Wardie Jay Circus train

[Carey Williams]

Hello all

Circus trains have delighted many a child ...Marklin 1908 +-, Ives 1928-30, Lionel Mickey Mouse 1934...Tony Koveleski of Scanton, PA wanted to produce a scale model Circus for adults .
March 1946 an ad for Koveleski's Wardie Jay circus is published in Model Railroader . Wardie Jay offers kits for the talented builder to create an entire circus in O scale .. with wood and cast metal kits.
February 1947 Koveleski buys out Walter Bathgate's HO scale circus line ...to corner the model train circus world in both gauges .
Koveleski quickly added tin plate length ( shorty) cars in addition to the long scale 70' foot cars to broaden his audience.
The Wardie Jay line remained in production for 20+ years ....Circus Craft of California seems to have picked up the circus lineage by 1969 and continued for many years.
To see the Circus Train in action please see link

https://youtu.be/CSQ5M4ALLfU?si=2pVcmy0GauwBCmtL


Cheers Carey

[Dennis Holler]

Nice circus train Carey. They must have made tons of kits over the years for there to still be so many unbuilt surfacing. I’ve always passed due to the size and my lack of room, but may have to bite on one at some point.

[bob turner]

I really like your clips. Not much on circusi or their trains, but really like the Northern and all the exotica it passes on its journey.
Stay with us - we are in need of contributors.

[steamaheadstephen59]

Yes I to love the S2 It sound like its grinding, but videos do tend to exaggerate sound. To bad we dont know anything about the builder. I learned something about circus trains, what a great talking piece to have. I enjoy the videos, keep them coming Carey.