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Shane's Amusement Attic


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I miss the Vancouver EXPO 86 monorail, that's featured in the posted flyer here. It was great to get around the world's fair's site on it. It had a great layout and I always enjoyed riding it.

 

And - I DID get to ride it again, 20 years later... at Alton Towers!

 

 

I had totally forgotten that they bought the monorail from EXPO, and installed it to run between the parking lot and the main entrance into the park.

 

That was so great having the chance to ride on it again, after two decades! It really was one of the highlights for me, of going to AT on the tour. Riding my old missed monorail, lol.

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Alton Towers - first TPR Tour - June 2006 - "Me And My Mono..." (o:

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Gone but not Forgotten

 

Unfortunately not all good things last forever. Here is a look at some brochures from parks that are no longer around. Sometimes we forget that these parks ever existed. I mean you just don't hear to much about Bob-Lo anymore. MGM Grand Adventures was a completely forgettable park and Ghost Town in the Sky, while it has recently reopened I have a look at it before it sat dormant for several years. There are also a couple of parks for our friends across the pond.

 

Here is a look at some parks that are Gone but not Forgotten...

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Paging...Disney Legal Team????

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I didn't realize that Americana Park was as big as it was! I thought it was just a few flats, and not much else, from what I remembered back then...

 

 

I was visiting the midwest back in 1995, and got Kings Island, Worlds of Fun, and Kentucky Kingdom in while travelling.

 

And I stayed with friends of my buddy, and one of them worked at Americana - but the subject of going to it for a vist never came up, at the time.

 

Hmmmmph.

 

Heck, I might have even gotten a discount to get in...

 

Oh well. Timing.

 

It's a nice batch of flyers to browse through, Shane.

 

And even dear old - gone old - Southport (late of the TPR UK'06 Tour), heh heh!

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Thanks for more great stuff!!! I did go to MGM Grand Adventures one time (1995) for their "Scream Park" Halloween promotion. And I know I have that map somewhere. It's too bad that park didn't make it.

 

I never did get to ride the Lightning Bolt when they moved it outside and extended it. From what I've heard, it was purchased and is supposed to be rebuilt somewhere (but I can't remember where!).

 

Eric

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^Fresno!

 

I did get to ride it when it was indoors as well. I ever happen to be in Fresno I'd like to ride the extended version. I believe Shane was involved in its sale.

 

Yes at one time I was the owner of all the major rides that were in MGM. We bought the rides for a park that was planned for Seattle...that is a whole other post if you are interested in seeing that let me know. Anyways the rides were recently sold to Granite Park which is being built in Fresno. The coaster was pretty decent once it was added on to. It was quite short in it's Intamin carnation, the Arrow portion of the ride is the better part.

 

Even though it was designed by Duell I thought MGM was a complete dud of a park, it was no surprise to me when they announced the closure. From my dealings with the park they had designed the park to handle 35,000 to 40,000 guests per day. They were lucky if they got 5,000.

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Here is another look at the MGM Grand Adventure park in its first version. Later the park was majorly changed. About 1/3 of the park was closed, including the back lot boat tour and the original Lightnin Bolt building, and it was converted into a large pool and convention center.

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And just for S%$ts and giggles here is a little promotional piece we put together for the park that was going to be built for the Seattle area. As mentioned above. All the rides were purchased from MGM grand adventures and disassembled. They were stored in Vegas and ready to be moved up to Seattle when we ran up against a local indian tribe that opposed our project. Unfortunately they controlled the water rights and that put a huge hurdle in front of the project. We ended up selling off 60% of the land that was going to be used for the park. We still retain about 20 acres off of I-5 and we will be building a new FEC in place of the park.

 

So as a TPR Exclusive, here is a look at a park that was almost built in the Northwest.

 

PS. We also had a wood coaster that was designed by GCI, I will try to find the layout and post it later.

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RAPTOR 1993

 

Well I am off to San Antonio for Spring Break. I am taking the kids and were are going to get some Texas History at the Alamo and some Texas Thrills at Fiesta Texas and Sea World.

