HAMBURG, N.Y. — The James E. Strates Shows carnival train made a triumphant final trip Thursday (Aug. 1) when it delivered midway attractions to the Erie County Fair via shortline Buffalo Southern.
The nine-car train — which made its way from Strates headquarters in Taft, Fla., to Buffalo, N.Y., in CSX merchandise service last month — arrived to fanfare at the former Erie Railroad depot near the fairgrounds. A band played and a throng had gathered trackside to greet the train, which had not run since the end of the 2019 fair season.
“With the assistance of CSX, we were able to create thousands of positive, lasting memories for families in Western New York State,” Strates spokesman Marty Biniasz said. An estimated 7,000 people watched the train at Buffalo Southern grade crossings and at its final stop, he said.
Wearing fresh paint and decked out with bunting and an Erie County Fair Train banner, Buffalo Southern C424 No. 4212 did the honors by hauling the train from Buffalo to Hamburg. Bringing up the rear of the train was a former Penn Central caboose owned by tourist hauler Buffalo, Cattaraugus & Jamestown Railroad. It carried dignitaries and VIPs.
A mile from the final stop, the train paused so that members of the Strates family and the Erie County Fair CEO Jessica Underberg could climb aboard and ride the locomotive to the depot.
The James E. Strates Shows carnival train has hauled midway attractions to fairs up and down the East Coast since 1934. When the 45-car train was spotted on the two spurs adjacent to the Strates headquarters outside of Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 22, 2019, the family-run company had every intention of taking the show to the rails again in the spring. But no one anticipated the COVID-19 pandemic, which wiped out the annual fair schedule as mass gatherings were banned in 2020.
Fairs returned in 2021, but were scaled back due to pandemic-related capacity limits. The attendance caps upended the railroad economics for Strates. With smaller fairs and midways, it didn’t make sense to use the train and its ability to haul everything in the Strates inventory. The show hit the road in 2021, using trucks to reach fairs from Florida to Vermont [see “Dire Strates: Last carnival train still hopes to roll again,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 13, 2024].
Strates was unable to reach a contract agreement with CSX for operation of the traditional unit train this year. But the carnival company and railroad were able to reach a deal on moving the equipment in regular manifest service to Buffalo for a ceremonial last run [see “Coming attraction: James E. Strates Shows carnival train set to roll again,” News Wire, June 20, 2024].
The event was used to mark the 100th anniversary of Strates providing the midway for the Erie County Fair, which the carnival company says is the longest-running partnership in the fair industry.
Seven of the Strates flat cars used in the final train have been sold. The Warren camp car is scheduled to return to the Strates headquarters in Florida next week. The family is retaining the car for undetermined future use. Strates still has over 40 flat cars, including ex-Ringling Bros. equipment, in storage in Orlando.
I met the train several times over my railroad career. Sad to see it fade away along with the circus train. An era has ended.
I remember seeing a string of Strates flatcars parked on the NS Delmarva Sub along New Burton Road (between Dover and Wyoming, Delaware), waiting for the Delaware State Fair down in Harrington to end so, that the train could come and pick up all that Strates equipment. The Delaware fair IIRC now contracts with another carnival company.
I remember an earlier Strates train with both heavyweight pasenger cars and flat cars behind a Reading FT A-B set in Philly, headed West.
That train was in Wilkes-Barre PA in June, 1972 for Hurricane Agnes. The E-L took the Strates people to the ex-Erie where E-L’s recently retired though line passenger cars were stored. i