Hersheypark In the Off-Season

[Ccron10]

A few weeks ago as part of a school job shadowing project, Hersheypark allowed me to see what it's like to work in the maintenance department. On that day, I met a lot of interesting people, made a couple of friends, and learned a lot of things about the amusement industry that I didn't know before.

I was allowed to tour some of the ride service centers and meet the engineers, mechanics, and workers who are given the responsibility of caring for the park's 11 coasters and 60 rides.

On to the photos and the facts I learned.

Sidewinder looks ready for the 2009 season. Each car is taken apart down to the frame, cleaned, tested, and reassembled.

 

The brakes are even removed and inspected.

 

The restraints.

 

The front of one of the cars.

 

The lead car.

 

Hmm. What frame does this coaster belong to?

 

Must be for Trailblazer. Looks like the car is almost all one piece, but it isn't.

 

Looper's front car is completely different without the fiberglass body.

 

The wheel covers stacked nicely.

 

A little farther in the shop, Storm Runner's cars were being worked on. Fahrenheit was just about nowhere to be seen because it was over in Europe being worked on.

 

These cars judging by the dirt have yet to be inspected. The park uses a system by painting the nuts and bolts and can tell when it is time to replace them. This must be the last car according to the seat numbers.

 

The cars are articulated and don't have all the fiberglass panels on it.

 

I saw these wheel frames sitting around and decided to snap a picture. After doing a little research, these belong to Fahrenheit.

 

Here's another Storm Runner car. It is amazing how the cars are so easy to move even though they weigh close to one to two thousand pounds.

 

Here's part of one of the Skyview cars.

 

Also in the shop are the just about the whole Tilt-A-Whirl ride. The platform was inside along with the cars.

 

Inside the fiberglass shop are the Coal Cracker boats.

 

Looks like these Skyview cars are ready to go.

 

Around the park, there are "mini" service centers for specific rides. This is Roller Soaker's.

 

A closer view of the wheel assemblies.

 

I'll have more tomorrow. I'd like to thank Hersheypark for giving me the oppertunity to job shadow many great people who love what they do and make me see if mechanical engineering is the career for me.[/img]

[silvercrew1]

Very cool! Thanks for posting!

[ebl]

Being a fan of "behind the scenes" type stuff, I really enjoyed this TR. I'd like to check out SFMM's maintenance area sometime.

 

Eric

[vacoaster]

Ccron, I sent you a PM check your inbox

[Speeddeamon128]

Great pics I love behind the scene stuff as well. I didn't no that Sidewinder had a Hershey Kiss in the front of the train.

[YoshiFan]

That Hershey Kiss on the front of the car is somewhat new (maybe even new for this year?). It used to have the old park logo on it as shown here:

http://www.rcdb.com/ig109.htm?picture=3

[palmerleeberry]

It is always interesting to see what goes on inside a park during the off season. Believe it or not, most people would think that a coaster car or a seat of a ride would stay inside the station during the off season. But these cars are removed from their track or frame so they can be worked on, inspected, put on a new coat of paint, and anything else that the trains or ride seats need.

 

All I can say that I'm for the parks when they need to take the trains off the track during the off-season, but please get them back on before you open up for another season!!!

[Ccron10]

Ccron, I sent you a PM check your inbox

 

I didn't recieve your message.

 

^^ The Kiss logo didn't appear on the train until either 2007 or 2008 because I remember seeing it last year.

 

Part II

Back to business. After visiting Roller Soaker's service center, I was allowed to check out the pump and filteration system for the Boardwalk which was interesting.

 

Then it was over to Tidal Force and the mechanics there were looking for a gear box and bracket for the drive system.

Lift motor.

 

The station and the drive system.

 

To find the information of the parts, we had to go over to Canyon River Rapids's Control Room to get the documents.

 

Old wiring to the Canyon River Rapids's old control system.

 

The control room also houses the music system for the Boardwalk area, and features a nice sign on the wall. lol

 

Back in the ride's service center, I was shown the evidence of what chlorine and one to two years of use can do on some of the parts. Those parts looked much older than they are and need to be replaced often. Since Hopkins went out of business, it is up to the park to get new parts. This means a few things: Make the part themselves or research.

 

Next we went over to Dry Gulch Railroad where I interviewed the mechanics who work on the trains.

Taken right next to the engine house.

 

The upper part of the SeaQuel and Fahrenheit.

 

The main wavepool area and Tidal Force.

 

I couldn't tell which train was which since the funnels were off.

