Winterquarters/Car Shops for circus and showtrains


Nothing to update at the moment, but I thought I would share about my trip to the MRR Museum. They are having their official circus day tomorrow and I wanted to avoid the masses on a weekend so the wife and I went today. They also have a circus rails exhibit on display for the next couple of months. There is a number well built N scale cars and equipment on display as well as older and newer HO scale models. The San Diego Club had a very neat display on their layout with a parade going through part of the city. They also had a full train unloading next to the lot where tents were being put up and what looked to be the complete Walthers Great Circus Train with a few custom pieces tagged on. The S gauge club also had a very nice hand built train sitting on a siding. Im a cell phone stone age-er So I didnt get any photos, but I hope to make it back before the exhibit is changed to get some photos to post up. Here is a recent video I found on youtube of the layouts. At about 2:45 there is a nice model of the Royal American Shows train.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fSOdohbT_g
 
Updates

Well I have finally been able to pull out the project box and get back to work. Before I moved, I was able to finish painting and decaling the name planks for the stock cars. Im hoping to have one car completed soon. A couple of weeks ago I decided to tap all of the coupler boxes which was no easy task. 23 cars needed to be done by hand and Im glad I got that over with. My next sub project is painting the red stripe on the bottom of the stocks. I did one side of one out of the five I have to do. It took about 1.5-2 hours just for the one side but Im very happy with the result. So how about the rest of you, anything new?

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This past weekend I was able to finish the red stripes on the stock fleet. Although I know theyre not factory perfect, Im happy with the result. These will be put aside for a while while I paint the flat car decks. In the second photo, I couldnt pass up this deal I found. I once bought and sold one of these McCoy sets but this one Im hanging on to for a while. Although I am not interested in modeling the entire McCoy train, I may do up a couple of coaches and keep it as a small wild west show train.

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eric2448 said:
Although I am not interested in modeling the entire McCoy train, I may do up a couple of coaches and keep it as a small wild west show train.
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I have the entire McCoy train complete with wagons, one of my fave trains in my fleet.

There is another set like yours on evilbay at the moment, in case you want to get bigger.
 
joe circus said:
I have the entire McCoy train complete with wagons, one of my fave trains in my fleet.

There is another set like yours on evilbay at the moment, in case you want to get bigger.
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Thats great Joe! Do you have any photos of it? I think the unique color of the cars drew me to purchase a set. Ive seen that listing up for auction and relisted a couple of times now. The price for circus equipment varies quite a bit from week to week. I have so much tied up in my Ringling train at the moment, I put the set away for now. I cannot see myself doing more than what I have with the McCoy set. I think an 8-10 car consist would be nice. I hope to one day join a local club or at least participate in a modular group and run these pieces of history.
 
The daughter moved home again, so it's back in some boxes, but I'll get it out and shoot some pix!

I have the same plan about running these at the local club, it'll have to wait until they are done with their full rebuild of the layout.
 
So I finally decided which year I'm going with for modeling the Great Circus Train. I know that Johnny and I talked about 1967, the way Walther's presented the kits, but I think I've settled on 1973. Reason? Well, a normal man reason, according to the book I read, 1973 was the biggest train with the most flat cars...lol

Also, I want to do those two "open air" cars too.

And as if I need another reason, I have too many of the wagons to go on only 15 flats ( how it ran in '67 ) so the 22 flats ( how it ran in '73 ) will hold the wagons!
 
Very cool pics and thankyou for not having any pics of clowns , they scare the death out of me! Anyone that needs to paint a smile on their face cant be trusted...LOL
 
Darn, I never took any pics of my "clobber of clowns" before packing them up. Have to get them out and take one.
 
So, I'm gonna pull apart my three GCT passenger cars to install interiors. I think I'll light them at the same time. Should I get the "white" lights, or the "warm" amberish ones?
 
Not much activity here for a while, hopefully some will still have notifications on for a reply to the thread.

I finally made a trip to the Circus World Museum, wish I could've made a longer day of it, but I'm happy to have seen the place and the gear so many of us like to model.
 

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Did you know? The Great Circus Train models done by Walthers were supposed to represent the 1967 running of the train, but, Warren flat car 61, Cole Bros on one side and Sparks on the other, was not part of the model, they substituted #44, the Strates Stock car which didn't run until 1969.
 
enjineerbill said:
Hello, Long time no talk...How is the circus business going?
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Hello Johnny! So good to hear from you!
It's good, got the silver flat cars for nos 66 - 244 ( changed to the 1973 version of the GCT ) and it's time to start making them all road worthy, Kadee's and Intermountain wheels. Got the 2 Milwaukee Road U-23-Bs for the return trip from Milwaukee, looking for the 2 CNW GP-7s for the outbound trip.
How are you? Progress on your show?
 
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