Cedar Point and band organs

Here's a quick list. I'm sure there's more:

GeaugaLake/Stricker'sGrove/Kennywood/Idlewild/

Conneaut Lake/Delgrossos/Trimpers Rides/Rye Playland/Knoebels/Hersheypark(?)/Kings Island(?)

Santa Cruz?

Seabreeze. They have it on display for all to see. Quite an impressive display, I might add.

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RavenTTD said:
Common, you have to be fair. We all don't like brakes on MS and Mantis, but they went out of their way to lighten the brakes on Raptor and Magnum.

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Lighten? They completely turned off the brakes on Raptor. :)

I agree that is sorta weird.

But is it that easy to find a real band organ these days? Wouldn't surprise me if the ones that were on it were either broken or destroyed in a fire somehow.

Could it be done? Yes but their main focus is on theit new ride and keeping the coasters running to their full potential.

millrace,

Hershey is an affirmative. It's mentioned on their website under the ride listing.

Kings Island does have a band organ on their carousel that works.

Chaindog, Mean Streak was built as the tallest and fastest wooden coaster...not the best. They never marketed the ride that way. Too many of their coasters built since Corkscrew were marketed and built to be the biggest, and fastest, but not necessarily the best. That's just an assertion that the public digests about those superlatives without too much thought nowadays.

To me it's outragious that the place doesn't seem to care about it's history like Millrace and Mr. Ascough are saying. It has bugged me for years. I used to go religiously to the park for years. Now I'm lucky if I visit the park more than once a season. Most of the trees are gone. The lagoon is gone. Frontier lift is gone. Two darkrides are gone. Funhouse is gone. Jungle Larry is gone. Parking lot trams are gone. Mill Race, Shoot-the-Rapids, Jumbo Jet, Bayern Curve, Super Jets, Sky Wheel (double ferris wheel), Schwabinchen, Scamper, Tiki Twirl, Monorail, and countless other little things are missing. Too many for me.

I understand business and the concept of moving on all to well. Wring out the old to bring in the new as the say. But I feel that the place has gone overboard a little too much when it comes to that. Yes they have Euclid Beach's Derby (Cedar Downs) and original ballroom, but very little else from their past remains. Frankly, I'm sometimes surprised that the Blue Streak is still there. It's a very clever form of marketing that they have going there. But it's also very deceptive like most.

Wood Coaster Fan Club - "Sharing a Passion for the Classics"

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RavenTTD said:
Common, you have to be fair. We all don't like brakes on MS and Mantis, but they went out of their way to lighten the brakes on Raptor and Magnum. If they don't feel they have to brake the ride, I don't think they will.

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Unless, of course, that ride is Thunderhawk?

And, yes, CP should have a band organ for the carousel, it is strange that they don't. Heck, Knoebels has five operating band organs in their park, and another five being worked on in the shop.

I'm *pretty sure* you can add Lake Compounce to the list...Lake Winnie too.

Isn't Riverview Carousel at SFoG *fully functional* as well?

I'll never pass up a ride on Cedar Downs, but I'm a bit of a nostalgia freak. Seems to me that that IS a pretty important part of the park experience, esp. for the older guests who are bringing the grandkids to the park...

History, it's a pretty good investment...;)

*** Edited 5/13/2005 2:57:19 AM UTC by rollergator***

Ditto on Cedar Downs. I can't spend a day there without a ride.

Thanks for the lists, folks. I've ridden most of those, and never committed them to memory.

Maybe Knoebels can sell them one of theirs. Or arrange an "equitable" trade.

I doubt Knoebels would want one of their organs ending up in the hands of an organization that clearly doesn't care about them.

What would be an equitable trade? Knoebels exchanges a fully serviced and operational organ for a pile of non-functional parts? :)

Maybe CP would be willing to trade some of TTD's old theming? I'm sure Knoebels could do something with it ;)

You can add Seaside Heights, NJ to your list of carrousels with operating band organs.

Probably the biggest issue (aside from money) is having someone on staff to do the daily or weekly maintenance on an organ. Major repairs can be done--there are restorers and others who will do them, and organs can go for many seasons without major work. The problem is changing the rolls, oiling, adjusting and tuning. Very few parks have anyone on staff interested enough in performing these functions. Unfortunately, it is much easier to drop a CD player and an amp in the center and have at it. It's a sad thought, but that's how it is....

It was always the responsibiity of the ride manager to do the routine servicing of the organ. It's not rocket science, trust me. On vacum tracker system organs cleaning the tracker bar screens clean is the most frequent job. I have a copy of the instructions that Wurlitzer sent with their organs. It's on a single page. Anything more complicated than that then the organ man should be contacted. A properly restored organ can work an entire season without any major problems occuring.

I too believe that organs are an important part of history for many parks. I remember when I was younger and we would go to the MB Pavilion I would sit and watch their organ for HOURS! My parents told me that they had to take a video of it so I could watch it when I wasn't there, and that I would throw a fit when it was broken or the Pavilion was closed.

Simple things like organs mean a lot to younger children and adults alike. They add so much atmosphere to a park and make the day more enjoyable.

The organ on the Carousel at Hersheypark even plays Christmas songs when the park is open for Candylane.

...And Stinson is now substituting MIDI systems for vacuum trackers, which not only eliminates the tracker head maintenance, it does neat things like make it possible to go all day without repeating songs...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Don put a MIDI player on the Wurlitzer 153 at New Philadelphia,OH. People there are extremly happy with it.

I talked with him just briefly at IAAPA; he did mention that most of the problems associated with normal maintenance and upkeep of an organ is the tracker. It seems to me that, given the fact that a MIDI player and a paper roll sound exactly the same, and given the fact that on the vast majority of the organs I have seen the trackers are hidden away in back, behind the pipes and scrollwork, that's an update that makes a whole lot of sense.

It's one of those things that makes about as much sense as updating a coaster from friction trim brakes to magnetic trim brakes.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.