My Home for the last two years

I really don't think I have blogged enough about my home, which in case anyone isn't aware yet is a train. Not just any train but one of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus trains. They have two units that travel by train, a red one and a blue one, we are on the Red unit, 'Zing Zang Zoom'. Actually that sounds as though the train is red but it isn't it is a great big silver thing a bit like a airstream. It is 59 cars long and just over a mile in length making it the longest privately owned train in the world, well along with the other RBBB train from the blue unit. It is a pretty impressive sight as it travels, and travel it does, to about 42 cities and over 20 thousand miles a year (though I'm sure some one will correct me if these figures are wrong).

The Train carries 4,000 tons of equipment, 30+ animals, and nearly 100 performers. There are 'Coaches,' (residential cars, living quarters, for 250+ employees), 'Stocks' for elephants and horses, and 'Flats' which carry wagons, concessions, props, costumes, lighting and other equipment to the next arena. There are also a few cars and a bus that the circus uses to transport everyone around.

One of the circus cars is a workshop, one of them is a dinner called piecar senior (piecar junior gets parked at the arena for the week and travels on the flats) and another one of the cars house the generators that provide us with electricity. The circus doesn't own its own engines they are provided from the railroad along with the driver.

On train journeys (train runs) the stock cars are usually at the front right behind the locomotive as that is the smoothest part of the train. Sometimes we are a couple of cars behind them which is good and sometimes it is the other way round and we are at the back. It is amazing the difference it makes to the smoothness of the journey.

We are called 'a town built for the rails' or 'a town with no zip code' as aboard there are so many people and not just those involved with the show. There is a special train crew that, as the name implies take care of the train. There are train porters that make sure the train is nice and clean and tidy, they even empty the rubbish from bags on the side of the train in the skip. You don't even have to walk to the skip yourself, though I do feel kind of lazy when it is close so I have to do it myself. When it snows or gets icy they even grit our steps.

There are quite a few children that travel with the show so there is a teacher and a teaching assistant that also travels with us. There are office staff and drivers and sometimes we even have a priest who travels with the show.



The journey from one city to the next is called a train run and I love them. Train runs are without a doubt the best part of the week, which is usually how often we move, though sometimes it is every two weeks and very occasionally every 3 weeks and even 4 weeks which drives everyone a little stir crazy. It is very odd when you are in one place for under a week, sometimes you wish it were more and then when that wish comes true it drives you mad. Some times they are just a few hours long and sometimes they can be three days. The sights you see from your window or from your vestibule are pretty amazing. Travelling the west coast the views where just breathtaking, but some of the sights can also be a real eye opener.





When we are not moving the train generally parks in a train yards somewhere. Some times they are so close to the arena you can walk, which is great. Other times though it can be over 45 minutes away by bus which isn't so great. And just as the distance can vary immensely so can the quality of the train yard or the tracks that we park as it is not always in a yard. There are a few that are nice and a lot that aren't, but then they really aren't designed for luxury living. Some are busy, noisy and dirty and often in the middle of nowhere and sometimes not good nowhere’s at that. The best without a doubt though was Colorado Springs, which isn't technically a train yard but wonderful all the same.





We have just done our last train run and only have a couple of days left living on this train and I am going to miss it so much.