Sunday Morning With the Once Greatest Show on Earth ...

Photo by and courtesy of Craig Walker

So you think I don't put up enough pretty pictures like the bigger tents on the midway? Well, eat your hearts out, you shutter bugs! This one I found, by sheer serendipity, whilst researching for another (non circus) project. And, boy, does it make Ringling actually look like the Greatest Show, etc., etc. -- unlike how it can sit there in the huge cold arenas where the truncated performance space can sometimes seem swamped within a surrounding concession tsunami.

Maybe John Ringling North II hit it perfect when he said that going to a circus indoors is like "spending a day at the mall."

But out there in the mountains, ain't the Big One a dazzler!

Craig Walker’s description of the photo:

"On Tuesday, July 12th, 2011, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (red unit) train approaches Tunnel 2 in the Tehachapi Mountains as the show relocates from Fresno to San Diego (arrival in San Diego will be in the wee hours of the morning the next day). The train has three BNSF ES44DCs (7315, 7646 and 7216) on the point, and is made up of 59 cars (34 coaches, 18 flats, 4 stock cars, 2 COFC and 1 bi-level auto rack) - 4290 tons and 5235 feet in length (not counting the diesels) - nearly a mile long!"

Thanks, Craig, for your photo fanfare.