The Final Circus Train- UPDATE May 9, 2017

I was at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey show Saturday evening, 15 April. It was great. Sad to see a 146 year tradition ending. This show, at the EagleBank Arena, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, utilized the "Blue" Train. Shows remaining are at Baltimore, Charleston, West Virginia, and Uniondale, New York. The Uniondale show ends 21 May. The "Red" Train show ends at Providence, Rhode Island, 07 May.

I've attached some images from the show. On my Flickr page,  www.flickr.com/photos/captain_railroad/, in addition to numerous show images, of which there will be more as I process them, you will find an album that contains 60 images of the "Red" Train when it passed through the Virginia Railway Express Rolling Road Station 18 April 2016. 2016 was the last year the elephants were part of the show. The elephant cars are at the front of the train behind the CSX motive power.

Went to my first circus this past Saturday in Baltimore with my grandson, also his first. Sad to see it come to an end. Used to work in Lexington Market in my younger days, they would bring the elephants up on Saturdays for lunch in the parking lot.

Jerry

I am surprised that the non-animal acts would continue.  It may not needed a train to get around, and not a true circus.

Plus I am surprised the thing shut down before the units went back to the FL base in the late fall.

This thing must have been a money loser, for no one else is picking it up.

I believe the final performance at Nassau Coliseum is May 21. I forgot about the train coming through - the map in Trains a few weeks ago made it look they were using the car float to Brooklyn. Anyone know if that's true - and if they'll use it on the way back out?

David

No, they run it through Penn Station by Amtrak.  It is run in the middle of the night, heads to Sunnyside and handed over to the LIRR. The best place to catch it is the Queens Village station or Floral Park. You just have to figure out when the LIRR will be running it. It will be before the morning commute. I am going to try and catch it. It will be posted all over facebook on the Amtrak page.

The train is staged just east of Garden City on the old Central Extension. The branch starts just east of the Garden City Station (Franklin Ave). Plenty of spots to rail fan and watch the train get put together for the trip west. About a 30 minute ride from Penn on the Hempstead Branch.

LOTS of videos posted on YouTube too.

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

David

So I had the dates wrong. The final train will be arriving tomorrow afternoon. Should be in Garden City between 1 and 5 PM. They will be here until Sunday night and will depart for the last time sometime Monday afternoon.