montezooma

Merry Christmas Everyone I am posting my Christmas Card for all to enjoy. Thanks for visiting the Amusement Attic and for all your great comments. I am thrilled to share all these great memories with a community that appreciates it. Shane

I never liked the Flight Trainer, I think it is one of Intamin's worst rides ever. The pods rotated slowly and there was a lot of painful hangtime when you went for a 360 degree roll. What made them even worse was the plexi-glass dome that some of them had. It made the ride hot and stuffy. Knotts - XK-1 Great America - Sky Hawk Kings Island - Flight Comander Kings Dominion - ? Playland - ?

Oh that is such a cool find. Thanks for posting, I loved watching all that great footage especially the two trains going through the interlocking loops of the Loch Ness Monster. I wish they would have included the Orient Express. I loved that Kings Dominion logo too, wish they would bring that one back!

Great report, I am excited to see these changes taking place at Magic Mountain. I think the new General Manager is a good thing! If I recall he also likes to read this web site. Maybe we can convince him to return the Revolution to a ridable ride by getting rid of those ridiculous restraints!! I am especially looking forward to that great "Attic" in the sky!

Here you can see the two areas of Colossus that received some major reprofiling. The speed dip after the first turn and the double up before the second turn the double up before and after speed dip before and after

COLOSSUS In 1976 Magic Mountain built the Great American Revolution. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen, this ride totally started my fascination with roller coasters and theme parks. It was such an awesome looking ride and Magic Mountain was a great place to visit. Two years later they built Colossus, the worlds greatest roller coaster. Magic Mountain had two of the greatest coasters in the world, I couldn't imagine that place getting any better. I remember being at the park on the opening day of Colossus and the place was packed. I had never been on a wooden coaster before and Colossus sure packed a punch. I remember having bruises on my thighs from the speed dip after the second drop. That thing was brutal. As a matter of fact it was too brutal. Unfortunately a woman was thrown from the train and was killed. Colossus was shut down and somewhere around that time the park was sold to Six Flags. Six Flags did a big media push about how they had completely rebuilt Colossus with the main emphasis on making the ride completely safe. The marketing campaign at the time was "Six Flags is building a better mountain at Magic Mountain" Here is some material from the time that Colossus was announced. Magic Mountain put together this little booklet called the Roller Coaster Almanac that gave a history of roller coasters and also talked about how massive of a project Colossus was. Also is the press release from the park when Colossus was reintroduced and the park was branded a Six Flags Park. The highlight of this update is pictures of Colossus when the trains were actually racing. That happened rarely when the ride first opened and probably hasn't happened since then. "Colossus - the Greatest Roller Coaster in the World" it's a wrap Still, it is a beautiful structure! The demise of Colossus - Morgan Trains, no racing, MCBR...it's over! Colossus Rides Again! Enterprise is still missed at the park! New Rides, New Shows, New Mountain Six Flags takes the reigns another rare time when they actually raced the two trains Magic Mountain becomes Six Flags Magic Mountain and Colossus reopens. Notice the emphasis on safety, smoothness and reduced down time. The original ride had a pretty bad reputation. In the upper right hand photo you can see the speed dip that gave major air time and many bruises to the thighs. When the ride was reprofiled this drop was lowered aprox. 20 feet. awesome picture of the model they had on display at the entrance of the park. The inside cover featured this picture of Kings Island's Racer The park sold this cool little booklet that tells all about coasters and Colossus. A very rare scene. Colossus racing with the original NAD trains. The red side was Thunder and the blue side was Lightning. the park mascots show that it was a pretty simple time back then. You didn't have to have great character licenses like Bugs Bunny. All we needed was a couple of ugly trolls and a wizzard! This says it all. It was a great logo and a great ride at that time!

The World of Sid & Marty Kroft was an indoor park that was located on 5 floors of the Omni hotel in Atlanta, GA. I believe this is now the CNN building. If my memory is correct they did have a pinball ride but it was more a traditional dark ride, it was not this Intamin model.

as far as I know, the Pinball ride was just a concept that never really made it any further than that...concept.

