Dorney - Tracks in Cedar Creek?

I wonder if Cedar Fair has any of those older rides in storage or if they were all scrapped.

Dorney certanly did have it's charm. Does anyone remember the old walkthru funhouse? It was located near the stage by Dominator.

I miss the old station for the Thunderhawk. It was a true gem the way the runout would wrap around the bumper car area. Not to mention they were classic Lusse's too!

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Signature will be closed today. Sorry for the inconveinance.

I don't question the improvements that Cedar Fair made to the park (Steel Force, Talon, Whitewater Landing, the rapids, waterpark additions, new entrance w/Carousel, etc.), but it is true that a lot of the charm of Dorney was lost throughout the years. The park is better on paper, but was stripped of its soul.

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-Rob

I think that walkthru dark ride was "The Gold Mine" (some type of mine at least). It was under what's now one of the arcades. Pre-CF Dorney had a lot of charm similar to Kennywood. I think Steel Force and Talon were great additions to the park, but CF destroyed the sites of a lot of great memories.

While on memory lane, anyone remember the "Bucket o' Blood" dark ride and the carosel that burnt in the early '80s?

Oh yeah, I'm remembering the meteorite now guys. They did change the name and theme the last few years, your totally right, I almost forgot about that. I'm still debating whether or not I like Dorney pre-Cedar Fair or today as it stands as one of the major thrill parks in the U.S. The park definately did have alot more soul and character way back when, I also remember it being a more laid back atmosphere too. There are definately pros and cons to each. I'd say it all depends on your personality. If your more a hometown Kennywood/Knoebels heart and soul amusement park goer, then you'd probably prefer the old Dorney. However, if your all about "clean" corporate America and high speed thrill rides and big league coasters, then you probably like the modern Dorney. Is there a nice middle ground? I can't really think of any parks that mix a hometown vibe with high thrill state of the art coasters. To answer the question about Journey to the Center of the Earth, first go look at the link I posted up a few posts, there is a picture of it, that can give you a vague idea of what it was. It was an old PTC mill chute ride with the the whole kissing tunnel thing. Except the kissing tunnel was more a haunted house, it was themed as a scary dark ride. I used to love it as a kid. They had various scenes of goblins, ghosts, elves, spiders, etc......It was a fun ride with lots of character. Some famous guy who was known for themeing many dark rides around the country in the 60's themed Journey, there is a link somewhere about him, if I find it I'll post it. Oh yeah, I can still smell the mildew water smell at the 1st turnaround when I ride Thunderhawk today too! haha Brings back memories whenever I smell that.

I just found the link about him: http://www.ot.com/skew/ten/btracy.html

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"You know its a good ride when you come into the final break run wiping tears from your eyes"-me
*** This post was edited by DorneyDante 6/17/2003 4:30:33 PM ***
*** This post was edited by DorneyDante 6/17/2003 4:35:52 PM ***

Bill Tracy was responsible for a vast majority of the dark rides on Hunt's Pier in Wildwood, NJ. The only example of his work that remains in Wildwood today is the SBNO Golden Nugget, which is also the only example of a PTC steel coaster. He was truly gifted at what he did.

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-Rob

Could it be part of the reason might be some of these rides would not be logical or feasible to maintain in the present day? For example, if I recall correctly (forgive me I was only a little kid), but the Travers Rocket Swings, to get up their you had to climb a really really narrow flight of stairs. I remember as a kid it was claustrophic, I bet it would have been real expensive to add an elevator or something like that.

I agree though there was a lot of charm in those rides, but I guess I am also thankful and amazed at how pretty and clean the park is now a days thanks to Cedar Fairs' managing it. It is very respectable I think.

It's been said before that Dorney has become a mini-version of Cedar Point. Personally, I don't think that's a bad thing. With all the ridiculous talk about CP running out of space, Dorney will have that problem long before CP does. Which I'm sure is another reason some of the older rides were removed.

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Eastcoaster Field of 64

If you want your share of old rides, you can always head 20 miles down the road and visit Bushkill. Sure they thrill factor may be less, but the rides are vintage.

I just moved to the area less than two years ago. Most of the long time locals I talked to when we first got here liked the park better before. Most also suggested going to Knoebels. I'm not sure what that means, we love Dorney the way it is. I like the whole "mini Cedar Point" vibe.

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www.coasterimage.com
Dorney Park Visits in 2003: 7

JasonPSU20 said:
For example, if I recall correctly (forgive me I was only a little kid), but the Travers Rocket Swings, to get up their you had to climb a really really narrow flight of stairs.

Yup, your totally right about that. There was a picnic grove under the Travers swings. There was a flight of steps(the queue) in the picnic grove that led up to the platform of the swings.

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"You know its a good ride when you come into the final break run wiping tears from your eyes"-me

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Lord Gonchar said:
If you want your share of old rides, you can always head 20 miles down the road and visit Bushkill. Sure they thrill factor may be less, but the rides are vintage.

