Shane's Amusement Attic

CoasterGuy06 · October 30, 2011

The only new Chance ride I can think of in the last few years is that they sold a few of those "unicoaster" flat rides. I'm guessing they've sold a few of the KMG fireballs in the U.S. as well.

One thing I didn't know until looking at their website, it looks like they sell (maybe manufacture in the U.S.?) Vekoma roller skater and junior suspended coasters too!

I believe they manufactured the family invert at Frontier City.

chadster · October 30, 2011

^ Vekoma needed all the help they could get

They have sold a few more Aviators of late. But really they seem to be selling and manufacturing a wide range of things these days from multiple ride designers such as Vekoma.

From their website

Throughout the last decade, Chance has fully consolidated the Morgan Manufacturing operation into to its Wichita, Kan. headquarters. Chance will continue to offer rides from the Morgan product line, as well as provide spare parts and technical services for all Morgan rides. The company ownership remains within the Chance family.

In celebration of this milestone 50th year in 2011, Chance is reintroducing the Chance Rides brand in all its company marketing efforts

Jew · October 30, 2011

The only new Chance ride I can think of in the last few years is that they sold a few of those "unicoaster" flat rides.

And it's really not "theirs". US Thrill Rides licenses it to them.

http://www.usthrillrides.com/products/unicoaster

Might as well be theirs. Seems like US Thrill Rides is only in the business of "licensing" (selling) designs to companies. It's as if Chance just subcontracted them.

Edited October 30, 2011 by Jew

coaster-crazy · October 30, 2011

Morgan still had an office in La Selva Beach, CA until April 2010, so they are now fully consolidated (as noted above).

simon8899 · October 31, 2011

The only Morgan I rode so far was the Pacific Coaster at Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier - they never sell much overseas...

montezooma · October 31, 2011

^ Funny, I have been on all the Morgan coasters except for that one. I’ll rate Superman down in Mexico City the best followed by Steel Eel.

But enough about Morgan, I have a Carowinds update coming up later today.

Rollercoaster Rider · October 31, 2011

Mamba is the best of all 3 Cedar Fair DH Morgan Hypers.

RoCo · October 31, 2011

It really is a shame Morgan is no longer. I finally got to ride Phantom's Revenge at Kennywood this summer and it was a blast and a half.

Agreed that their trains are mighty weak, but Mamba made me see spots a bit on the mid-course helix and the Pacific Pier West Coaster is fun!

montezooma · October 31, 2011

CAROWINDS

New for 1980…CAROLINA CYCLONE

Carowinds was a pretty small park at th time so I think it was quite impressive for them to be introducing the world’s first quad-looping roller coaster.

This update has some pretty great facts and figures on the parks attendance, capital expenses and additions for the first couple of years as well as some great old black and white photos.

There is a lot more Carowinds to come this week so keep checking in to see more…and as always, I love to read your thoughts and comments.

Shane.

and here is a look at the park how it appeared in 1979 before the addition of the Carolina Cyclone.

Edited November 1, 2011 by montezooma

eddie200330 · October 31, 2011

I really liked the old trains on Thunder Road. Too bad they couldn't have stayed around.......or be brought back with a more modern train!

This is a park I have only recently visited for the 1st time and have to say I really enjoyed it. It was over Labor Day weekend and would really like to see it in full swing of mid summer.

Geauga Dog · November 1, 2011

Great update, Shane! Looking forward to the rest of your Carowinds update. After visiting Carowinds for the first time this past summer I really liked the park.

Looking back at the old photos I wish they still had the Carolina Sternwheeler. Seemed like the perfect centerpiece for the park along with the Skytower.

Love the old school park map Taft used back in the day.

simon8899 · November 1, 2011

The mother of all double-loops - double corkscrews. A dubious achievement in a continueous headbanging kind of way....

cfc · November 1, 2011

Forget the "quad loop" coaster--there's an animated country bear show!

SeaWhippet · November 1, 2011

Wow, my home park certainly has changed a bit since its glory days. While there have certainly been a lot of improvements, removing White Lightnin' and the Sternwheeler are unforgivable crimes ... especially considering their "replacements."

BigDipper 80 · November 1, 2011

I think that the best part of that press release is the photo of Thunder Road with its old trains. They are incredibly awesome!

Philrad71 · November 1, 2011

Thanks for sharing, Shane!

Visiting the park for the 1st time this year, this was an interesting take. The Powder Keg and White Lightnin' looked awesome and it's always interesting to see how many rides and attractions change over the years.

Other than Intimidator, I think I would take the park as it was then over how it is now.

montezooma · November 2, 2011

Here is a Carowinds update featuring a look at park map & guide through the years. You can see how the park did some changing from 1979 to 1990. I have to agree that the parks biggest mistake was the removal of White LIghtnin for that lame wave pool.

Of course White Lightnin still lives on as Golden Loop in South Africa http://rcdb.com/1168.htm?p=1983

1979

1983

1985

1987

1988

What happened here? It seems like the wave pool at Ocean Island was closed for a year? Can you Carowind locals give us the story?

1990

We've lost White Lightnin'

Here is a high res version of this awesome map. Click on it for more detail

RoCo · November 2, 2011

This stuff never gets old. Some part of me wishes we could go back to a time when a $2 million Arrow four-inversion coaster was a big freakin' deal.

And should I admit that I used to have a huge crush on Tennille? Probably not, right? So, yeah, I totally never did...

