates is rarer and definitely a unique sight to see.

I checked out, and became a fan of Strates on Facebook, and found out that they have implemented some sort of crude online tracking page for the train. Here is a link:
http://www.strates.com/traintest.html
Alas, it isn't real time GPS tracking of the train (as i hoped for), but rather looks like just the last reported major city.

I had no idea it was coming, but got lucky enough to be trackside watching NS 21M roll through Newark, NJ this morning around 7:20 am when the James E. Strates Carnival train snuck up behind me. I saw the locomotives on both trains pass eachother. I guess that means it should be rolling up the Southern Tier to Port Jervis today sometime. I'll post pictures shortly and put a link in here.

Some pictures of the Strates train in Newark this morning:

http://rrpicturearchives.net/archivethu ... x?id=57378

Krug138 & SimTrains, thanks for the updates.
Question, will the train keep NS 21M for the whole summer?
Thanks again guys, I too am a fan of the "fair train"
One of these days I'll get her running down the main line.

SimTrains wrote:Ringling Brothers isn't a carnival, it's a circus.

Thanks for the clarification - now I understand the distinction between the two!

Both types however are impressive on the move (I caught Strates a couple years ago enroute to an engagement at the NY State Fair...)

I stand corrected on my previous (and now edited) post. Port Jervis and Danbury are a good distance apart on I-84, and posted that I doubted they would park in PJ/Middletown and truck across I-84 given the distance and their status as a "railroad carnival". I was mistaken according to the HRRC thread on Yahoo Groups:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRRC/mess ... r=1&tidx=1

Apologies.

On Train Orders they list it as NS 048.
Does the number change from trip to trip?

I think it keeps NS 048. My previous post was a little unclear - NS 21M is a daily intermodal from Croxton, NJ to Chicago. I was trackside to see that train the Strates train came along from the other direction completely unexpectedly by me. It was a very nice surprise!

You can track the train via this link:

http://www.strates.com/james-e-strates- ... -page.html

As of a short while ago, it showed the train in Newburgh, NY.

Sarge said:
I stand corrected on my previous (and now edited) post. Port Jervis and Danbury are a good distance apart on I-84, and posted that I doubted they would park in PJ/Middletown and truck across I-84 given the distance and their status as a "railroad carnival".

I can't see the topic you linked to, but in the past they have taken the train into Danbury. Last year, they unloaded in Middletown, trucked everything that they needed in Danbury across I-84, left the rest in Middletown, and parked the train in Port Jervis. Same thing is being done this year, from what I'm told. There is only one ride that cannot go over the road, the massive Huss Top Spin, which is not only overweight, but overlength. They play many of their winter dates in Florida without the train, and move everything over the road. They also move a lot of equipment from Hamburg to Syracuse over the road, due to the tight timeframe between the fairs.

krug138 wrote:I think it keeps NS 048. My previous post was a little unclear - NS 21M is a daily intermodal from Croxton, NJ to Chicago. I was trackside to see that train the Strates train came along from the other direction completely unexpectedly by me. It was a very nice surprise!

Your post was clear, I just clearly didn't read it

Strates has/had an old open platform obs car? What was heritage of that car? What of the Strates cars are pullmans and any info on vintage or types?