Ringling Brothers Circus Train - Late June 1992

On the night of June 24, 1992, we're on Conrail's Fort Wayne Line outside of Alliance OH to chase trains, while on our way to Cheyenne WY for the UP Historical Society's Annual Convention. Soon, we caught our old friend, the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus Train, on it's way from Fort Wayne IN to it's next show stop, Pittsburgh PA. The Circus had finished it's show in Fort Wayne, & was making it's way to the Steel City for the next show. Since the Circus doesn't have their own locomotive, they instead use the Railroad's locomotives, wherever the show was being performed. This leads to a great variety of power on the Greatest Show on Earth, depending which Rail Line their on. Tonight, the power for the train is 2 Veteran SD40-2's, which was one of the Motive Power used for Freight trains on the Conrail System. For their trips to their scheduled shows, the Circus has 2 trains: a Blue Train & a Red Train for both of their performing Units. Each train consists of 60 Cars in total (36 Coaches for the Performers & Crew/4 Stock Cars for the Animals/& 20 Freight Cars for the Equipment). This numbers of cars makes the Circus Train, the World's Longest Private Train in History. The train would arrive in Pittsburgh, the following morning, where the equipment would be unloaded & the Performers would practice for the next night's show. We, however, would continue towards Cheyenne for the Convention.

@evangaines 2026

TRS22

New River Train Productions