Johnny Upsidedown

Well, here it is, they are going to move and restore the Zippin Pip. http://www.memphisdailynews.com/Editorial/StoryLead.aspx?id=100652 The group that may or may not own the Zippin Pippin has reached an agreement with one of the companies that wants to develop attractions in and around The Pyramid. Steve Mulroy of Save Libertyland! Inc. announced Monday afternoon the group has agreed to let the Ericson Group move and renovate the Zippin Pippin roller coaster as part of Greg Ericson’s $250 million plan for The Pyramid, Mud Island and the surrounding riverfront. The Ericson Group proposal had been known as Pyramid Adventure but recently underwent a name change to Pyramid Harbor. The wooden, 85-year-old roller coaster would be in an amusement park to be built on Mud Island. The island park would be renamed Harbor Island as part of the larger project. Mulroy, who is also a Shelby County commissioner, estimated moving the Pippin would cost around $1 million and the renovation would cost another $65,000. That is compared to a cost of $25 million for a new steel roller coaster Ericson proposes to run up one side of The Pyramid and inside the structure. The Herenton administration has been negotiating for nearly three years with Bass Pro Shops to develop The Pyramid. Those negotiations are set to expire at the end of January under a non-binding letter of intent between the city and Bass Pro. Ericson is scheduled to present his Pyramid Harbor proposal to Memphis City Council members Jan. 22. He presented the plan to County Commission members in December. The Save Libertyland! group is in a legal dispute with the city of Memphis over who owns the roller coaster, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. The roller coaster was sold at auction to the amusement park company Carolina Crossings, which then gave it to Save Libertyland! The city claims as part of the legal dispute that since Save Libertyland! didn’t move the structure off the fairgrounds property in five days, ownership has reverted back to the city. Ericson said he hopes to reach an agreement with the city to move the nearby Grand Carousel at the former Libertyland theme park to Mud Island as well.

Zippin update http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=76c2a96e-bf1b-4f23-abd7-9dfd0aa64f33 A news conference will be held on Monday, January 14, 2008 to discuss the future of the Zippin Pippin. Memphis Heritage is holding the news conference at 2:00 p.m. to discuss the relocation and restoration of the historic roller coaster. The Zippin Pippin is one of the oldest wooden roller coasters in the United States. It currently sits idle at the Mid-South Fairgrounds in Midtown Memphis. It was part of Libertyland Park, which opened in 1976. The Zippin Pippin was the favorite roller coaster of Elvis Presley. Libertyland closed its gates for good on October 29, 2005. The Memphis City Council is still deciding what to do with the Mid-South Fairgrounds. That includes the Mid-South Coliseum, Libertyland, and the Liberty Bowl

I was just curious about it, I wasnt knocking TPR in anyway so please dont take offense to it. I know its a problem beyond yours or anybodies control and you guys do a great job controling it. I see this kind of stuff on various PHPBB boards and was looking into a small PHPBB myself which is why I asked about it.. I also see this kindo of stuff on many of the open forums of all kinds of design guess thats part of being on the internet. I guess unfortunatly I believe people should be respectfull and mind there own buisness but I know that is living in fantasy land. Anyway like I said I was just curious about the whole thing and I know you guys deal with it so I figured you guys would have some sort of opinion about it. I guess I never needed a job that bad that I would go around and do the things that these people do not just on TPR but as a whole.

Maybe somebody can explain. I have often wondered how it is that the unwanted posts like viagra, porn, cialis and all the other none related stuff that gets posted gets there in the first place. Are these things done by a spam program that finds security flaws in the PHPBB programing that allow them to get access to the site without signing up for a password to log on and post. So in a sense they don't have an email address or password. If it is a security flaw in the PHPBB programing then would an upgrade to a newer version of PHP solve the problem. Or are these actual people that have so little to do in there lives that they have to screw around with other peoples enjoyment. Is there a person that sits at there computer and goes through the whole process of go to the site, sign up, get a password, come back to the site, log on, post there silly unwanted spam and leave knowing there posts will get deleted and subsequently getting the IP address banned. . Seems its harder for me to sign up, come back and post then it is for these people to do what they do. I have often thought that these things are done by people in the coaster enthusiast realm that are treatened by this site because it takes revenue out of other peoples sites. I just don't understand what the reason is for people to put that kind of crap on somebody elses site unless there are other motives to it like discrediting another persons site. Maybe its just robots doing it or maybe it is that I visit this site often and notice it more on this site then on other websites that use the PHPBB programing. But it just seems to me that there should or could be a better way to solve the problem then to wait until little Jimmy 13 year old reads a post about making a longer um diving board or how to get you fun with an animal. I guess I just have never understood spam emails and spam posts. I assume that they create a market because they must get some people to buy there product otherwise they wouldn't do it in the first place. Also do you keep track of the various places that these things come from or do you just simply delete them and hope they don't come back. I guess I just don't understand why people do the things that they do and more importantly why there aren't better security in the PHPBB program. I don't have a lot of knowledge of PHP programing. It just seems that if this is a large problem across all PHP boards that somebody should come up with some type of security to help all users of PHP not just Themeparkreview. Sorry if this is kind of running on or a bit confusing but I have always been curious about how this kind of spam gets here and how can it be taken care of in a different manner then simply wait tell it shows up and delete it.