Geauga Dog · November 3, 2011

Carowinds does have one of my favorite park layouts - very easy to navigate. My guess is that Randall Duell designed it?

What was Smurf Island? Was it a ride area for kids or one of those playgrounds with net climbs and ball crawls? It's a little hard to tell in the small map inset of the island in the later guides.

SkyWayStitch · November 3, 2011

Smurf Island was a walk through area with small mushroom houses and other Smurfy artifacts. There were not any rides, but there was a small ball pit area at the entrance. To access the island, you would actually have to walk across the Carolina Sternwheeler when it was docked. The snack stand served smurf blue iceees.

SkyWayStitch · November 3, 2011

Actually, as you can see in the early 80's maps and pics, White Lightnin was not removed for the lame wave pool. The wave pool had been there for several years and stood side by side with White Lightnin.

PAL · November 3, 2011

Shane, you might find this story about Marshall Scotty's partial revival interesting.

Story by Karen Pearlman
Thursday, November 3, 2011

Marshal Scotty’s Playland, the beloved East County park that has been renovated, redeveloped and renamed several times since its 1967 grand opening, is getting new life.

The once bustling park off Interstate 8 where Lakeside and El Cajon meet, vacant for the last 17 years, is set to reopen Nov. 5. The latest, and its owners hope final, incarnation will be called “Canyon Raceway.”

While the Tilt-a-Whirl and roller coaster won’t be part of the action, the site’s husband-and-wife owners Rudy and Carrie Ludeke are opening part of the park for go-cart racing, one of its most popular late-era features.

Rudy Ludeke, who owns a fabrication business in El Cajon, traveled to Texas two weeks ago to bring back five of the six go-carts that will be used at the track on Ridge Hill Road near Lake Jennings Park Road.

“My husband has always had a dream to open up the track,” Carrie Ludeke said. “This has been his quest for months. We both would go (to the go-cart track) all the time in high school, when we went to Granite Hills. We loved it. It was so fun to go at night and race under the lights in the back country.”

Carrie Ludeke was reluctant to say how much they invested in opening part of the park but “basically it was everything we have... retirement, savings, everything... down to the last penny. We are saying a big prayer for opening day.”

The park will be open, at least for the time being, from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursdays, 2 to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 3 to 7 p.m. Sundays. As the Ludekes gauge the park’s popularity, hours of operation may change.

The park had a “work the quirks out night” last weekend, Rudy Ludeke said. People from around the county heard by word-of-mouth that the raceway was opening soon, and many paid a visit to see the coming attraction, Rudy Ludeke said.

“It was great to see smiles, blast from the past, are you kidding me?” he said. “Old school Cajon Speedway racers came, Barona racers came. The smiles, the expressions, the emotions were high. I had people telling me, ‘I remember back in the day’ stories. Nobody can fathom that it was 17 years ago! The track looked great, too. Everybody was really stoked and energetic about it.”

For people like Lakeside native Jennifer Griggs, the park can’t open soon enough.

Griggs worked at Marshal Scotty’s from 1993 to 1995 and her last year was spent in the ticket booth at the go-cart track.

“I have lots of wonderful memories and funny stories,” Griggs said. “My favorite is meeting my husband at the track. I was going to college and would sell tickets and do my homework in the booth. My now-husband loved racing go-carts and came to the track almost every night. We soon started dating and now 16 years later we’re still happily married with two children. Our son is 10 and races go-carts, and in fact was the 2010 So-Cal Oval Karters champion.”

Marshal Scotty’s heyday was in the 1970s and ’80s and even into the early ’90s. The Western-theme park was often filled with kids hopping on and off its miniature Tilt-a-Whirl, a dipping “Bulgy the Whale” ride, ring-the-bell boat ride, roller coaster, 20-foot-high Ferris wheel, airplanes and bumper cars.

Frank Hobbs, who nicknamed himself Marshal Scotty when he got into the carnival business in the early 1950s, opened the park on Jan. 1, 1967.

It changed ownership several times before Bill Lee took it over in 1986. Lee’s dream was to develop Marshal Scotty’s into a world-class water park and in 1989, he invested $500,000 to add a go-cart track and install the longest water slide of its kind in Southern California. By 1990, Lee had filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11, and Marshal Scotty’s Playland never recovered.

In 1995, the property and equipment were sold under foreclosure to United Leisure Corp. of Fountain Valley for $1.6 million. The company named the park Frasier’s Frontier and established Camp Frasier, a day camp for children, on the property. In 1996 and 1997, Camp Frasier in El Cajon attracted about 200 campers each summer.

But by 1998, United Leisure closed Frasier’s Frontier and Camp Frasier, and put the El Cajon property on the market. It had sat empty since then.

The Ludekes hope this is the end of problems for the property, and the beginning of a promising future.

“The long-range hope is that as long as people are smiling, we’ll keep it going,” Rudy Luedeke said. “Smiles keep it going. I definitely want this for my son so someday he can take it over. He’s 8 years old. And my daughter, who is 11, she also wants to take it over. We’re looking to the future.”

From m.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/nov/03/new-life-for-part-of-east-county-landmark/

montezooma · November 13, 2011

I enjoyed reading that. Thanks for posting.

montezooma · November 13, 2011

Carowinds celebrated their 15th anniversary with...wait for it... a Pamper's Infant Care Center! It must have been an off year for them but the marketing department made much ado about nothing. Here is a look at their 15th Anniversary press kit.