Musical Pete

Well, Richard Rodrigues rode Blackpool's Big Dipper for three months non stop, apart from the breaks every few hours for refreshment and the safety checks each day. He rode it all day and night, and the tunnel on the return run used to wake him up. Lucky man, he had the lapbar strung up open and had no seat divider. Grrr him.

I've ridden the Grand National 30 times in a row, Big Dipper 20 and Lakeside Cyclone about 50 (well, I only had the one evening there when in Denver). It's got to be wood, and GOOD wood at that, none of this modern smooth crap.Oh also Magnum Force 20 rides in a day, in two 10 ride sessions. I was a bit worn out after that.. It's fun riding BPB's Mouse 7 times in a row with arms up, and why people think I'm mad for riding SFMM's Psyclone 6 times in a row all but once in the back (first did the front) I do not know. It's one of the best coasters I've ridden.. maybe most enthusiasts today just don't recognise old style pure shake rattle & roll character like I do. Also, I've not heard a single other coaster creak and groan like Psyclone does, when standing on the exit ramp. The train goes down any drop, and the whole thing moves, literaly all of it. It be aliiiiiiiive I tell you.

Exact structural techniques and dimensions of P&C were used, including the track construction patented by Fred Church. Then again, builders today still use John Miller's track and antirollback patents. I suppose the best thing to say is that the layout was designed by Arthur Looff. The geometry of it however is very Fred Church, including the very slightly parabolic first drop crest (not that they were specifically designed as that.. wooden boards form their own unique curve, the shape of which being dependant of the spacing of the ledgers beneath, which is partly why old-built woodies tend to feel more alive than new ones, which are grossly contrived). One thing I'm pretty sure of.. the original trains were P&C, unless Looff & crew built them faithful to P&C plans themselves.

Missing out on one of the world's best parks! Peter "I rode Cyclone nearly 50 times and filmed about ten of them when I was there" Procter If only I could've lassoo'd a rope around the famous Lakeside tower and pulled the park home with me.. infact I'd plonk it next to BPB then I'd have two of the world's best REAL woodies in one place. Speaking of BPB I need to get back there soon, I last went about two-three weeks ago. :o

The train is launched off the lift by the Chevy engine powering the chain. Well, some sort of IC engine anyway! - once on the lift, the gas is cranked up, so to speak. Crikey, I said "gas". I'm not american! Their flying scooters are the same by the way. No little electric motor to be found there!

Yeay, watersports. Hmm, did you not ride Psyclone? - everybody I know who's ridden it completely hates it, whereas for me it's one of the best coasters I've ridden, despite the check brakes and slow turns. It has real old style character, unlike most modern coasters. I could fall asleep on most modern (dull!!) woodies, but Psyclone would keep me awake with laughter. Move it and Lakeside's Cyclone to Blackpool, and I'll be a happy alien.

Wahey, good to see that. I was at Knoebels in June last year, but when in the vacinity of HSTC I was in "one of my moods" (before I started medication..) and sat on the ground instead, watching the rest of the group (RCCGB) do the icecream challenge (that's when everybody is furnished with an icecream, prior to boarding HSTC and seeing how long their icecream lasts, while they lick it on the way round ). Due to the mood, I never rode it myself. I rode a similar coaster at Lakeside (Denver) this June (RCCGB trip again) but it doesn't have the IC engine of HSTC. Still fun though, making me look forward to my next Knoebels visit even more, whenever that may be. Weeeeeeeeee.

I want to see that sometime. Anybody know anything more about Mozart And The Whale than what's on the site? - I've been waiting aaaaaaaaaaaaaaages for some news and the original trailer they had has disappeared. I'm an aspie whom wants to see a film about other aspies, and I'm getting impatient.

Don't have Mr Twister hanging around in your garden do you, by any chance..?

It indeed does run by gravity, pure and simple. The trains are infact very light, as heavier trains would cause more friction on the pin bearings (like those on model railway rolling stock). They could build the trains heavy with miniature high speed roller bearings, but if not anything else, they'd atleast increase the cost significantly, and (the anything else) the bearings might infact have more operational friction than the plain pins, at this scale. I've not got one of the models myself and don't plan on getting one, but that's how I understand things to be, by what the Coasterdynamix guys themselves say. I'm planning on building my own scatchbuilt woodie model, 1:16 scale. My desired 80' lift will be five actual feet high . I've just bought a circular table saw to turn sheets of 6mm plywood into ½" strips, for the bent uprights (scale 8x4s, as many old woodies used. I'm told CCI usually used 6x3 uprights and as a consequence, the parks with them are suffering problems with the bolt holes causing cracks.. funny that they used smaller posts for coasters which use the heaviest PTC trains yet). Anyway, going off topic there.. just a bit of trivia I suppose.

Ello. My face is in my avatar. (also there's too many photos of me at my site, linked in sig) Here's the back of me head, taken by a female friend with Martin's camera (Martin being in the background to the left, with the big hair) Here's me last month in America, photographed by Martin Sawyer (Chris' brother)