What's new

Fantastic old coaster footage/pics

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Finally got round to scanning this in. One of the latest additions to my collection.

This is a shot of the infamous Schwarzkopf Thriller but unsually it shows the ride in 1996 during its one and only season at Grona Lund in Sweden.
View attachment 8406
Great new phone wallpaper content!
 

CanobieFan

Strata Poster
This is a shot of the infamous Schwarzkopf Thriller but unsually it shows the ride in 1996 during its one and only season at Grona Lund in Sweden.

Does anyone have a good photo of the trains back when it was new? Did it actually open with just lapbars originally? I feel like that was an urban legend and I never knew what the truth was.
 

Dar

Hyper Poster
Does anyone have a good photo of the trains back when it was new? Did it actually open with just lapbars originally? I feel like that was an urban legend and I never knew what the truth was.

http://schwarzkopf-coaster.net/ESthrillerGF.htm has some pictures from when it was travelling and you can see the shoulder bars if you zoom in. There's no indication of where in those 11 years the pictures are from though, so it might have opened with just lapbars but they got changed pretty quick if so!

:)
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
I love that shot. I love how it makes it even more ratchet that in already is! :p
 

davidm

Strata Poster
Yeah its excellent ; I was "ahh yes that looks like Dragon Mountain's bowtie but that can't be right as you go into the bowtie straight after the tunnel.... ahh I see we are looking backwards from the wonky pull out - there's the tunnel in the middle. Hang on, where are all the trees .... oh it is really buried in a slag heap, I thought I was just joking to myself about that." :)
 

davidm

Strata Poster
Listening to this week's Drunk Riders, @Snoo was waxing lyrical about missing out on his local park (Idora Park) and that sent me off on a google search....

Anyway, nothing new I guess but found this reasonably interesting (~30min - not recent as it talks about stuff still standing) documentary thing on the place ; full POV of Baby Wildcat, most of Jack Rabbit and (a bit shaky) POV of the main event Wildcat contained therein.

 

Snoo

The Legend
Its like going back to my childhood! I rode by that empty lot quite a bit on my bike. Like missing any creds now, you get sad when you see magic but can't ride it.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Listening to this week's Drunk Riders, @Snoo was waxing lyrical about missing out on his local park (Idora Park) and that sent me off on a google search....

Anyway, nothing new I guess but found this reasonably interesting (~30min - not recent as it talks about stuff still standing) documentary thing on the place ; full POV of Baby Wildcat, most of Jack Rabbit and (a bit shaky) POV of the main event Wildcat contained therein.

To thread some Idora stuff together!

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

View attachment 4647 View attachment 4648

Found some new (to me) photos of the Jack Rabbit, which operated at the now defunct Idora Park in Youngstown, Ohio. This was the "second fiddle" roller coaster at the park, with Wild Cat (my avatar and signature) being the E-ticket thrill ride. The park and it's rides operated until 1984, when a park-shuttering fire broke out, destroying structures and rides. It would have cost millions of dollars to repair; dollars that Idora Park did not have. The property was sold in 1985 to new developers, who had plans for a religious complex to be built, but no development ever happened. Coasters remained standing for years, until the entire site was demolished in the 2000s. Ownership remains in the hands of the religious group, undesiring to relinquish ownership.

View attachment 4334 View attachment 4335 View attachment 4336 View attachment 4337

A fun aside - I saw Conneaut Lake giving a call for parks looking to pass off attraction (http://www.screamscape.com/html/canobie_lake_park.htm). Conneaut Lake did approach the new Idora Park ownership in the late 80s on purchasing the Jack Rabbit and Wildcat roller coasters; a good fit for Conneaut's eternal preservation of Golden Age roller coasters. Blueprints were even preserved from the 1984 fire, making reconstruction all the more possible. The deal never materialized however.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
I do always find it insane how small the loop is in comparison to the first drop and first big helix. It's insane how big that thing was!
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
I do always find it insane how small the loop is in comparison to the first drop and first big helix. It's insane how big that thing was!
Or how insane we thought it was to put a loop on a wooden coaster. ;)

This guy's Youtube channel is a treasure trove of amazingly high quality, backdated videos! Even love his 2002 video of Beast with the old skid brakes, before they upgraded to magnetic brakes for the brake shed and finale helix:

 

roomraider

Best Topic Starter
Here is 2 rides i had never heard of until recently but look great.

This is one of the best pictures I've seen of an old coaster for a long long time.

This is the Rockaway Beach Thunderbolt which looks epic. Love that Turnaround.

Playland ROck2.jpg

And this one. The Big Dipper at Krug Park in Omaha. Love the triple down.
Tdown.jpg

both images from the Defunct Wooden Coaster group on FB. - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1523980097829793

Love both these pictures. They look like great rides both of them.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
That triple down is incredible. I love it.

You're right, they're both fantastic pictures.
 

Dipper_Dave

Roller Poster
@roomraider those woody pics are awesome. The curves on that Rockaway Beach Thunderbolt are insane. The triple drop is awesome too, never seen anything like it, thanks for posting
 
Top