I have a early 1900's photo directly from the Brookfield Zoo archives showing
their giraffe car (labeled Brookfield Zoo) which of course would have been
handled by CB&Q. Similarly Shedd Aquarium into the 1950's (or later?) had an
aquarium car which went to either coast and the Gulf to load salt water fish.
It's at a RR museum somewhere now (was an article in Trains or ?? a couple yrs
ago). Thre are photos of it on display @ Shedd.
If you visit the Ringling Bro's Circus Museum in Baraboo (owned & operated by
the State of Wisconsin), there is at least one old animal car (don't recall if
its for horses or elephants) & I understand another is in Ringling Museum in
Sarasota. As previous post mentioned, Ringling Bro's to this day moves by rail
including their menagerie (two trains - Red & Blue units, one for either half
of the USA) Lastly there is one carnival still traveling by rail on the East
coast - Strate Show. The largest carnival to travel by rail was Royal American
but they went out of business a few yrs ago. Got to see them in Davenport in
mid-70's - used DRI&NW yard which of course was 50/50 ownership by Q/Milw.
Some of their cars, passenger, animal & equipment, are at the old North
American Car shops complex in Baraboo that serviced Ringling Bro's and C&NW's
reefer fleet. The last operating part of that ended with UP taking over C&NW.
As a little kid I got to see RBB&B @ LaCrosse the last year they were under
canvas (late 50's) - came to old fairgrounds by then LaCrosse State Teacher's
College (now U of W - LaCrosse) via CB&Q spur that provided service to power
plant. Line came northerly off of the 'main' on far east side of town.
If you want to model vintage circus or carnival RR equipment, visit Baraboo as
many ex-RBB&B cars are at museum AND stored on siding of Wis. Southern (took
over old C&NW line). These include the 2 major styles of flat cars used by
circuses, a RBB&B advertising car, etc. Walthers made some HO models yrs ago
as well as some models made by small specialty mfgs. Circus flats are very
unique in construction as they were among the first to use 'piggyback' as
trucks (Baraboo museum has an old RBB&B chain drive Mack) were carried on flats
as well to unload with bridge plates between cars. One of our mbrs showed me
vintage pics of RBB&B on the Q's laCrosse Div with an O-5 as power. RBB&B
updated their rail fleet post-Korean War with ex-Army Hospital cars; previously
it was a lot of heavyweights plus 60' stock cars, flats, special animal cars,
etc. The 'new' fleet is comprised of 'tunnel' cars with specially fitted
wagons sliding thru along with coaches/sleepers and animal cars. They travel
over ex-Q trackage every yr here in the midwest. The Baraboo Museum has all
the old route books for many circuses and you can note when/where a circus
traveled over the Q. There are several good books on the topic as well. Gerald
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