 

I thought I would put up a quick update before I take off. As I was going through the attic last week I came across a big box of old videos. Tons of stuff on coasters that I had recorded years ago. So I have converted a lot of the stuff to digital and will be doing some video updates as well as all the old brochure and other print stuff.

 

This first one is a promotional video I received from Cedar Point back in 1993, the year before it opened. This quirky storyline and video introduced the parks 11th roller coaster..."Raptor"

 

I believe Raptor was the 5th B&M inverted coaster. It opened in 1994 and at the time is was by FAR the biggest, longest, fastest and all the other "est". This video has some interviews with some of Cedar Points top brass including Dick and Claude from B&M. It also has some pretty primitive computer animation that shows the ride layout and POV. Boy animation sure has come a long way since then.

 

Enjoy the video and see you again after Spring Break!!!

 

Shane

 

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"It does not meet today’s codes” I’m not buying that for 2 seconds. The Matterhorn does not meet today's codes, nor does the GoldRusher or the Log Jammer. The Metro has not been modified or taken out of service (notice it's been on the "not operating today" list since 2004). This attraction would be "grandfathered" with safety codes of 1971 applying to most systems.

 

Whoever claimed, "It does not meet today’s codes" was not giving the real reason for the Metro not reopening. What happened to the prior excuse "the company that made the Metro is no longer is business, can't get parts" that was laughable too. Part's can be fabricated, and most of the electronics are off the shelf stuff.

 

I wonder what the REAL reason is for it not re-opening, then again, I have heard no formal announcement, so….. SAVE THE METRO!!!!

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^^ Why are you not buying it? Do you work for the state and know for a fact that it would still comply? Do you work SFMM maintenance and have an insight about the ride?

 

Or are you just talking to talk and really have no clue about the ride and are just pissed off because you're a Metro Enthusiast and they have stopped operating your favorite ride and no excuse other than "We are opening it JUST for you tomorrow" will suffice?

 

--Robb

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Finally a heated debate in my thread!!!

 

Bring it on!

 

I can see many reasons for not operating the Metro again and the one that stands out the most is the ride not meeting code. That does not neccessarily mean building code but for that ride to comply to todays ADA codes would require a major retrofit. And unfortunetly when you are a big company like Six Flags you don't really get to go with the "grandfathered" excuse when it comes to handicapped visitors.

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I don't work for the state or SFMM. My insight is that the Metro was running four years ago and I have not heard about it "not meeting" any codes in 2004, ADA or otherwise. Do you know which codes it would be violating today? Is it because they shut it down for so long?

 

Of course I am a Metro Enthusiast, that's why I made my comments. I may not have a "Clue about the Ride", I've only been riding it since 1971. It should be obvious I am not happy about it closing. It's not exactly my favorite ride however, just a nice simple transportation system.

 

"We are opening it JUST for you tomorrow" that works for me, handle that for me would ya Robb.

 

It's probably all about $$$. I am sure (but I am no expert) that it needs a major refurb that could cost a ton of money. I think you could advertise it however, I thought they are trying to make it a "family" park again, the "family" could ride the Metro, yeah I know, not gonna happen.

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^^ I think what Robb and others are saying; nobody offically said that the Metro didn't meet the state codes. And how do you know this. If Gold Rusher and Log Jammer didn't meet the codes they wouldn't have passed the expections rides have to go through (I think at tthe beggining of each year).They want to focus on attractions that will bring in money to the park. You also have to consider it's age. Back to advertisement, you you rather see a billboard advertising The Metro or rather see a billboard that has X2 on it? I'd choose X2 over any Monorail.

 

That's just my opinion.

 

-Tatum

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Thanks for sharing your amazing collection!

 

The best part of the Raptor video has to be at the beginning when Cedar Point cuts down a tree! I can only hope that they didn't make a habit out of that. CP would not look as cool if they cut down a lot of trees and replaced them with more coasters.

 

Ron "But it would be ok if they replaced them with trashcans" Patton

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Not that I'm in any way an SFMM regular or know anything much about the situation (I live in England and visited the park once in 2005), but I too have wondered about the codes thing since it was posted. Is Alton Towers' monorail the same model/built by the same company? - this operates fine but ofcourse various regulations and codes are different in different countries, and different states in USA's case. Seems a little odd, but not knowing the intricacies of the situation none of us can really talk I suppose.

