TRAIN TIME / CIRCUS TIME: Lionel Set #6-11716 Lionelville Circus Special Train (1990)

Back in March I ran this set on my Edge of Town micro-layout and just had a blast with it. The boxcar sat on the siding and was replaced with a K-Line flat with circus wagons for the run

 

CIRCUS TIME: Lionel Set #71-1770-250 Sears Circus Set (1989)

Still got 'circus' flowing through the veins! LOL While I don't have a lot of circus train sets it might be nice to go go over the couple I do have. As I was hot-&-heavy into running circus trains earlier in the year you can guess that there were a lot of photos taken - however, it got so busy here on the blog posting wagons, and tents, and other miscellany that the train sets were virtually ignored. Okay, fine, let's do that thing now :-) 

The first set we'll cover is one that gave me a bit of frustration because I couldn't find it out in The Cave and I had wanted to run it so bad. All the while I was looking for a brightly decorated box with colorful graphics, I had totally forgotten that this box was a plain brown affair! DOH! This was apparently a special set made for Sears by Lionel and may have been mail-order only. Sets sold in stores would have had the colorful boxes I was so busy looking for. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Lionel Set #71-1770-250 Sears Circus Set in plain cardboard shipping box

Slide out the tray and the set reveals itself

Lots of lionel guys claim the Hudson is Lionel's workhorse. I respectfully disagree. The 4-4-2 Atlantic was found in more sets and was more widely available than the Hudson - mostly because, as a smaller engine, it would have been more affordable and withing reach of more people's budgets.

The set is very basic including gondola with canisters, and operating stockcar, and caboose

The horses heads bob in-&-out as the train rolls down the track - no actuator required

Here's a short video showing the train on my WIP layout

CIRCUS TIME: First Aid For A Vintage Toy Tableau Circus Wagon - Pt 2

 This series of photos shows some of what went into the repair of the old circus wagon kit that was delivered as a disresembled mess. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

first I needed to lay the parts out to see what was there

the wagon was glued to a 1/16" thick slice of veneer wood which had a bunch of splits in it. The veneer was detailed with what appears to be paint and sawdust for 'grass' texture

Glued the base of the wagon back onto the rear wheel set

Everything was glued to the veneer with big globs of rubber cement

Wood-on-wood  repairs were glued using wood glue. Metal-to-wood repairs were glued using a super-glue gel

All the major components have been glued up

I made a new base from a thicker piece of basswood

The base ended up getting several coats of paint in forest green as a contrast to the brown veneer

CIRCUS TIME: An Answer (Sort Of) For Hugh Walter Regarding Circus Tents

Hugh has been a reader of the blog for many a moon and posted this comment on one of the photos of the Carson and Barnes Circus, Nellis AFB set-up:

"Seeing the tentage come out of a not-small lorry inn a huge roll, makes you wonder where and how they make the tentage, somewhere there must be a vast covered-warehouse with a work-table the size of a football pitch (either rules), with people all over it on their knees, working massive sail-cloth needles while button-thread rolls feed down from the ceiling . . . or that how I picture it now!"

Now that there is an interesting question. We get so wrapped up in circus wagons, clowns, parades, menageries, rides, and main performances, that we forget what it takes to actually make a circus! I belong to several facebook circus-related groups and have had the opportunity to see what it takes to restore wagons so that kind of gives me a glimpse into what the old carriage makers went through when building them from scratch, but what about the tents?

I posted Hugh's question to the Circus Historical Society" facebook page and got several insights. Modern tents are vinyl - not canvas - and this was apparently made by Scola Taloni of Italy, and a quick search of the Internet shows that the name may be a place rather than a company name.

As you can see in the photo of the truck above, there are two spools. Each spool of tentage is rolled out, one beside the other, "stitched" together while on the ground, then raised. As it is vinyl, any rips/tears/holes are mended using heat. Being a heavy material would of course require industrial sized sewing machines. My guess is that there are feeder spools of the material which feed out the vinyl, then it gets all sewed up, then immediately fed onto take-up spools, thereby not requiring a huge warehouse sized facility. THAT'S JUST A GUESS, but having worked in factories and steels mills prior to joining the military it's what I can imagine would happen.

One very interesting insight regarding old school tent making came from Pj Holmes, one of the group experts:

"Ed Bettina Berg in the days before vinyl tents, they were made of canvas and the ropes were sewn to the canvas. Here is a photo of the Ringling sail loft in Sarasota in 1942. This photo was taken by Joseph Steinmetz and belongs to the state of Florida. This building was the former grandstand that was turned into the menagerie building on the 1st floor and the canvas loft on the 2nd and 3rd floors. When they moved winter quarters to Venice, the roof trusses from this building were used in the new Venice arena that has been recently torn down..."

(Photo property of the State of Florida library system)

 

CIRCUS TIME: 29 May 1992 The Carson and Barnes Circus at Nellis AFB - Pt 1 The Set-up (Roll 1)

Soooo, one Friday (it was on 29 May 1992 while on leave I was here at Nellis AFB in Lost Wages, NV - probably shopping at the BX and Commissary) I beheld an interesting and wondrous sight. There was a large open lot upon which were many trucks lettered for the Carson and Barnes Circus!! They hadn't yet done much when I drove by so I rushed home (living not far from the air base) to get my camera. Fortunately I was able to get these photos of most of the action involved with setting up the tent and circus. I took a lot of photos and will share the next roll of film in my next installment. The actual performance would be the next day, Saturday 30 May, but I have to say watching what goes into preparing a large circus for was fascinating - this was a blast!!! Enjoy! Opa Fritz