CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Three train cars that once belonged to a traveling circus have been auctioned off by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
The three train cars were sold on Tuesday for a winning bid of $28,750. The sale follows a tumultuous timeline for the train cars that began with the NCDOT obtaining them in 2017.
NCDOT came into possession of nine of the 1960s-era train cars when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus shut down operations in 2017. The train cars were purchased for over $383,000, according to the Associated Press.
Transportation officials hoped to repurpose the train cars for passenger travel.
However, these plans went up in smoke when a fire broke out and burned the cars, which were being stored near Spring Hope, N.C. in Nash County.
Four of the cars were destroyed in the fire, according to the Nash County Sheriff's Office.
Two of the remaining cars were auctioned off on the state's surplus website in May. It was not the first time the state had tried auctioning off the cars. According to the Associated Press, NCDOT attempted to sell the cars as early as 2020.
With these remaining three cars sold, all nine cars have now been dispersed out of NCDOT's possession.
The auction coincidentally comes on the same day that Amtrack released its end-of-the-year findings, which show increases in North Carolina train ridership.
Overall, North Carolina's Carolinian and Piedmont trade routes saw a 65.3% increase in ridership in 2022 compared to 2021, with the latter seeing a boost of 118.7%. The launch of a fourth daily roundtrip on the Piedmont route from Charlotte to Raleigh likely added to this increase, which Amtrak also cited in their yearly accomplishments.