 

All I know is that some rides and attractions in operation today do not meet some of the codes which they would have to meet if built new, and as such have been modified in certain ways to partly comply with regulations while not fully adhering to them. For example, the wood coasters at Blackpool do not meet modern safety codes in regards to kinematic (safety) envelope, which is why the cars were rebuilt in 1988 with taller bodies, to make it harder for riders to stick their arms out the side, thus reducing the risk of a rider's hand striking a piece of structure. Also, the handrails/balustrades do not meet the stipulated safe height, those of Grand National for instance by a good foot - at the moment, this is somehow obviously allowable. Safety cables and track crossing platforms were added in recent years to raise safety standards for maintenance personnel, but the handrails remain the original height.

 

I think in the case of attractions and structures built prior to modern codes and regulations, in most cases it's more a compromise between original state and modern standards rather than pure, out and out closing down. I'm a member of a local model engineering club (we drive live steam trains on an elevated track with 2.5", 3.5" and 5" gauges, and a ground level 7.25" gauge track) and when we've built both a modern road bridge over the 7.25" track (only small, essentially just for members' cars to pass over), and a railway bridge carrying the same track over a small valley, we have had to conform to modern codes - however, for instance, our original road bridge was half the width of the new one, and didn't have as much headroom, but was allowed to operate with paying public as long as we made it clear to passengers that they should not extend their arms or legs out of the train while riding (in railway terms the original was more a short tunnel than an overhead bridge). The only reason we replaced it was that it was old, worn, had started cracking in places and was leading toward becoming unstable due to the heavy truckloads and plant we'd had over it when we had raised the bottom of the site by as much as 2' in places, to lessen the gradient of our main hill leading up to the bridge/tunnel. We'd have preferred to rebuild as per original as we had proven safe operation with such, but as is had to be a completely new build to ensure strength, we had to conform to modern standards and as such now have a short tunnel that could almost fit a full sized tube train through, which as such is now more of an overhead bridge, with a single 7.25" track running down the middle, appearing quite puny as result. lol

 

Anyway, back to the thread - I'm enjoying every post, every image and every bit of info. It's a real gem.

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My insight is that the Metro was running four years ago

I believe your insight may be mistaken. The last known time that Metro operated was in 2001. It hasn't operated since X or Deja Vu opened.

 

Seven years ago.

 

It's probably all about $$$. I am sure (but I am no expert) that it needs a major refurb that could cost a ton of money. I think you could advertise it however, I thought they are trying to make it a "family" park again, the "family" could ride the Metro, yeah I know, not gonna happen.

Right, you are 'no expert' on the matter. We have talked to the people who ARE experts on the matter and they have told us that it would cost more money to repair Metro and bring it up to code than it would to tear it down and rebuild a new monorail.

 

Regardless if that is in their 5 year plan or not. That's what the status is. I would love to see another transportation system is the park too, but I do understand the costs involved, and I doubt we'll see someone like that in the park until the company as a whole is profitable again.

 

--Robb

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Hey Robb, I stated I was not an expert, but thanks for confirming it for me.

 

Ok, so it was 2001 not 2004, let me rephrase the question you did not answer. In 2001, when the Metro was operating, what "codes" was it "not meeting"?

 

I see now there is a third reason the Metro is closing. First I heard "no spare parts the manufacturer is out of business", then recently on TPR I hear it's because it can not "meet codes". Now you (the expert) are stating that it's because it would cost too much to repair it and bring it up to "code" (what code, the code that changed since 2001?). So which is it? See why I was not sure on the real reason? Are you sure?

 

It will be interesting when SFMM finally makes a formal announcement. Didn't they hint at a "Monorail" system with 3 stops just last year? If it's cheaper to tear it down and buy a new one , I hope it is in there five year plan. The "right of way" and station areas are all there.

 

Cheer up Robb, I think you are right on this one, I'm just a dreamer who likes to "talk the talk". Thanks for taking the time to explain your point of view.

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