Wardee-Jay 1940 era circus wagons by boxbuild-1/48

[Boxbuilds]

Wardee-Jay sold replicas of circus wagons from late 1940s and early 50s. They contained one page construction drawings with notes. Wood, wire, pins, stamped parts and soft metal castings (mostly wheels) were provided. Decals were included but by this time they crumbled when touched. So decorations were handed painted. 

 

A few liberties were taken with the giraffe wagon by addding a sliding roof panel so the toy giraffes could be seen. In general they follow the plans which reflect Ringling Bros equipment. 

[yvesvidal]

Very nice. I love these Circus trains.

 

Yves

[Canute]

I was in a club with a retired AF Chief Master Sergeant, who belonged to the Circus Modelers Association or some such. He modeled in N thru G scales. His pride and joy was a calliope in O scale. Impressive builds.  They've retired all the real circus trains here in the US, so the models are it except for a few random circus museums.

[mtaylor]

7 hours ago, Canute said:

I was in a club with a retired AF Chief Master Sergeant, who belonged to the Circus Modelers Association or some such. He modeled in N thru G scales. His pride and joy was a calliope in O scale. Impressive builds.  They've retired all the real circus trains here in the US, so the models are it except for a few random circus museums.

That's really a pity, in my opinion.   As kids we went down to the railroad station to see the train come in and unload.  Then there was the parade to the fairgrounds and putting up the tents, etc.   We've lost something using semi-trucks and hockey rinks, etc for circuses.

[MEDDO]

Those looks great

[Canute]

Mark, Ringling Brothers parked their trains in the Meadowlands in North Jersey (really swampland, but I grew up near there), unloaded their stuff and rolled into the Lincoln Tunnel and over to Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. It was a sight to behold. Multiple sections of their trains came in to the railroad yards.

 

The route was the reverse of the opening credits of "The Sopranos", an HBO show on the Jersey/New York mafia. Required watching for us Jersey guys with Italian blood, ya know.

[popeye the sailor]

I've never seen them before.........really cool!    gone to the circus in my younger days,  but never got to see anything like that.......lucky guy Ken!     I've seen older wagon kits though,  but haven't bought any.   I did purchase the Budweiser Clydesdale wagon recently.......gotta be around forty years or so when the kit was released.

[Landlubber Mike]

Very cool!  My kids would love this!