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Lost Coaster ID

^ Those are some amazing photos of early 1900s rides! I especially love the Loop the Loop photo, great clarity and resolution.

And woo! First Cedar Point attraction!

article-0-13A2F20E000005DC-829_964x718.jpg
 
The quality is superb, but I think they've been retouched. Looking deeper, the coaster may have originally been called "Derby Racer". It certainly seems to be a racing coaster :)
 
The trains seem remarkably similar to the original trains in this video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSQqFHWrHsY[/youtube]

And here:

b5_748.jpg


12406-RyeDragon-Coaster_CURTESY-OF-PLAYLAND_1932.jpg


This could be possibly of Fred Church origin? Or Frank Prior even?

That article is a really interesting find!
 
sparky2u said:
What was this coaster's name & which park did it operate in, shame it's not operational today.

Click to expand...

If anyone can find & post more pic's of this coaster that would be great, love to see what type of layout it had, was it a "Möbius" design like BPB "Grand National". Are the trains made by PTC..? Love the open design and has no safety locks etc, this is how wooden roller coasters should be, no seatbelt. :--D
 
I think they have the picture labelled wrong. I don't think that's at Glen Echo at all. There doesn't seem to be a dual-track coaster ever built there when you actually look for coaster pictures at the park.

I think it's been labelled up at some time as that, but incorrectly... The mystery deepens.
 
Yeah, of course it is (which is what I originally thought) - but that's very early for a twin coaster. It does look side-friction though - so yeah. It's finding other shots of Derby Racer that's the issue, not many about (I've seen three, two on this page - the other just some trees :lol: ).

It's actually really exciting. The side friction coasters hit in the early 1900's with single cars like Leap-The-Dips. Trained coasters seemed to be Scenic Railways with the brake man. I'm sure there are train coasters which use side friction to help keep the coaster on the track like this, but finding details or photos of them are rare. Generally though, as the Scenics stopped being made, they were replaced by the faster, more exciting, upstop wheel coasters in the early 1920's. I've never seen or heard of this kind of hybrid before.
 
^"The very last word in amusement devices" - doesn't look like the industry has changed much with parks making all the claims they want. I doubt they'd have the honesty these days though to put a sign up saying "Re-modeled not as rough as last season".
 
Very interesting. That's when Miller was working for PTC, but the coaster isn't listed under coasters recognised as being designed by him. It's certainly a very intriguing coaster though, like a lot, I think there's a lot of lost history. It's a thrill coaster, and dual-tracked at a time when that was very unusual (if it happened at all). Miller had only recently invented the anti roll-back system (which is clear on this coaster).

It's possibly a "missing link" coaster, between the old Scenic railways and the modern upstop machine Miller pioneered from 1921 onwards (which remain almost identical in modern coasters today). Lovely stuff :)
 
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