The latest information from Screamscape.com, Seeems they are having a few difficulties, have to wait and see as the next few months go by. Screamscape also has a few recent photos http://www.screamscape.com/html/seaworld_florida.htm showing the park is coming together nicely. 2008 - Aquatica - (1/11/08) While we still haven’t seen any proof about the wave pool problems we talked about earlier this week, we’ve heard about another potential problem that could also delay the waterpark’s grand opening. Apparently SeaWorld has been unable to get the filtration system for the Dolphin habitat working to their liking and has yet to add the animals to it. Apparently the timetable to get this done in time for the grand opening was Janurary 1st and as far as we’ve heard, this still has not happened. (1/10/08) I’ve been hearing some weird rumors about Aquatica lately involving the huge dual wavepool. The basic gist of the story claims that a major water pipe under the pools broke and has pretty much ruined the foundation under the pools. Bottom line, they may have to tear up the existing pools to fix the pipes, redo the foundation and build the pools all over again. With only a few months to go before the park is scheduled to open, this will be a major blow to the park as the wave pool was considered to be finished at this point. As you can see in the photos posted back in December, they already had it filled with water, the fake rockwork finished and landscaping already in place. If anyone gets a chance to visit the park, please take a ride up in the skytower and take a few new pictures of the wavepool. I’ve love to see if they’ve drained the pools or started construction work on this yet to confirm the story. If I had to guess, I don’t think this would cause them to delay the opening of Aquatica however. There should be enough other things to do in the park that they should still be able to open on time, though they may want to consider cutting back on the maximum number of guests they allow into the park until they can fix the wavepools as those are very high capacity attractions and would also likely cause the closure of the entire “beach area” around them as well.

Here is a Screamin Squirrel car. I think somebody above had said that the cars are similar to the Squirrel. I have to agree they are similar in design. Also the lapbars on the El Loco are designed to accommodate larger bodies due to its design. Here is a Squirrel car from 05.

If you look in Robs profile you will see that it shows today is his Birthday. So Happy Birthday Rob Alvey. What does that make you about 18 now.

Cedar Fair is getting pretty lame with the colors and the names lately. Cant they come up with something a little more original. I for one have never liked when a coaster has different sections of track deferent colors. Like Silver Bullet with the red lift hill supports and the rest silver, never made much sense to me. Guess its just a preference of mine on color of rides. I wish they would have made the ties a different color then having the loop a different color. Oh well, guess I shouldn't complain as the ride may turn out to be beautiful looking. Wont know tell later this season when its done.

I had no idea that ROB was an ACE coaster patch kid. Some of those photos it looks like Rob was enjoying the gravy to much. Great tread, love the photos.

Thanks for all the updates on Carowinds and all the great photos of the work going on at the park.

Guess names dont bother me for coasters. I mean you could call Montu something else and it wouldnt change the ride to me. Anyway I love the graphic posted above, it really puts your life into perspective. I would love to buy one of those just to have as novilty item. EDIT, well ask and you shall recieve. http://www.dvdrewinder.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1 I cant believe it, its the first I have seen this.

Have to agree, interesting launch but just didnt live up to the hype. I havent checked but is HyperXLC still listed on the site it was for sale on. I wonder if this time its for real and that they are going to remove the ride finally. I thougt Stan Checketts of S&SPower should buy it back and put it at his small family park up in Utah.

I would say hit Busch before the 14th, I would think all the rides will be operating during the week of the 7 - 11 because that week still alot of people in town from the new year and bowl game stuff. Montu usually is down toward the last part of January as the park is dead. Also hit the park on a week day if you have the chose, you will have a much better time shorter lines = more rides. The parks will be very busy from 12-28 to about 1-3 becuase of all the extra people in town and shool scheduls. I was at the park today and it was nice one train waits however next 2 weeks the parks are very busy.