I just moved to the area less than two years ago. Most of the long time locals I talked to when we first got here liked the park better before. Most also suggested going to Knoebels. I'm not sure what that means, we love Dorney the way it is. I like the whole "mini Cedar Point" vibe.

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I am a fan of the "Old Dorney." I miss the way it was, and really can't see why they had to change it so much, many of the new rides could have fit right in next to the old rides. Then again, they butchered Thunderhawk, so what do you expect.

Bushkill is something else. I really love that little park. It doesn't offer much, but it has that little park charm that I like so very much, and you can't beat the cost, the fact that they still have a brass ring machine, or that , though battered, they still have their Lusses.

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"If you make it too smooth, it'll be like sitting in your living room."
-Bill Cobb - Designer, Texas Cyclone

I don't question some of the changes that Cedar Fair made... I am sure that keeping rides like the Traver Swing and Journey didn't make a lot of business sense, but I can't help but think that they could have done a better job of retaining some of the park's charm as they made changes. Look at parks like Kennywood and Rye's Playland- they have grown throughout the years and changed with the times without losing sight of where they came from. They could have relocated the Lusse Skooters to a new building instead of putting them away for good. They could have designed a more inspired station for Thunderhawk instead of that tiny little gazeebo, and maybe added a tunnel to the beginning to replace the old one.

In Cedar Fair's defense, they can't be blamed 100% for the "butchering" of the Thunderhawk. They did remove the old station, but the trim brakes that ruin the final stretch of speed hills was added long before Cedar Fair entered the picture. The ride has had trim brakes of some sort since the late 80s, as far as I know.

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-Rob

Actually Bushkill, while being a wonderful park with an amazing vintage atmostphere, is not a good example of a park where "you can't beat the price."

$3 admission plus $15 for a POP that doesn't fully include the Lusses is not exactly cheap.

Anyway, Dorney does have a sort of sterile look about it and I wish they could have kept more of the old park. At least they still have the Whip and Zephyr.

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Ripple Rock Amusement Park

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Rob Ascough said:

In Cedar Fair's defense, they can't be blamed 100% for the "butchering" of the Thunderhawk. They did remove the old station, but the trim brakes that ruin the final stretch of speed hills was added long before Cedar Fair entered the picture. The ride has had trim brakes of some sort since the late 80s, as far as I know.

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-Rob

I think you are wrong about that, I never remember them being there prior to Cedar Fair. To all of you who say that Cedar Fair "butchered" Thunderhawk, you obvioulsy haven't ridden Thunderhawk in the mid to late 80's. Thunderhawk runs so much better now than it did back then.

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"You know its a good ride when you come into the final break run wiping tears from your eyes"-me

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An old article of RollerCoaster! magazine back in '88 or '89 featured a big article about the Thunderhawk (formerly the Coaster)... the article mentioned "check brakes" being installed on the ride because improvements to the ride throughout the years led to rides that were faster than park maintenance preferred.

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-Rob

I just can't imagine that some of the older rides were cost effective to keep in operation; they might have been maintenance nightmares. Thundercreek Mountain is a fun old-school log flume ride that still gives a fun ride. I don't think the Zephyr will go anywhere because of the historical value it has for the park, but I can't help to think that the second station will be used once again when there is a reason to stop there. If there were no plans to use it again in the future, it would have been removed.

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Eastcoaster Field of 64

There was some trimming, but nothing like it is now. The trim before the bunnyhops is where I consider the butchering to be, and that trim was only added a few years ago.

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"If you make it too smooth, it'll be like sitting in your living room."
-Bill Cobb - Designer, Texas Cyclone

Surfing the internet I was lucky enough to find a map from Dorney in 1979 and it shows the real classic rides Dorney used to have.

http://www.themeparkbrochures.com/maps/197x/dp197x_1.html

That is really cool. I have a map from 1990. It is interesting to see the evolution of the park though the years.

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"If you make it too smooth, it'll be like sitting in your living room."
-Bill Cobb - Designer, Texas Cyclone

Thanks for posting that link!

Black 7: I know there are two trim brakes on the Thunderhawk (one at the top of the first turnaround and one on the speed bumps heading back to the station)... I had assumed that both of those trims were added back in the 80's. I didn't realize that only one trim existed on the Thunderhawk before Cedar Fair took over.

You're right- that second trim is the one that ruins the ride. I can imagine there being Phoenix-quality airtime on those last hills if the train wasn't slowed down by that trim! As for the first trim, I am sometimes thankful for that one, as I can't imagine the train negotiating that "twister" section at full speed! This, coming from a guy who despises trims.

There is one thing I am confused about... when I rode the coaster in the early 90's (1991 or 1992, I believe), I could have sworn that the coaster still used skid brakes, which means that any trim brakes would also have been skids. The Thunderhawk obviously uses fin brakes now, so am I correct in assuming that the original trim was a skid brake, and the two fin-style trim brakes were added when the old braking system was removed?

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-Rob