NCDOT again tries to sell surplus circus train cars, this time with big price cuts
The state Department of Transportation is trying again to auction off five railroad cars where circus performers and crew once slept as they moved around the country.
The cars were unscathed by a fire in Nash County on March 10 that destroyed four others. The cause of that fire on a remote section of state-owned railroad track east of Spring Hope remains under investigation.
NCDOT bought the nine railroad cars from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 2017 for $383,000. It planned to have the cars refurbished and used on the Piedmont, the passenger train that makes three round-trips a day between Raleigh and Charlotte.
But NCDOT then received federal grants allowing it to buy new rail cars for the Piedmont. It put the old ones up for auction in late 2020, setting minimum bids of $45,000 for eight of the cars and $55,000 for a storage car full of tools. When the auction failed to produce a buyer, NCDOT said it would try again.
Now the surviving five cars are back on the state’s surplus property auction site, with bids due April 18 at 10 a.m. The new minimum bid for each of them is $6,588. NCDOT chose that to-the-dollar amount after doing an analysis of the current rail car market, said spokeswoman Katie Trout.
All five cars were built in 1964 by the St. Louis Car Company. Each has “approximately 11 small to medium dorm rooms,” according to the state’s auction website, except for one car that has six rooms.
NCDOT painted over the Ringling Bros. name and logos on the outside of the cars, though faded “The Greatest Show on Earth” insignia still appear on some of them. The baggage car was covered on one side with large, brightly colored paintings of a gorilla, tiger and elephant that were apparently added by a graffiti artist. That car was destroyed by the fire.
NCDOT is also auctioning off two other old rail cars that don’t have a history with the circus. One is a baggage car built in 1965, for a minimum bid of $4,883, while the other from 1953 was originally used as a hospital car by the U.S. Army and is now stripped to the bare walls. The minimum bid for it is $18,425.
NCDOT has always bought old rail cars like these to refurbish and use on the Piedmont. The cars on order now using the federal grants will be the first new ones in the Piedmont fleet.
If the department fails to find a buyer this time, it will organize a live online auction of the rail cars following a process spelled out by the General Assembly in a bill signed into law March 17.
As for the four cars that burned, NCDOT has identified parts that can be salvaged and is working with a recycling company to dispose of the rest, Trout said.
For more information about the online auction, go to www.ncstatesurplus.com and click on “items on bid” and look for the “railway equipment” category.
This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 10:12 AM.
