Rare Classic Rides

I guess they use these pictures in an attempt to make a boring subject appear interesting. ;)

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bunchastuf said:
http://members.aol.com/k9660r/wheel_burrow.jpg
http://members.aol.com/morestuf3/skydiver.jpg
Can you give me a little description of what the ride actually did?

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Let's see....how's the best way to describe this rides movements. Pretty simple really.

Basically, each wheel rotated as it would on the Skydiver. I specifically remember the top wheel spinning in the opposite direction as the bottom wheel while the entire ride rotated wheel over wheel.

One interesting note. The ride loaded similar to an Enterprise. While the top wheel spun, the bottom wheel, laying flat, would load & unload on the large circular platform.

Yes, there were some minor structural changes at Rye but nothing that important. SFoG had the rides main supports themed with wood supports since the ride was located in the rear western themed section. Rye just updated it with paint, built new supports and added a couple fancy ornaments on the ends.

Hope that helps.

Swampfoxer - thanks again! I figured that it was something like that after seeing your picture link. I would have loved to try this out. Having the entire Skydiver wheel flipping over while it's turning, seems like it would add a lot to the experience. I remember as a kid going to the fair, and the rides that I couldn't miss were the Skydiver, Zipper (still my absolute fav.), Turbo (if they had it) - and the double ferris wheel (Skywheel) was always good too.

I went on a Skydiver a couple of years ago, and laughed so hard because it was like being inside of the dryer or something. The older ones used to have so much more padding all over the interior - the one I rode recently was minus any padding, and if you decide to turn the wheel at all, you tumbled onto hard fiberglass seating.

Anyway, thanks again for your info (and your great pic!). I'm totally jazzed that the mystery has been solved after all the years of and wondering what that ride was! *** Edited 8/15/2006 8:10:34 PM UTC by bunchastuf***

Somebody a couple of pages back asked about Kennywoods current train ride. It was built by Cagney and runa the 1938-39 New York Worlds Fair as the Gimbels Flyer. After the fair it seems to have dropped out of site. There has been some speculation that it had been operated by the Cagney's as a concession for Gimbels during the fair. After the fair it may have been operated as a concession somewhere, or it may have sat out the war in a warehouse. The two trains were sold to Kennywood in 1945, and a year or two later ( I'll have to go dig up my notes on this) the third locomotive was obtained. Which brings up the question where it came from. Was there another complete train built? Or was this assembled with parts on hand. The locomotive chassis as well as the car frames were built by the Vulcan Iron Works of Wilkes Barre, PA. There were a major builder of steam and gas mechanical industrial locomotives during the better part of the Twentieth century. The Cagney's had the superstructures made, the locomitves patterned off a Raymond Lowey design that was used on the Pennsylvania Railroad at the time of the fair.

I found a few more.......

BIONIC LEAP:
http://members.aol.com/k9660r/manleap.jpg

Also went by the name LEAP FROG. I rode one of these at the now defunct Magic Harbor Amusement Park in Surfside Beach, SC (near Myrtle Beach). This ride is similar to the Flying Cages in that it takes your body movement to make it work. Each seat is on a long arm with a counter-weight on the other end. There is a big coil spring under your seat. You use your legs/feet to push off. Then the seat goes up a bit and falls back to the ground, bouncing from the spring under your seat. The idea, like the Flying Cages, was to keep pushing off until you get your seat high enough to go all the way over. It was quite fun and I would love to ride one of these again.
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ROC-O-WHEEL:
http://members.aol.com/k9660r/RocOWheel.jpg

Only one of these were built. It was designed and built by Concessionaire Paul Smith. The photo pretty much speaks for itself. Not sure if this is still around or not.
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ORBIT:
http://members.aol.com/k9660r/orbit1.jpg

The rides movements can pretty well be guessed except for the fact the entire ride rotated on the round turntable it sat upon. The ride was at Springlake Park in OKC.
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SPITFIRE:
http://members.aol.com/k9660r/spitfire.jpg

I'll throw this pic in just for the heck of it. I've always thought these were such cool looking rides. I believe this was an Eyerly ride. You could turn the planes wing rudders to make the plane spin. There were lots of these rides around at one time. There's a small video of the Spitfire at Coney Island in this video. It's about half way through the video, just before the Flying Turns.

http://www.watchfilms.com/short-film/coney-island-usa.html
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FLYING CARS:
http://members.aol.com/k9660r/flyingcars.jpg

I really like the concept of this ride. I believe there was only one made, and it was for Riverview Park in Chicago. Several rows of little cars are attached to a track inside the circumference of a big drum. Riders are strapped in the and the big drum turns. Riders use a brake on the car that allows it to catch and ride with the rotation of the drum. The rider can release the brake at any time and free wheel around the inside of the drums track. I think they closed this ride permanently after a girl was killed by falling out of her car. *** Edited 8/15/2006 9:33:37 PM UTC by swampfoxer***

Wow! That Flying Car ride looks great! Look how they strap you in with just a seatbelt.

