20.11.2019

Why does Circus Roncalli travels by train?

• Description

  Time is money - this also applies to an entertainment company. At the Circus Roncalli, for example, last Tuesday night was the last performance of this year's guest performance in Munich. At around 10.30pm, the cast took their last visitors out of the arena, and immediately after, the workers set off and began dismantling the large tent, folding the canopy at the cashier and dismantling the cafe tent. Then the whole thing had to be rebuilt to Bremen and there, so that starting from next Wednesday on the performances again. The special feature: Roncalli transports most of the equipment by train.

  
  About 100 vehicles includes the Roncalli-Tross. Many of them are historic circus and show carts, some more than 100 years old. When Roncalli co-founder Bernhard Paul began building his circus in the 1970s, he also laid the foundations for one of the largest collections of historic circus wagons, says plant manager Patrick Philadelphia. It includes two sumptuous "facade cars", as well as sales and cash vehicles, living, pack and wardrobe cars, shower and toilet wagons. There is even a tailor-made car in which a seamstress prepares to repair damaged costumes, and this car and materials must be taken care of."

  
  Train and Bus When the beer came by trainHistorical exhibition. When the beer came by trainMany goods were previously transported by rail - but not in the container as today, but often in special wagons. A show in Nuremberg reminds of the former variety of freight trains. By Marco Völklein. For the operations manager is therefore clear: a distance from Munich to Bremen, a total of more than 700 kilometers long, these cars can hardly handle on its own axis. The circus people therefore pull the wagons with a tractor to a nearby loading point and push them there to 50 flat railway wagons. Usually most part of circus cars travel by the wagons, all other transports that is handled by the circus travels by roads.  especially long and heavy caravans are included. But even the entire tent lands on low loaders and is driven over the highway to the next venue. Still, most part of the circus travel by rail.

  
  Roncalli is now an exception in the industry. It used to be different, says Julia Voigt from the DB Museum in Nuremberg. The historian has recently designed a special exhibition on the history of freight transport by rail, part of which also deals with circus and showman rides. Thus, with the beginning of the railway age, many circus families relied on the new means of transport to increase their radius, on secondary lines were also reached smaller venues. Circus animals also traveled on the train; For giraffes there were wagons with raised roofs, wagons for big cats were made "particularly escape-proof", says Voigt. For the Circus Krone in Munich, three elephant cars were built in 1925, two were scrapped after 1945, the third remained in operation until 1999, according to Voigt. "Thereafter, the Circus Krone relocated to road transport." Like many others.

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  One of the reasons for that, Voigt says, is that many side roads have been dismantled and freight yards abandoned. Roncalli Operations Manager Philadelphia has to contend with that as well. The mere question of where to unload his 50 train wagons becomes increasingly tricky. "There used to be a freight yard with a ramp in almost every city," says Philadelphia. Alone, because in many places military vehicles were loaded on the railway. Meanwhile, such ramps have rarity value. In Bremen, for example, there is no more, Philadelphia was therefore recently for just under 10,000 euros from a specialist firm in Aachen a portable ramp made of steel beams and wooden planks rooms, drive (by truck!) To Bremen and build there on a site of the port operator BLG. "Otherwise we would not have been able to play in Bremen."

  
  In addition, a circus has to cope with the difficulties faced by many ordinary travelers. "Punctuality is a problem," says Philadelphia. And the thing with the wrong car series: So that the workers with their tractor can pull the circus wagons from the train wagons, the latter must be arranged right around the loading ramp. Not infrequently, however, Philadelphia reports that the train has to be turned first because the cars arrive in the wrong direction. "And to make a special train," says the circus boss, "that can sometimes take a few hours."

  
  However, Roncalli does not want to renounce rail transport. Especially for long distances, rail travel is still much cheaper than road transport, says Philadelphia. Theoretically, you could pack the circus wagons on low loaders and drive on the highway to the next venue - but finding the drivers for them alone is difficult and costly. And meanwhile, he has equipped some of his circus cars with small GPS transmitters, Philadelphia says. "That way we can see where the train is right now." The advantage: in the event of a delay, nobody can tell anyone that the train is about to arrive at its destination. "Let's not kid ourselves anymore."

  Circus Roncalli is a German circus founded in 1976 by Bernhard Paul and André Heller