Camden Park Huntington,WV

Well, I am employed at camden park here in huntington west virginia. Next year is the 100th anniversary celebration. They have 4 different rides people can vote from on their website. if you would like to see it point your broswers to

www.camdenpark.com

This park needs all the support it can get. take a minute to check it out!!

Saesonny or anybody else that knows: I'm planning on going to Camden Park next week and I have been wondering if Thunderbolt Express is running this year or not.

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Welcome back Force riders how was your ride!!!

no the thundrbolt is down forever.i work on the spider and they rebuilt it over the winter and it runs like a beauty

Oh ok that sucks I never got to ride it. :(

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Welcome back Force riders how was your ride!!!

Thats probally THE best Spider I ever rode.

Why do they want to get a Zamperla ride? Those things are trouble. I voted fo te Kite Flyer in hopes that they choose a Dartron Cliff Hanger (flying Paratrooper) instead

saesonny--
First of all, off-season rehab or not, Camden Park has the hands-up #1 best-running Spider I have ever ridden, just slightly edging out the one at Holiday World.

Take a look at the Spider controls next time you work it. I'm just curious...Does one of the control handles still have a sleeve around it about half-way down; I think it's welded at both ends to fix the place where the handle broke the day I was there in '97. :) That happened on a Sunday afternoon and the maintenance guys had the ride up and running again by the end of the day. And the repair was obviously a good one 'cause it was still working great two years later.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Is the Thunderbolt Express the big white wooden coaster you can see from I64 ? If it's down, do they have any other wooden coasters ?

No, that's the Big Dipper you see from the road. You can also see Thunderbolt Express, it's the big shuttle loop that runs along the parking lot. Unfortunately, I fear that it will never run again.

The spider does look great, and gave a fantastic ride when I was there two Fridays ago. You can bet my friends and I will be back before too long. ($6 after 6 -- cheaper than going to a movie, and more fun too. :))

Jeremy

Rideman, The only thing that is around the handle is electricial tape so it is more comfy for us to operate the ride. Also, we have read your trip reports and would like you to come down and visit this summer. Just contact me by email and i can give you the details. We have a new swan lake this year with 4 swan boats (bigger than the ones at cedar point!) Thanks for all the good comments!

That's a shame about Thunderbolt (I see it's missing from the "coasters" section, but still in the ride montage on the front page.)

Is that salvageable at all to where another park could fix it if they had more resources (or money)? I doubt anyone would do it, though. There's not much love out there for Arrow or Schwarzkopf shuttles in the day of B&M.

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"When I was growing up, we were taught something called manners. You'd understand that if you weren't such an idiot." - Jack Handey

While on the subject... you know what'd be cool? Dig a big ole trench, so the loading platform of Tbolt would be ground level... you'd plunge underground and just for the top of the loop you'd see daylight.

...or maybe I just play RCT too much.

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"When I was growing up, we were taught something called manners. You'd understand that if you weren't such an idiot." - Jack Handey

kpjb, great minds think alike! Not that they'd really do it, but we can dream right? I believe its original name would be more appropriate then!
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Brad Sherman
BuzzCon Frequent Flyer, helping to train new ride ops properly!
Model coasters and rides

Wow, this is exciting news. I have been going to Camden Park every summer for as long as I can remember. This is the first time they have ever considered getting a brand new large ride since they got a Huss Enterprise in the early 90s. I really hope they do change their minds and go for a little more thrilling ride. Also, it's too bad the Thunderbolt may be lost forever though. It was only open three times in about 15 visits for me. I only rode a few times.