I rode a Bionic Leap (or at least something that looked a lot like it) years (20 years?) ago at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Alabama. I have no idea if it is still there or not.

Isn't the Spitfire a Hrubitz ride? It is almost identical to a Paratrooper except with airplanes instead of the parachute seats.

I remember reading somewhere that the Paratrooper-like ride at Delgrosso's was made by Reverchon. *** Edited 8/15/2006 10:38:49 PM UTC by millrace***

I got a unique one for you: The Huss Discoround. The only one in North America is at La Ronde.

http://www.laronde.com/en/maneges/FTechManege.asp?Manege=19

Its basically an enclosed UFO (like a Gravitron), but the UFO tilts to 45 degrees and you sit on seats that slide up and down as you spin. Pretty wacky ride!

^That's wild. I never have seen one of those. I've ridden a Gravitron once back in the early 90's and I said "never again". I'm at that age now where one constant spinning motion just isn't fun anymore. But I'll take a Zipper or Rock-O-Plane any day!

Once you experience going face first on a Zipper you're hooked! ;)

Hmmm, that didn't quite sound the way I meant it....

LOL! Oh no, I think it sounded EXACTLY the way you meant it! :) LOL

I was just at Knoebels yesterday and here are a couple of rides that have been missed on this thread that you don't see many of, The Satellite also was named The Bullet when I was young and went to Carnivals. How many Teacup rides that go in a figure 8 have you seen at parks? Knoebels deffinitely have the best collection of classic rides that I have seen.

/\ It's a shame they don't have all of the cups still on there, hopefully they will someday. I love gravitrons, but definitly could not do a Discoround as any tilting to the left or right on a gravitron would mean instant pukage from me (I have to be straight up/down). I don't see how those people lay horizontal on the walls and not get sick.

Can I put in a *Speical Request* (and yes, I do recognize I have NO say in this, LOL)...

Dick Knoebels, please PLEASE please pick up the Caterpillar ride from Myrtle Beach Pavilion. Having now ridden the two "fully functional" rides at Canobie and Idlewild, I think it's one of the coolest olde-tyme rides running...and it's a shame to see Myrtle's running sans canopies...and, as noted, NOBODY does classic mechanicals the way Knoebels' does... :)

Also, it would be nice if SOME park would take a trip to Erieview and pick up some of that COOL stuff at auction... (pics forthcoming SOON)... ;)

On their way back from Myrtle Beach, do you think they could stop at Williams Grove and pick up that Twister?

Knoebels had a caterpillar and replaced it with a Wisdom himalya (which isn't nearly as fun).

Camden and Delgrosso's also have caterpillars, but no canopy.

P18: I'm pretty sure Knoebels has all the cups on the crazy dazy. Those empty spaces are necessary for the ride to operate. The cup has to have somewhere to go when it changes tables.

Speaking of Twisters, anybody know what happened to the one from Guntown Mountain? It was auctioned last fall.

Ah, I never thought of it that way, I just remember seeing a comment somewhere else about how not all of the cups are there, then seeing the empty spaces. I guess they are needed for the figure 8.

By the way, does the Canobie Caterpillar have the fan that blows on you each time the ride goes around. I assume that "fully functional" means that it has this along with the canopy.

^ It did last year...

Didn't see the one (Cat) at DelG's, I was kinda rushed there, had to get back to Idlewild...I <3 Idlewild...but they're just NOT the same ride when the canopies sit idle...

Delgrosso's cat is called Space Odyssey (misspelled two different ways on park signs). It is located inside a domed structure and runs with a light and sound show (much like Knoebels Cosmotron). Camden's is similar except that it is only partially covered to produce a sort of homemade music express ride.

^ AH, I remember seeing the building and asking someone in line "so what's in there"...my take on their reply was that it was some variation of a Bayern Curve...which I also would have ridden given enough time, LOL...

Still, not too far off for a GP-style explanation, hehe. :)