by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Workspace: The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus passenger train
It’s fitting that “The Greatest Show on Earth” uses the longest privately owned train on Earth to house and transport support staff and performers for the circus.
Trainmaster Keith Anderson and his crew of 14 maintain the 61-piece train, which includes 36 coach cars (32 with living quarters and four utility cars) that over 300 people call home while the circus is on tour. The “Blue Unit” was in Jacksonville from Jan. 18-24 to present the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus’ “Funundrum.” The circus also operates a similar train for its “Red Unit,” currently on tour with the company’s “Zing Zang Zoom” production, but it is two cars shorter.
“It’s great to have the train instead of bouncing from one hotel room to another,” said Anderson. “This way, we don’t have to worrying about packing up our stuff when we are trying to travel from city to city. It’s also a great way to see the country.”
Unlike an Amtrak passenger train, the vestibules on the Ringling Bros. train can be opened to allow passengers to look at the passing scenery without glass between them and the outside. This unique feature can cause problems when the circus crew is out taking in the sites in a city they are visiting.
“A bunch of us would be on the train in New York and we’d hang out in the vestibules looking out at the city,” said Joe Colossa, assistant trainmaster. “The conductor would come by to get us out of the vestibules and into the cars, and he’d say, ‘C’mon you Ringling people, this isn’t your train.’”
The train is not only home to its approximately 350 residents, but also to a nursery and school for the children of the performers, a fully equipped machine shop to make necessary repairs to the train and a newly refurbished “pie car.”
“The dining car was referred to as the pie car in the early days because the only thing they served in the car was meat pies,” said Anderson. “We may have a more diverse menu these days, but the name stuck.”
The car was refurbished at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Palmetto, Fla., Railcar Recycling Center. It is equipped with a kitchen that has all the tools necessary to serve three meals-a-day to about 350 people, seating for 24, three refrigerators and two freezers.
Director of Food and Facility Services, Michael Vaughn, may have all the necessary tools to prepare meals for the crew, but figuring out a menu can be interesting when that crew comes from 12 different countries and has different dietary needs.
“The support crew, for the most part, is meat and potatoes. As long as it’s something heavy and filling,” said Vaughn. “The performers need a little more of a lighter fare, and more balanced meals, so they can maintain their weight to perform. Then there is the Chinese performers who can eat anything and not gain a pound. They love the cheeseburgers.”
Vaughn creates a food order 1-3 times a week each time the train stops, and that list can range from 4,000-5,000 pounds and cost between $9,000-$12,000.
“And that is just food staples, your basics,” said Vaughn.
Two legged performers aren’t the only ones that get fed. The weekly shopping list for the elephants totals about 28 tons a week. That list includes red apples, carrots, bananas, lettuce, potatoes, fresh eared corn, oranges, watermelons, pumpkins, cracked corn, cabbage, hay, sweet feed, fresh bread, elephant supplement and wheat bran. To provide a point of reference, an average male adult Asian elephant weighs about 5 tons.
Once dinner is over, the two-legged members of the circus also venture out to explore the cities they visit. The circus transports its own buses on the train to shuttle its staff and some staff have automobiles and motorcycles brought along on the train. Those who miss out on either find other ways of getting away from the train’s temporary home near McDuff Avenue and Beaver Street on the Westside.
“They use taxis,” said Anderson. “It may be a little strange at first when they tell the dispatcher where to pick them up, but after the first night we are here all they have to say is, ‘pick me up at the circus train.’”
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