it's HUGE

Worlds of Fun & Orient Express Now this is the update I have been wanting to do! Worlds of Fun was my favorite park when I was growing up and when they opened Orient Express I couldn’t get enough of that place. I was 15 when the ride opened and I remember I did a report on it for a school project. I wrote to the park asking them for some information that would help me with the report and I got a letter back from the General Manager of the park. Yes he actually sent me the stuff. Then when I finished the report I sent a copy back to him and he forwarded it to Lamar Hunt, the Chairman of the Board. I actually got a personal letter back from Lamar with an invitation to the park. Boy things like that don’t happen today. I have never gotten a personal letter from Dick Kinzel…well actually I have but that is another story. So anyways onto my report on Orient Express and Worlds of Fun. It was kind of surprising at that time for a relatively small park to be developing such a major coaster. I think this coaster put the park on the map. At the time it opened it was the tallest, fastest coaster with the most inversions. It had this unique looping, twisting element the park dubbed “the Kamikaze Kurve”. It also had those great interlocking loops, one of the coolest elements that Arrow came up with, especially when the trains were timed perfectly so two trains went through the loops at the same time. Obviously this was not possible on Orient Express but it sure was cool on Loch Ness Monster and Lightnin’ Loops. So lets first take a look back at the park as it appeared in the late 70’s and then onto the announcement, facts and pictures of the Orient Express, one of my all time favorite Arrow coasters!!! Orient Express…They Warned me! and a personal letter from the parks Chairman of the Board. a personal letter from the park General Manager... park map Interlocking Loops! the ride in action Lamar Hunt, the chairman of the board of Worlds of Fun and the owner of the KC Chiefs. How cool is it that he took the time to write a personal letter to a 15 year old kid that was interested in his park??? Cool guy! the parks magazine that was distributed at the parking booths. It has some great article on the Orient Express, roller coasters in general and fun park puzzles and stuff. The first Arrow Boomerang. what is up with the top of that lift???? this ride had everything: 115' drop at 55 degree angle, 100' long tunnel, top speed of 65 mph, interlocking loops and the "Kamikaze Kurve" a fancy name for an Arrow Boomerang, the first of its kind. ride design and layout the very cool logo! 1980: the big announcement! Schussboomer was a Schwarzkopf wildcat coaster located in the Scandinavian section of the park. After the Orient Express opened this ride did not hang around for too much longer. some postcards from the park. an info sheet on the coasters at the park including the Orient Express. the other new attraction was Le Carrousel. can you imagine a merry-go-round being a new attraction nowadays? even though the ScreamRoller was the big attraction at that time, the Zambezi Zinger was the ride that kicked a$$. the Zulu was a Huss enterprise that was one of the new attractions added this season. the souvenir book from 1979 season showing the various theme areas and attractions at the park. the park map from the 1979 season. The big attraction then was the ScreamRoller, a standard Arrow corkscrew. the official Orient Express bumper sticker

Two more photos I found that show the layout of the park the year of the Centennial Celebration. Geauga Lake over view Geauga Lake overview showing corkscrew and original go-kart track

^ Cool Post. I love it when this threads sparks others to post their memories or old photos. Yes Boardwalk and Baseball is sorely missed!

I just came across these photos I had taken at the IAAPA convention the Fall before the Bat opened. Arrow was proudly displaying the vehicle at their convention booth. They were nicely done as you can compare to the standard vehicle which I also posted a picture of. The Bat's themed vehicle. The standard vehicle

oh sorry, I should have searched better.

It has been years, but this is what Flashback looks like with a train on it. Interesting side note: When I worked for Six Flags corp. office back in the 90's Gary Story wanted to relocate Flashback to Elitch Gardens as part of the re-branding of the park to Six Flags Elitch Gardens.

OK, I know we have all thought this at one time or another.."wouldn't it be cool if they made a water slide with a 360 degree vertical loop in it" WTF they actually did. I have the picture but never rode it. I am not even sure if it ever opened, does anyone no more about this? It was located at Action Park in NJ. This picture was taken in June of 89. One Rider...One Lawsuit...end of story... Action Park, NJ

In case no one remembers...this is what Flashback looks like when it runs. R.I.P (rest in pieces)

Maybe these will help you. I have never been to Indiana Beach before. This will be the year I visit. It is worth it to stay in one of their cottages or townhouses???

Random stuff from IAAPA As a follow up to the Intamin Ride Catalog my next update comes from more files from IAAPA. The manufacturers used to publish Newsletters that would introduce and describe some of their highlighted attractions and also introduce employees of the company. Following is the Newsletters from: Arrow Dynamics "Directions" Custom Coasters International Morgan "Fun Times" Also is some product information on rides from: Premier Mack RCCA Barth u. Sohn Who knew Mack built wood coasters???? Runaway Mountain at Six Flags over Texas.

Here is my favorite since 1978. Great Launch, strong G's and cool name!

^If I didn't know any better I would have guessed that this was you Bill, in the 70's

If you like the attic you will LOVE the dungeon...lol, just kidding! I remember haveing something somewhere. I will have to dig for that one.

OMG do I have stuff on AstroWorld??? TONS! but it is going to take me awhile to scan it all in (actually I have to give credit where it is do, my assistant Trey is doing all the scanning for me, shout out to him) It will be coming soon in an update to this thread along with more ride catalogs, Stuff on MM Colossus (1978) Orient Express (1980), Steel Phantom and so much other cool stuff. Here is something to wet your appetite for AstroWorld, The most flamboyant park character ever created...Marvel Mc Fey Marvel McFey was AstroWorld's "Ambassador of Happiness" and entertained kids in his own section of the park. "The Magical World of Marvel McFey"

Great pictures thanks for posting. After comparing this new attraction to the one at DisneySea the difference is amazing, almost embarrassing for Disney. I find it interesting why they would spend so much money on the Tower in Japan and then pull this crap in Paris and CA. I mean the return on investment would seem to be comparatively the same or somewhat close. This is like comparing a Porsche to a Yugo. Japan has raised the bar and I view this latest Tower as "barely getting by" for Disney.

I know that in the early years of Knott's Corkscrew they frequently ran two trains. Opryland also ran two trains at the same time. Those are the only two I ever saw running a two train operation.