Here's a photo I took on July 12, 1982, FORTY-ONE YEARS AGO, of a San Diego-bound Ringling Bros-Barnum & Bailey circus train making its way across the Santa Ana River on the ATSF Olive Subdivision between Atwood and Olive. The sun was very low in the sky, so the lighting conditions were not the best.

Note the white classification lights on the lead unit, indicating that the train is an extra. This system is no longer used and almost all locomotives no longer have class lights.

Santa Fe and the RBB&B circus no longer exist, and the Olive Sub is now owned and operated by Metrolink, used by their Inland Empire-Orange County trains. BNSF trains also use the line.

Twenty-four days after I took this photo, I photographed the circus train again on August 05 in Santa Ana when it was being handled by Southern Pacific. See:

[www.altamontpress.com]

Here's an interesting story related to the circus train that I posted on Trainorders a few years ago. I just saw Buck Cleveland, the conductor involved, at a gathering of retirees a few weeks ago.

[www.trainorders.com]