enjineerbill
Avid People Watcher
A bit of backround for this thread;
Years ago, many circus and carnivals traveled by rail. When they took a break(usually) in the winter months, they would keep equipment , animals and other related items on company owned property. Most of these properties were owned by the shows and had building for housing, repairing and storing these items. Most have disappeared or have been converted to other use. One example is in Baraboo, Wisconsin. This is the site of the original Ringling Bros. Circus. The show first went on rails in the early 1900's and thus they needed a place to store their train, wagons and animals. The barns that housed the animals became what is known today as the Circus World Museum. The train sheds are still there and house the museum's antique train of former showcars. This is the train that made the annual trek to Milwaukee for the Great Circus Train. It should be noted that between the time the Ringlings combined their show with that of P.T. Barnum and James A. Bailey, the train shed were sold to the Chicago and Northwestern RR and served them as a reefer car repair shop until being donated back to the museum in the early 1960's. Much of the storage tracks have long been removed.
Here are a couple pics of the train shed.
In a photo by Bob Cline, here is what the sheds looked like when C&NW controlled them.
And in later years, Buckles Woodcock(elephant man extraordinaire) posted this pic of him walking elephants on the CWM property.
I shot the following pics while digging cars out to assemble the circus train while I worked for the Wisconsin Southern RR.
View looking directly at the main shops.
Cars stored alongside sheds.
Oddly enough, some reefers never made it off the property.
It is with this in mind, I will share my fantasy build in HO scale, a car shop along with some other support buildings for a fictional show.
I'll update the thread as I go and as you will see, I use a lot of mock-up style building techniques along the way. That is, things get placed and photographed before finalizing anything for the finished models. Right now everything is pink styrofoam, my preferred medium for construction. But it will change. Deciding placement, track arrangement and other early items of interest take a front seat. This is, after all, a place to photograph the work I do for clients. Remember the MadCow dioramas pictured here all began with pink styrofoam, the rockwork was ALL carved into the foam. No molds, just carved foam, it can be done.
I hope you enjoy the thread.
Johnny
Years ago, many circus and carnivals traveled by rail. When they took a break(usually) in the winter months, they would keep equipment , animals and other related items on company owned property. Most of these properties were owned by the shows and had building for housing, repairing and storing these items. Most have disappeared or have been converted to other use. One example is in Baraboo, Wisconsin. This is the site of the original Ringling Bros. Circus. The show first went on rails in the early 1900's and thus they needed a place to store their train, wagons and animals. The barns that housed the animals became what is known today as the Circus World Museum. The train sheds are still there and house the museum's antique train of former showcars. This is the train that made the annual trek to Milwaukee for the Great Circus Train. It should be noted that between the time the Ringlings combined their show with that of P.T. Barnum and James A. Bailey, the train shed were sold to the Chicago and Northwestern RR and served them as a reefer car repair shop until being donated back to the museum in the early 1960's. Much of the storage tracks have long been removed.
Here are a couple pics of the train shed.
In a photo by Bob Cline, here is what the sheds looked like when C&NW controlled them.
And in later years, Buckles Woodcock(elephant man extraordinaire) posted this pic of him walking elephants on the CWM property.
I shot the following pics while digging cars out to assemble the circus train while I worked for the Wisconsin Southern RR.
View looking directly at the main shops.
Cars stored alongside sheds.
Oddly enough, some reefers never made it off the property.
It is with this in mind, I will share my fantasy build in HO scale, a car shop along with some other support buildings for a fictional show.
I'll update the thread as I go and as you will see, I use a lot of mock-up style building techniques along the way. That is, things get placed and photographed before finalizing anything for the finished models. Right now everything is pink styrofoam, my preferred medium for construction. But it will change. Deciding placement, track arrangement and other early items of interest take a front seat. This is, after all, a place to photograph the work I do for clients. Remember the MadCow dioramas pictured here all began with pink styrofoam, the rockwork was ALL carved into the foam. No molds, just carved foam, it can be done.
I hope you enjoy the thread.
Johnny