Fantastic old coaster footage/pics

[roomraider]

This is something I've been trying to find for a while now as it would I believe be the first proper ride I remember riding.

In 92 there was a Garden Festival in Ebbw Vale in Wales. Following similar ones in Glasgow, Stoke, Liverpool and Gateshead. I remember going as a kid and riding a few rides (I would have been 6 or 7) but the one that stuck in my mind was a powered coaster type ride that did a double helix. I've always wondered what it was and with a little research today it appears to have been a BHS Metroliner. A ride built with help from schwarzkopf and roughly based on the Bayernkurve line of rides.

The festival site was huge but had a few rides like what appears to be an Intamin observation ride and a number of simulator and theater rides. The possible Metroliner can be seen bottom right in green.

It was only when I came across this image from this video that I pinned it down.

If I Had to guess I would say the ride eventually became Skyline Express at Skyline Park in Germany. It seems only 2 of these were built with one at Hansa Park but others may know more.

 

[Hyde]

Found a pretty cool Herbert Schmeck creation on the Defunct Wooden Coaster Archives Facebook group that I wanted to share - a tunneled wooden coaster. The specific roller coaster was called the Tornado, operating at Woodside Park in Philadelphia from 1927 to 1954 (the park appears to have closed entirely in 55), built by PTC and designed by Schmeck. More specifically, it appears roofing covered the entire coaster track, with some wall portions removed throughout the ride's layout. Still would have been a pretty cool experience!

 

[Hyde]

Found some additional great shots of the Wildcat at Idora Park (Youngstown, Ohio). (From Defunct Wooden Coaster Facebook Group)

 

[Hyde]

Pretty cool find recently posted to the Church and Travers Facebook page: on-ride view of Cyclone at Cedar Point. This Travers coaster ran from 1929 to 1951, and was the last roller coaster added to the park by famed park owner George Boeckling. It was torn down in post-WWII as the park emerged from multiple near bankruptcies (and the Great Depression), making upkeep/maintenance for the coaster challenging. Cedar Point was temporarily left without a single roller coaster until the Wild Mouse was built in 1959.

View from lifthill:



Another famous shot of the coaster, with cars parked between the supports. (View of the first hill and turn)

 

[roomraider]

Very nice. Hadnt seen a shot of that before. Shame its long gone now. Would be a nice addition to their lineup. Blue Streak im sure is great but it doesnt look like it compares to an old school cyclone/bobs ride.

Just found this shot in the Bristol Archives. A good closeup of as far as I can tell the only coaster to ever operate in Bristol (which is kind of surprising) at the 1914 Bristol international Exhibition.

 

[Hyde]

Is anyone familiar with the history of auto coasters? That is, tracks where you could drive your car? Saw this shared to the Defunct Wooden Coaster Facebook Group, and fascinated to learn more!



EDIT: Only a few more minutes of googling yielded some additional findings of photos and video footage. Crazy (and terrifying) stuff!

 

[Hixee]

I mean, jesus ****ing christ I want a go on one of those. <3

 

[Peet]

There must have been some serious smash-ups from time to time

 

[Hyde]

A glimpse in time, but a fun shout out to historic CP I spotted while perusing eBay. This is a postcard of Cedar Point circa 1965, looking towards the back station of the Sky Ride (Main Midway)

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Compare to this Google Street View photo (pre-Valravn)

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Obviously a lot has changed over the years. Key things to note in that 1965 photo:
- While the Frontier Trail did exist, the connect was far more spartan, with the most popular ways to get back being the train and Frontier Lift.
- Older skyride cars had lower capacity vs. "modern" cars
- Ticket booth, which was removed for an all-inclusive ticket system
- Scamper wild mouse roller coaster on right side; site is currently occupied by the Matterhorn flat ride.

More broadly though, 1965 was a famous year for the addition of the Space Spiral (which reached a then insane height of 300 feet), The Earthquake Ride (now Snoopy Boutique), and the Fascination ball game (first air conditioned building at Cedar Point, now Johnny Rockets). Cool brochure for the 1965 year below (with some major Space Spiral hype):

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[davidm]

Someone posted this on reddit ; SFMM construction, thought it was cool (albeit not a coaster!)
Source

 

[CanobieFan]

RIP Monorail

 

[Dave Willson]

Thought I might aswell bung this in here with all the ''old rare'' stuff.
They are pictures though, so spare me having to edit this post.

These were photographs taken on disposable camera (bad quality) in the mid 80's. They are of Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

The first one seems to be an Enterprise ride of some sort, I don't know anything about it, so if anybody recognises it and would like to shed some light on it... feel free.

In this second photograph, you should just be able to make out the Space Invader building under construction, which I had never seen before so I thought it would be cool to post it.

Hope somebody can point out maybe what that enterprise is.

hi @Ormerod can you reload the picture of the enterprise at blackpool please

 

[X: Uknown]

The Golden Nugget Mine Ride

 

[Dipper_Dave]

Wow, not much happens for the first minute and a half there! Still miss BPB’s Gold Mine, even thought the track is still used

 

[roomraider]

Here's a quite incredible video of the pre neutered shuttle loop at Tojoko Toy Land in Japan which opened in 1973. As the video shows the ride was later modified so it didn't quite have the same near suicidal speed through the loop. Although it was still pretty fast.

The ride was infamous back when it opened just not so much in the west.

Built by Meisho who went on to build moonsault scramble a few years later. I guess it was essentially the prototype for their later shuttle loop models that popped up all over Japan and parts of Asia.

It was actually the tallest ride in the world at 193ft when it first opened although obviously the train never got anywhere near that height.

The main lift hill actually still stands at Tojoko Toy Kingdom but the rest of the ride is long gone

 

[Hixee]

Goodness me, that's outrageous. If it was black and white, I'd easily say it was sped up as you often see with old timey footage!

God I bet that was intense. Nosebleed inducing fast.

Brilliant footage, thanks for sharing.

 

[Dipper_Dave]

Holy cow, that shuttle loop speed is INSANE. And it does the backwards bit first too! Absolutely bonkers

 

[Hyde]

Found this very cool overhead shot perusing the other day of Pippin at Kennywood. It may look familiar, as it is the foundational roller coaster of the now beloved Thunderbolt. Pippin was originally built by John A Miller in 1924, with a very comparable layout to the Jack Rabbit (also built by Miller) that opened a few years earlier across the park; turn and drop out of the station, lift hill, double down, and a finale drop. The coaster operated with this layout until 1967 when it was closed and had new track added by Andy Vettel for the 1968 season, adding a larger bowl track extension after the lift hill. The station was also moved to it's current location, allowing the train to drop right out of the station. It's almost ironic that Phantom's Revenge, another now-famously modified coaster from it's original state drops right through the middle of this one!

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[roomraider]

Some excellent footage of the original 5 tracks (yes 5) Daidarasaurus at Expoland in Osaka during the 1970 expo. (theres also lots of cool other shots of the expo in this really long video)

However for one of the most ridiculous things you will ever see jump to 19mins and 40 seconds.. Its amazing I promise

 

[Hixee]

Wasn't expecting that. That might get @gavin excited about Jungle Mice again...