Busch Gardens, Currently the skyride is closed for maintainance and Gwazi is running one side.. All the water rides were operating including the river raft ride in the Congo area as it had been closed for a while, forget the name. Usually Montu does winter rehab for about 2 weeks in January but it varies from year to year. However this year down time may not be long since last season they repainted. One Mountu train is in the shop getting a complete rebuild which is normal. January is kind of hit of miss I would say all the big coasters will be operating but its possible one may be down. Just watch here or on Screamscape as somebody usually will post something about ride closures at BGA

Just when you thought it was safe to go on an expidition to Everest. Well most likely this is another situation of a death not related to a roller coaster. While it is sad to know and read about these things, its just a reminder that roller coasters can and do kill. Lots of deaths and accidents related to Disney this year.

It hurts just to look at it.. I wish they would go back to track flow school instead of seeing how many times they can make you bang your head. They spend millions designing all these crazy contraptions and spend all this money on unique lift hills but why cant they spend that money and go to school to make the track flow properly. A gradual turn is much better then a slam turn.. No need to worry about capacity, its going to be a ride it only once and leave so the line will be short. Why has there been such a switch in what parks are buying. It used to be long coasters with long trains. Now everybody wants to build all the one car rides that have no flow or ride to them. They aren't coasters any more just more like glorified flat rides.

Thanks for the update. Looks like a bunch of new lumber in the bents. Good to see the park doing lots of off season repairs.

Wow, was there any talk of the parks being sold or did this fly under the radar. First I have heard of the sale. I wonder if they decided to give up after problems arose with Kennywood getting the extra land and the highway extension. I wonder how it will affect the park in the long run. I hope they will take good care of the park.

Another batch of photos have been posted to Dorney's website. More track painting and ground work being done. Click here for new photos of VOODOO.

If it was closed all season then I would figure they have some bad footings that are going to get replaced. Remember that they just replaced a footing on Top Gun also. So I would bet that its a footer replacement or maybe even strengthing it. If it were just structure replacements as in retrack or replace some of the bents then you wouldnt take the whole pieces of structure down. So bet its a footing issue or has to do with underground utilities or even some type of water outflow for the new wave pool. Could also be that that section of wood is just in need of replacing altogether.

Looks like maybe they have some bad footings, or could be that they have to dig up under the ride for utilities for the new wave pool. Either way it doesnt look like a tear it down situation.

Make it 3 last week. This one was a heart attack. http://www.mickeynews.com/News/DisplayPressRelease.asp_Q_id_E_1267Bus Walt Disney World suffered a third death late last week but unlike the two previously reported deaths the third was immediately ruled natural. A 71-year-old man died after having a heart attack on a Disney bus, according to officials. The man's name has not been released. Shortly before 5 p.m. Friday afternoon he fell unconscious while riding a bus toward Magic Kingdom. A Disney spokeswoman said the bus pulled over at the Magic Kingdom toll plaza and Reedy Creek paramedics arrived but were unable to revive him. In a previously-reported incident on Friday a 72-year-old man who fell at the Magic Kingdom on Thursday died of his injuries, according to Disney officials. The day before a Disney employee, Karen Price, 63, died from injuries she sustained when she was hit by a Primeval Whirl roller coaster car at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Note: An earlier version of this posting had unfortuantely drawn from an earlier report that the 72-year-old man who fell at the Magic Kingdom had slipped. Disney officials said the family advised them that the man did not slip, but had lost his balance and fallen.

Goal for 08, I hope to hit many of the new to me rides as I will call them. Not only new rides but ones I havnt been on before. There are several parks that have coasters I would like to hit. Some are the Dells, Arnolds, Valleyfair and several of the major parks in Canada. Would love to make Behemoth this coming year. Really though all things considered my goal for 2008 would be at least have the oppertunity to ride.

I was there in 04 and the ride looked like it needed lots of work. Always sad to see one in pieces on the ground especially since I didn't get to ride it. Great photos of the demolition. Hopefully the new owners can do some good things with the park, I have read that they have ambitious plans for the future.

http://www.dorneypark.com/public/inside_park/rides/thrill_rides/voodoo/gallery/index.cfm?gallery_directory=voodoo&startRow=1&maxRow=50 Tons of new photos up from yesterdays update and blog report. Lots of track close ups and a look at the color of the seat frames.