NCDOT bought part of a Ringling Bros. circus train and now isn’t sure what to do with it
When the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus shut down in 2017 it donated or sold off the railroad cars that made up the two, mile-long trains that carried performers, animals and equipment to shows around the country.
Nine of those train cars ended up on a state-owned rail line deep in the woods of Nash County, where they’ll likely remain until their owner, the N.C. Department of Transportation, figures out what to do with them.
NCDOT bought the cars shortly after the final performance of the circus in New York in 2017. The state paid $383,000 and planned to have the cars refurbished and used on the Piedmont, the passenger train that makes three round-trips a day between Raleigh and Charlotte.
But then NCDOT received a $77 million federal grant that will allow it to buy 13 new rail cars, forcing it to reevaluate its plans for the circus train, according to Jason Orthner, director of NCDOT’s Rail Division. NCDOT, which never publicized its purchase of the Ringling Bros. cars, has kept them on a little-used stretch of rail in Nash County ever since.
The location of the train cars was first reported this week by the Carolina Journal, and some Republicans quickly jumped on it as a symptom of mismanagement at NCDOT.
“NCDOT ran out of money to build roads but was able to buy circus trains,” tweeted Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, referring to the department’s financial crisis that forced it to delay pre-construction engineering work on hundreds of road projects last year.
“NCDOT blows $2 billion hole in its budget and buys a Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey train for nearly $400,000. Then hides it, unused, in the woods for years,” Treasurer Dale Folwell, a vocal critic of the agency’s handling of its finances, wrote on Facebook. “Life’s a circus at DOT.”
But Orthner said NCDOT has always bought and refurbished used rail cars for the Piedmont, which is jointly operated by NCDOT and Amtrak. All 19 cars in the Piedmont fleet — 14 passenger cars and 5 baggage/cafe cars — were originally built in the 1950s and 1960s for other railroads, including the Union Pacific and the Kansas City Southern, he said.
“We’ve never had the money to do a new railcar procurement. So in the past, it’s been purchase used rail cars, identify the funding for it, and refurbish them as we go along,” Orthner said. “We want to get the best bang for the budget that we have.”
The market for used rail cars is relatively limited, Orthner said, so when it appeared Ringling Bros. would be selling its trains, NCDOT jumped at the chance to buy some of the cars.
“They are good cars,” he said. “They were a true bargain for the money that we spent on them.”
Orthner added that the circus train cars were built in the 1960s by the St. Louis Car Company, which also made some of the cars the state already owns, so NCDOT “knows how to care for them and that they’re reliable.”
NCDOT painted over the Ringling Bros. name and logos, though faded “The Greatest Show on Earth” insignia still appear on some of them. The lone baggage car is covered on one side with large, brightly colored paintings of a gorilla, tiger and elephant, fitting images for a circus that were apparently added by a graffiti artist. The animals are superimposed on the cryptic slogan “ITSE BITSE & SUPER VALUE,” which also appears on another car.
Orthner said he’s not sure when those images were painted. But he notes all of the cars would be decked out in the Piedmont’s blue color scheme if they are rehabbed and join the fleet.
Eight of the cars NCDOT bought were used by the circus as dormitories for performers and staff, with enclosed compartments and an aisle running down one side. As with the previous renovations, the cars would be gutted down to the shell and turned into passenger cars, their past use by Ringling Bros. unapparent to all but the most discerning rail buffs.
But the purchase of 13 new cars means the circus cars may not join the Piedmont fleet after all. NCDOT will spend the rest of this year evaluating the condition of its existing cars and its future needs before deciding whether to refurbish the Ringling Bros. cars or sell them.
The state plans to add another daily round-trip of the Piedmont in 2023, to coincide with the opening of a new Amtrak station in Uptown Charlotte, which will require expanding the fleet. It’s been 25 years since some of the older cars were refurbished by the state, and it may make sense to replace them rather than overhaul them again, Orthner said.
In the meantime, the circus train cars will remain parked in Nash County, because the state doesn’t have room for them at its yard just north of downtown Raleigh. NCDOT is keeping them in working order, Orthner said, and doesn’t think it will have trouble finding a buyer if it ultimately decides to sell.
“They have the value of having been original to Barnum and Bailey,” he said. “They have quite a history of those shows over many, many years. There’s definitely a market, whenever we put these cars on the market.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 3:29 PM with the headline "NCDOT bought part of a Ringling Bros. circus train and now isn’t sure what to do with it."
