The Sky Ride at Hersheypark 1974-1992

[Ccron10]

^^Finding a POV of that ride would be awesome.

 

I am wondering if anyone could tell me if this has been here when the ride was around or did they just put this up?

[larrygator]

Why would they put a sign up after the ride has been closed for years?

 

I can't say for certain, but COMMON SENSE tells me the sign is not new.

[Ccron10]

I'm just wondering because I've been going to the park for a couple years and I've been looking closely at the building and I never noticed it until now.

 

They may have recently put that up there if the park is thinking of turning that area into a catering area, but that's unlikely.

[Ccron10]

Since I'm close to getting HPCrazy.com up and running, I am researching more history and facts of Hersheypark's removed rides, which means I'm once again looking up more info about the Sky Ride. Someone over at c-net posted some helpful information:

--You have the locations of the machinery reversed: The Rhineland station was where the controls (Westinghouse NumaLogic control) and drive were located. The main drive was, of course, and electric motor and gearbox. The backup was also located here, underneath the loading platform. This was a Volkswagen industrial engine, linked through another gear reducer upstairs to the bull wheel. The counterweights were located at the Minetown station, along with the car storage and maintenance area.

--It was not humanly possible to operate this ride with only one operator at each station. The absolute minimum staffing was two operators at each station, and that was only in severe understaffing conditions. There had to be one op at unload (each station) and one at load. Generally there were no less than three at each station.

--The biggest reason for removal was a "running scared" reason--there was no efficient way to remove guests from the ride in the event of a mechanical failure. With the tallest tower being around 140 feet, no fire department aerial truck could even begin to reach the cars hanging at about 130 feet over the midways. There was no scarcity of parts, no concerns with wind or storms (we still have them today) and never a problem with insurance. Plain and simple, there was no good way to get people off if and when there was a major mechanical failure of the ropeway components. (Of course, if you step back and look at it logically, all that would have had to be done was to lower the towers to a more reasonable level, under 100 feet, and there wouldn't have been any rescue concerns).

--You mention Dream Land Park in Thailand--the ride was actually supposed to be installed in Australia (the park name escapes me), but never was, although it was shipped there from Hershey.

But there's a catch. I found some new info from wikipedia saying that the ride was actually moved to a park in Japan or China and still operates today. After searching a little more, I found an old post on a site that mentions a park in Xining China has a long and very high Intamin Skyride (sounds exactly like HP's old one).

I am also at the point of emailing the park and trying to find out what's left in the skyride station and where it got shipped to. Should I?

 

By the way if anyone has any pics of the Skyride they'd like to share, PM me.

Here's a pic of the sign that I took just a few weeks ago.

[Kennyweird]

That's one tall sky ride.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the Giant Wheel replaced with Reeses' Extreme Cup Challenge?

[YoshiFan]

No, Reese's is where the old rides office was.

 

The Giant Wheel site was supposed to have Turblence, the frequent faller coaster. When it got cancelled, they put some flats there that were removed the year before for Storm Runner. Starship America, the kiddie balloon ride and maybe something else, I am thinking a small train but I'm not sure?

[Meteornotes]

It was not humanly possible to operate this ride with only one operator at each station. The absolute minimum staffing was two operators at each station, and that was only in severe understaffing conditions. There had to be one op at unload (each station) and one at load. Generally there were no less than three at each station.

 

As someone that worked at HP in the early 80's, I can tell you that there were plenty of times they only had two people in the station. And it was possible to run it with one person. Not a good idea, and a capacity nightmare, but I remember occasions where there would only be one person in the station, and they would have to unload the car, push it around to the load area, load it, then send it on its journey. This was not fun. They would drop the ride to a very small number of cars if they did this, so they totally didn't overwhelm the unlucky ones that got to staff the ride that day.

 

HP management and staffing during those years was, um, not the best.

 

dt

[Ccron10]

No, Reese's is where the old rides office was.

 

The Giant Wheel site was supposed to have Turblence, the frequent faller coaster. When it got cancelled, they put some flats there that were removed the year before for Storm Runner. Starship America, the kiddie balloon ride and maybe something else, I am thinking a small train but I'm not sure?

There was Earthmovers. That was removed sometime then.

 

I'll just email the park and see if they could fill in some of the missing information.

[Ccron10]

Case Closed.

 

I just got word from an inside source from the park that the Sky Ride was indeed believed to be sold to Dreamworld over in Thailand. He also confirmed that the old station is still kind of like it was right after the ride was removed. You can still see where everything is. I'd like to thank Gary at HP for this info. He did send pics, but I'm not going to post them unless he grants me permission to do so.