Cascade Park-New Castle,PA

I just learned about this place yesterday! (Being from Pittsburgh, that's hard to believe). I had no idea this little park ever existed, and by looking at the photos of the Comet, it sure looks like I missed a lot!

Anyone have any personal experiences of the Comet? It looks like it would have been an awesome ride! 1st drop straight into the ravine. The whole ride looks like it was very senic and was probably a blast to ride at night! Sorry I missed out on this one, it closed in 1981. :(

The Park:

http://www.rcdb.com/id1882.htm

I grew up 5 minutes from the park, but never rode the Comet. It was closed before I worked up the nerve to ride it. I do remember riding most of the other rides that were still operating at the park when I was a kid. I went down a couple years ago and took some pictures of the park. If you want to see what it looks like today, you can at http://community.webshots.com/myphotos?action=viewAllPhotos&albumID=165101727&security=COnnXF

I only got to ride it 1 time before the park closed as an amusement park and from what I remember I was kicking myself for waiting so long.

There's just something about going out of the station and right into a drop. And I remember the trees everywhere. From what I recall, it was hard to see much ahead of you because of all the trees.

The other thing I remember was that it looked like the entire ride was about ready to fall apart. Of course this was during their lean period before removing and selling off the rides.

The real sad ending is on the last page of pictures that loriu posed a link to. The trains for the Comet as well as Cascade's Tumble Bug cars are sitting and rotting in a fenced in lot on New Castle's south side.

Several people from the Idorapark.org website contacted the owner to try to see if they could be saved but he had no interest in selling them and so they rot, totally unprotected from the weather.

Wow! Great photos, Lori! I heard about the park a few years ago. I can't believe all of that stuff is still lying around, especially the Tumble Bug as it is VERY rare.

I will have to check that place out sometime. I love visiting defunct parks. :)

-Tina

Does anyone know the layout of this coaster? I've always wondered what it was, but it is too hard to tell from the few pictures that are out there due to the abundance of foliage.

The coaster was basically U shaped. One of the ACE RC mags has a diagram of the layout. I can't remember off hand which edition but if I come across it I will scan it an post it.

A friend of mine rode the very last ride on the Comet. The train left the station but never returned....

The train make it up one of the hills and valleyed. Turned out, that was the last ride the Comet ever took.

Thanks swampfoxer! I'd love to see the layout if you come across it!

My dad went down with me the day I took those pictures and he told me, to the best of his memory, what stood where. I tried to caption the pics the best I could between what he and I could remember.

There is also a small book the area historical society released a couple years ago about the park. It doesn't have a lot of info about the rides but it's still interesting to read. It's more about the history of the park and how it got started, who owned it, etc.

Thanks for the posts. The first one that John Peck posted is where I found out about it. I was amazed something like that existed so close to home, yet I had never heard about it.

I drove charter buses for several years, starting right about the time Cacades folded as an active amusement park. I would have probably missed out, anyway... I first visited parks such as Conneaut, Waldameer, as well as some bigger ones (Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Dorney) just because I was driving a charter there.

Many, many trips over the years to Cedar Point, Geauga Lake, but I had been there as a kid. Idora was a personal fave of mine, too...my mom and aunt were polka lovers, and would take the kids along for a day at the park while they danced away in the ballroom.

I "found" Waldameer that way, about 1982-83, from driving a charter to their ballroom on "polka day". Never heard about Cascades, though... odd, because they had a ballroom/dance pavillion. :( *** Edited 7/20/2006 3:07:26 AM UTC by Chooch249***

Hooray for ethnic and polka days at parks! A-one-and-a-two-and-a...

This from I previous post of mine

Mine would be the Cascade Park Comet.You would ride with your eyes shut so you would not get your eyes poked out by the tree branches that was wacking you in the head.If you sat in the back seat you see peoples heads in front of you bobing up and down because the track was in such a warped state.You would hope when you went the last drop,which the largest and VERY steep,that your bar would stay closed.

I kid you not,this thing was in worse shape than the Williams Grove Cyclone. *** Edited 7/20/2006 3:21:30 AM UTC by Ex_Westview and KW_worker***