The Circus Train

Game of Thrones, with a big top. Star Trek, on wheels.

A great train rumbled through the night. Its bright interior illuminated the dark forest that lined the track, casting deep shadows that danced among the trees. Beneath the staccato clack of wheels and the deep rumble of the engine, bright melodies could be heard as the train passed by. The music of a content, complete and isolated little world.

This was the music of the circus. This was the circus train.

Circus trains transported equipment, animals, and personnel from one location to another and travelled extensively to bring their performances to cities and towns.

Circus trains employed specially designed carriages to accommodate different needs including cars for animals, performers, equipment, living quarters and dining cars. Performers and circus staff often lived on the train during the tour. Circus families often hired tutors or educators to travel with them and provide lessons to the children. Might a circus train even haul a carriage that served as a school?

I am just an engineer, not a screenwriter. However, it is my job to have ideas, and I have long thought that a circus train could serve as an excellent context for a serialized drama. A streaming epic.

A circus train holds a self-contained little world. An entire town on wheels. A close knit population, deeply involved in the lives of one another, with shared goals, conflicts, dramas and identity.

A new town introduces a new setting, new situations, new stories, new characters, brief encounters, new problems which can be resolved or from which they can be inevitably run.

An entire life of loves and losses could be lived on this train. Alternatively, characters might come and go. Time passes, children become adults, trends change, the train itself becomes a character that transforms with time.

This train could run and run.

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