Ringling Brothers "Red Unit" Questions

[Bobby S]

I just saw what I believe was the "RED" train creeping through the yard just north of Newark Airport yesterday morning heading east. My questions: 1) Who drives this train around the country? Is it Amtrak? Are the engineers specially qualified? What kind of engines does it use?

2) What kind of equipment is on it? It seems really old. Stainless steel with a red stripe.

3) How long is it? It seemed to go on for a mile or more

4) Where would they park to get the animals into Newark's Prudential Center? You only have the NEC nearby.

5) How about Madison Sq Garden? Does this train go through the Hudson Tunnels? And how would these huge animals get from the platforms up to the Garden itself?

6) And is there a "BLUE" train also? Is it the same consist as the "RED"? Thanks for all answers

[Tadman]

The train is operated by and powered by crews and locomotives from the host railroad. It's usually operated as an extra. The equipment is an assortment of legacy railroad passenger cars bought by RBB&B and modified by their contractors or in-house people. There is also quite a long freight train of flats carrying equipment and animals. There is a blue train as well, it's conceptually similar to the Red train but I would assume the legacies and configurations are somewhat different due to the nature in which the trains were assembled, which I perceived to be catch-as-catch can. Check out youtube, you'll find quite a few videos of the circus train. I saw the red unit go through South Bend on NS(NYC) this summer. It was quite a long train.

[Rockingham Racer]

Railroads using symbols will give it an appropriate one: I believe CSX uses the P designation, UP uses the S designation, NS uses their 0 designation and it's U on the BNSF. And to answer the last question, there is a Red train, but I don't know if it's consist is the same as the Blue.

[2nd trick op]

Well, here's a link to this year's schedule,

http://www.ringling.com/TourSchedule.aspx

but I wasn't able to find a city-by-city itinerary, as in some previous years.

The trains' movements tend to draw interest from local railfan sites in the territories affected, some of the Yahoo groups might be well-sutied to this. Locally, I note that both Wilkes-Barre and State College, Penna, which used to send the train onto some fairly lightly-trafficked freight-only lines, are not on this year's schedule. And I wonder whether the addition of the gold pins means a third unit, and whether that one will move by rail, though maybe not just yet.

[harleyfiremedic]

I am pretty sure the Gold is a trucked version of the show

[EricL]

Not sure about this thread's potential for staying Amtrak-related, but...

I, too, have always wondered how all the "stuff" gets from the railroad to the venue. My only guess is that they have to park the train and then use trucks for the rest of the way. In past years, I've seen the RBBX train (can't remember red or blue) parked in Galewood Yard on Chicago's west side. It could be clearly seen while passing by on Metra. I assumed the circus was at the United Center (or at least somewhere closer to downtown) and it seemed like it would have made more sense to park it in either California or Western Ave. coachyards. Capacity issues, I guess.

Anyway, according to the web site, the circus isn't even stopping in Chicago this year? Heh.

[chuchubob]

When the circus train travels between NJ and Long Island, Amtrak takes it through Penn Station.

[ChemiosMurphy]

Here's youtube proof that the train does in fact to through Penn Station. I'm quite surprised that it can get through the tubes since it is freight after all. Pretty interesting.

[Steve F45]

when its at the izod center they park it on the njt pvl's long siding and walk the animals down the streets to the arena.

[hi55us]

when its at the izod center they park it on the njt pvl's long siding and walk the animals down the streets to the arena.

that must be a sight.

When the train goes from NJ-LI where do they swich the power? Penn Station or Harold?

[chuchubob]

When the train goes from NJ-LI where do they swich the power? Penn Station or Harold?

Harold. The freight railroad's diesels can't go into Penn Station.

[realtype]

There was a really good episode on History Channel's Extreme Trains about the Ringling Bros. Circus Trains. The episode went through the entire history of the circus trains and Matt rode along and "investigated" while the train was moving from a show in Baltimore to a show in Washington overnight. One thing they mentioned was that the Circus train was very dependent on the freight railroads, in that it uses freight diesels (the two CSX GE's were an hour late in the episodes) and that traffic on the railroads can heavily affect it. In the show they used the Capitol Sub. and were delayed a freight train that had priority, and a MARC commuter train.

I watched it on Comcast OnDemand, so if you have digital cable you might be able to catch it, but I think Comcast set the expiration for that particular episode in early Feb.

[Gilbert B Norman]

Quite the video you located, Mr. Murphy. Too bad that the producers of Extreme Trains could not have offered such a look at the RBB&B cars as did the video. It appears that all have been rebuilt to such extent that it would be nigh impossible to tell, absent documentation, their origin.

[Ocala Mike]

When the train goes from NJ-LI where do they swich the power? Penn Station or Harold?

Harold. The freight railroad's diesels can't go into Penn Station.

If by "freight railroad" you mean New York & Atlantic, I believe that LIRR diesels are used to haul the circus train out to near the Nassau Coliseum. Of course, they can't go into the East River tunnels either.

[hi55us]

When the train goes from NJ-LI where do they swich the power? Penn Station or Harold?

Harold. The freight railroad's diesels can't go into Penn Station.

If by "freight railroad" you mean New York & Atlantic, I believe that LIRR diesels are used to haul the circus train out to near the Nassau Coliseum. Of course, they can't go into the East River tunnels either.

LIRR has some Dual Mode diesels (they don't have that many) but I believe that they are semi-permanently coupled to the LIRR Bi-Level cars.