The Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus usually had a two-week engagement in Philadelphia during the first two weeks in June. After a Sunday closing, the train would load overnight, and would depart early on Monday morning. My friend Dennis Tiley and I made that Monday a regular day off to photograph the train, which always headed to destinations in the Midwest via Harrisburg. If things went well for the RBBB crew, the train would be near Reading by sunrise. In 1990, the train was later than usual, allowing us to start closer to Philly. Going for a location anywhere east of Valley Forge would have been traffic suicide, so we chose Perkiomen Junction as our starting point. Here CIR-101 passes under the Reading signal bridge on a warm June morning.