 

The wheels were taken off and were up on blocks.

 

After taking a few laps back to Tidal Force and DGRR delivering parts and getting information, we then had freetime, so we went over to Minetown to Great Bear.

It was strange going in the station during the off-season; the platform was lowered, the bagdrop was being used as a nut and bolt holder, the seat frames were sitting there and the gates were open with no guests.

In the service center I met a pair of guys who take great pride in their coaster and say it's really adaptible with parts. The train they were working on was halfway done with it's inspection.

 

One of the wheel assemblies.

 

There was a second floor to work on the tops of the trains. The trains are actually sitting on the platform since there is no track, but it will be added when they are done.

 

This holds the wheels.

 

The side wheels move in and out for easy steering.

 

The car connector is where the brake pads are and the chain dog.

 

In the second storage bay is the second train which is almost finished; they just need to add the seats and restraints.

The restraints, seats and Kissing Tower Christmas tree.

 

The chain dog on the finished train.

 

Ready for the season.

 

The wheel covers have been painted with a color changing paint scheme which was 10K. Looking good.

 

The station.

 

B&M likes to keep thier control panels very simple.

 

The coaster also got a new lift hill motor.

 

That's all for now. Seaquel photos and more shop pictures soon.

[BuschSchoe]

I was interested to see what Hersheypark did with Great Bear's trains during the offseason... very cool.

[yankees15]

Wow, this is very interesting! I would just love to go to a park in the off season and see how everything is taken care of.

[coasterfan21]

Great behind the scenes report, it is great to see all that hershey park is doing to keep up with its rides.

[Ccron10]

After lunch I was taken on a trip over to the golf course building right across from Chocolate World. Here's I met with Mr. Bachman who is one of the lead engineers. He showed me how they planned and built the Storm Runner coaster. The process on how they did this depends on many of factors and not on whatever the park feels like putting in. I was next shown Fahrenheit's blueprints. There was nearly 1,000 pages worth showing line graphs, drawings of individual parts, the trains, the 97 degree drop which was originally going to be 96 degrees. It was really interesting. They also kept most of the blueprints all the way back to 1971.

We next went up to Hotel Hershey to show me the construction that's going on up there (summer cottages). From the way it looks, the cottages and other features that they added will probably open this summer.

 

Going back to the park, I was then taken on a tour of the Boardwalk SeaQuel construction site.

The Shore is starting to take shape.

 

To rent a cabana, you would need to visit this building first.

 

Intercoastal Waterway was 3/4th of the way finished. The layout should be done by now.

 

This was taken exactly at where Canyon River Rapids's entrance used to be.

 

This will be path leading over to the Shore.

 

Right at ground-level of the lazy river.

 

This is going to be either the entrance or exit for Intercoastal Waterway.

 

Riders would either have the option of going around again or exit through one of the side paths.

 

The Shore wave building will house restrooms, and offices.

 

You will be able to walk across this path area in front of the pool.

 

 

This is just about looking from the path on the wave pool building.

 

Inside the Intercoastal Waterway before the river is finished.

 

This will look nice once it's finished.

 

The Shore Line Grill is nearly finished.

 

Before I left for the day, I had the chance of walking through the maintenance shop one last time.

 

The car framework for Wildcat.

 

The lead car for one of the trains (Note: the car name).

 

The Wild Mouse cars look finished.

 

Going back to the Sidewinder cars, here's something new. The park is going to try out a new wheel frame on the cars this year. Will this reduce the rattle? Find out in a few weeks!

 

One of the Howler cars.

 

They were doing a little touch-up with the front cover for one of the Fahrenheit trains.

 

The last stop of the day was the wood shop where they were working on 2 Carrousel horses. Kudos to the person who painted this one!

 

The overall experience and lessons I learned from that day has changed my overall view on how theme parks are run and the amount of effert that is put through in trying to get the park open for the season. The employees who work there really love their job. For my graduation project I typed up a 10-page report and plan on presenting it in school really soon.

 

Thanks for reading.

[Lenaapple1974]

That was so cool, Ccron10! Thank you so much for sharing your behind the scenes footage with us. I really appreciate it because I do get to go to this park this upcoming year. I always wondered what they did with the cars, etc. Now, I can look at them as I am waiting on the queue, and explain stuff to my kids. It should make the wait on long lines slightly more bearable! I bet that paper will be an A+!

[Jcoaster]

Kickass pictures dude. I always wonderd how they do a Inverted coasters rehab during the offseason.