CIRCUS ACTS RIDE THE RAILS; RARE TRAIN HOME TO 300 PEOPLE, ANIMALS

Tom Dillon is one of two trainmasters for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He directs the Blue Unit.

Like other trainmasters, Tom Dillon is responsible for making sure his train gets from one city to the next - on time and safely.

But that's where the similarities end. Instead of transporting freight, Dillon's train carries over 300 men, women and children, plus an assortment of exotic animals.

Dillon is trainmaster of the Blue Unit of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, The Blue Unit for "The Greatest Show on Earth," as the circus is called, is one of two Ringling Brothers circus trains that travel throughout the United States.

As trainmaster, Dillon works closely with officials of the railroads that provide locomotives and operating crews to move the train from city to city.

Dillon says his job is unique.

"There's only one other person in the world with a job like mine, and that's the trainmaster of the other circus train, which is now operating in the Western United States," Dillon said in a telephone interview.

As he spoke, the circus was completing its final show in Springfield, Ill., and was preparing to load the train for the 12-13-hour trip to Cape Girardeau. The train arrived at the Burlington Northern Railroad's South Cape Girardeau yards Thursday afternoon.

The Blue Unit transports the circus' international family of over 300 performers and their families. It hauls the clowns, acrobats, tightrope walkers, animal trainers, management and support personnel, along with 18 elephants, 18 horses, 13 tigers, and exotic animals.

The 49-car train weighs approximately 3,410 tons and is 4,333 feet long. The train is made up of 34 conventional passenger cars at the front and 15 flat cars at the rear. Of the 34 passenger cars, three are former baggage cars that have been modified as stock cars to carry elephants and other large animals.

Thirty-one of the coaches have been converted into living quarters for personnel and support staff and their families. Other units include a generator car for electricity and a maintenance shop and tool car. The 15 flat cars carry all the necessary equipment, including props, vehicles, and caged animals.

The passenger cars have been converted into living quarters similar to efficiency apartments. Many have cooking and living areas.

"Travel days for the circus are days off for most of the staff and performers, so the passengers on the train relax, watch TV, prepare meals, clean house, play with their children, visit neighbors, or gather in the vestibules to socialize and watch the scenery roll by," said Dillon.

"Of the 350 performers and support personnel who travel with the circus, 300 live on the circus train," he said. "The rest live in travel campers pulled by cars or trucks that travel ahead of the circus train."

Dillon works with the host railroad to plan departures and arrivals. At the same time, Dillon contacts vendors in the next city to arrange for water, fuel, sewer, and trash container services.

After the grand finale, Dillon supervises the loading of the train, which usually takes about three-and-one-half hours.

Dillon must load the train so that it can be quickly unloaded in the next city. Since becoming trainmaster, Dillon has accumulated a large notebook of information on each city in which the circus plays, including Cape Girardeau. The book contains information on the layout of the South Cape Girardeau railroad yard and names and phone numbers of individuals and businesses that will work with the circus in Cape Girardeau.

While the train is en route to the next city, Dillon makes arrangements for stops every 12 hours to take on fresh water. Dillon pre-plans water stops, which are also used by maintenance personnel to make a walk-by inspection of each car.

Upon arrival at the next town, Dillon works with the railroad yardmaster or conductor as the train crew breaks up the train and spots cars on sidings for unloading.

It takes about 10-14 hours to switch and spot the train and unload the equipment and animals and set up the circus, depending on the distance to the arena from the tracks, Dillon said.

Because each railroad yard and city is different, Dillon refers to his files to determine at which end the cars must be unloaded.

"No two railroad yards are the same, so the way we make up our train before we leave, and how we cut out and switch the cars after arriving in town, is always different for each city. I have a very detailed filing system on each town that we played in, which has all the information I need to get the train spotted correctly and unloaded quickly and efficiently," he explained.

Dillon said the job of a circus trainmaster is demanding and challenging, but he loves it. "Logistically, it's like a mind game or crossword puzzle, making sure all the pieces will fit together ahead of time," he said.

A native of Pittsburgh, Penn., Dillon is a university graduate with a degree in psychology. But he said he discovered after graduation that there weren't many job opportunities for a psychology major, so he went to work for the Penn Central Railroad in the mechanical department. When the Penn Central folded, he hired on with Conrail; again, in the mechanical department. When he left Conrail in 1985 to join the circus train, Dillon was Conrail's terminal general foreman of cars and locomotives at the railroad's Philadelphia terminal.

Since joining the circus, he has taken the circus over the "high iron" to all 48 states. "If they ever build that bridge from California to Hawaii, I'm ready to take the train there, too," he said.

During his time with Penn Central and Conrail, Dillon worked with and learned from trainmasters, yardmasters and other supervisory railroad personnel. As trainmaster of the circus train, he uses what he has learned working on the two railroads to keep his train moving on time.

"The circus train has priority over all other trains except Amtrak passenger trains and the expedited "pig" trains loaded with high priority freight," he explained. "We're also on a fixed schedule from city to city. The host railroad tries to give us a good `meet' with other trains, but if we start to fall behind it's my job to make sure we get back on schedule."

The train will spend as little as two days in some towns and as long as two months in New York. Usually, Dillon can be found working along with other circus support people on routine maintenance.

"I really enjoy the time I'm working on maintenance of the cars. It's a change of pace from being on the move, and loading and unloading the circus," he said.