The Rye Airplane - The Model - the Diary

[gforce1994I'm a know-it-all about donkeys!]

If it might be of any help to you, rumor has it that someone lost their hand in the station as the train passed by on the famous diving turn. Stating an arm is about two to three feet long, it tells you how close the flyby truely was!

[hillflyerFull Fledged Donkey Enthusiast!]

Thanks for this information. Maybe I'll half bury a little hand somewhere in that area. LOL.

That was a problem that occured on the restored Belmont Park Giant Dipper. There was one spot where someone would smack their hand - this happened about once a month. One guy claimed he was an airforce pilot.

Returned from convention at Dollywood. Still working on drawings and more drawings before I start actual construction of the model. Hopefully the first bents will rise this month.

[hillflyerFull Fledged Donkey Enthusiast!]

Quick and dirty example of what color the coaster may have been.

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The discussion is now on the color of the Airplane structure. Is there ANYONE who remembers the colors in the coaster's earlier days? Possibilities are: A mostly green structure with the main upright posts a rich cream (as hap-hazardley created in photo. I have someone who remembers it being dark beige. The trains are thought to have been green, and then red later. Any help of how we can find out what colors they were, please let me know! If I decide to depart from my original white concept, I will have to paint the structure as I build it, so by month's end I'll need to know. Thanks! 995

[hillflyerFull Fledged Donkey Enthusiast!]

I plan on going to the college library tonight to do some research. I'm looking for NYT articles published around the time Rye Playland opened. The San Diego Union had a whole special section in 1925 announcing the Memorial Day opening of the Mission Beach Amusement Center (now Belmont Park). They described practically the whole color palette of the park including mentioning that the roller coaster (Giant Dipper...just started construction at that time) would be painted all-white. Hopefully my research will reveal the original colors of the Airplane Dips coaster. 1009

Like the 1925 Belmont article, I hope I find rare photos of the Airplane coaster never seen since 1928.

Stay tuned....

[QueerRudieFull Fledged Meat Enthusiast!]

That's an excellent source of material- Microfilm of the NYT is an impressive sub-register to work with.

A thought occurs to me, though: Have you considered diving into the Rye planning district's files? I'd be curious to see/find out if they kept the planning records for that far back- and if so, would they be able to produce something.

R.D.

[hillflyerFull Fledged Donkey Enthusiast!]

Have you considered diving into the Rye planning district's files?

R.D.

That'd be a long way for me to travel!

[hillflyerFull Fledged Donkey Enthusiast!]

ARRRG - after carefully scaling the layout of the Airplane, I've discovered the possibility that the bents on the first drop/bottle necked curve and the first spiral may have been 19 feet wide instead of 18. On the Mission Beach Giant Dipper, most of the bents are 8'-0" o.c. wide. Around the turns on each end, they are 9'-0" o.c. (18'-0" for two paths). So we assumed that it was the same for the Airplane - but maybe not. If that's true, back to the drawing board! Consulting now and waiting for a reply.

[hillflyerFull Fledged Donkey Enthusiast!]

Wow - the calculations I came up with are correct. I suppose the bents are 6" wider than normal because of the intense nature of the spiral. Plus there are some other odd a-bit-off-normal areas needing examination. Progressing a little slower than I wanted to, but that's due to double checking and correcting. That's a GOOD thing.

[hillflyerFull Fledged Donkey Enthusiast!]

Mapping out a difficult section - this is where 4 layers of tracks converge in to one corner. Next step is to build a rough mock-up of this section to study clearances and what posts need to be re routed so as not to go right through the middle of track.

[hillflyerFull Fledged Donkey Enthusiast!]

Here's a REALLY rough mock up of the complicated corner. I used a 3-D model to better understand clearances since 4 layers of track run through this small area.