Is this wagon in the first two pictures the #14 pictured below without SPARKS painted on the side and S painted on the side? The scrolls look similar, but the below wagon looks shorter and not as long as the top photos. Help me, Bobby.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Cage Wagons--Sparks Circus 1927
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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3 comments:
The Bottom photo was taken in 1921 in front of the Moeller Wagon Works in Baraboo, WI.as it was just completed. The photo I have came from Chappie Fox.
I can't be 100% certain but I believe the cage above with the dark paint ( probably red ) is actually the # 12 cage you have above a ccouple more photos up. Again the #12 cage wagon ( up above a couple photos ) was taken in 1921 at the Moeller wagon works in Baraboo.
I found a 1928 loading list. The #12 cage is listed as being 16 feet long and carried Lions. The #14 cage was 12 feet long and carried tigers. I can only assume that the cage numbers in 1921 when they were built were still the same cages in 1928.
Bob
Bob,
Thank you.
Wade
Addendum to Bob,
I switched the two pictures around, thank you for noting. Anyone who decides to start looking into these old circus wagons need's to be fore warned they will go bat shit crazy in about two hours. I spend half my time blinking my eyes and thinking "WTF!!!" They are not like a royal carriage that has stayed in the same family for centuries, with no changes what so ever. It seems many of the great circus wagons(not that there are not some great ones surviving) were destroyed in fires.
Wade Burck
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