Geauga Dog Posted August 10, 2010 Share Posted August 10, 2010 (edited) Taking the cue from some of the members on TPR I decided to take a look through some of my old photos from past park trips and scan them to post here. I figured this would be a good way to start my first ever topic. I was not into taking a lot of photos at parks at first, just get enough to have some memories of my visits. Nowadays I try to document as much as possible in between rides. To start this thread off I'm posting a few random pics I took at BGW back in 1992. This was the first time I was ever at the park and I instantly fell in love with the place. The infamous Drachen Fire was brand new and became my favorite Arrow looper at the time due to the uniqueness of it compared to their other coasters. I still rank it rather high due to Arrow trying to do something "out of the box". Unfortunately it didn't work out for them. It took me eleven years to finally get back and the park sits solidly at number one of my all-time favorites. With my last visit being 2003 I really need to get back down there again. I just wish it wasn't so far away. Well start with the legend that has now been laid to rest. Wish I could have had one last ride. Even though everyone seems to have this shot you still can't get enough of it. Racing up from the river below. Festhaus. One of the most beautiful bulidngs I've seen in a park anywhere. But, IMO, BGW is beautiful in every aspect of the park. Gladiator's Gauntlet. From what I remember it was a unique ride that was also not very thrilling. Loch Ness from the Sky Ride. Drachen Fire towers in the horizon. The iconic shot of LNM's interlocked loops. Hastings from the Sky Ride. Now Killarney, Ireland. I always liked the arched entry into this area from the stables. The Rhine River view from the San Marco bridge. Looks odd without Alpie and Griffon. Roman Rapids (for Rapids Nerd). Edited August 30, 2010 by Geauga Dog 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geauga Dog Posted August 10, 2010 Author Share Posted August 10, 2010 Continuing on, I saved the best for last. I didn't realize I had this many photos of Drachen Fire. Hmmm, I wonder what lies ahead. Entering the batwing (Arrow's name for the cobra roll). The lighting was not that great in this view of the batwing/cobra roll. Don't know what I was thinking when I took this photo. My favorite photo. Another view of the cutback element. I was in ACE at the time and we had a catered lunch behind the Festhaus. They had a display car. View from the picnic area. I'd like to see B&M re-do this ride. I dug out my old DF souvenir bottle. It's never been used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
braztaz Posted August 10, 2010 Share Posted August 10, 2010 Great photos. Drachen Fire always gives me the chills for some reason, it had such a short life. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geauga Dog Posted August 11, 2010 Author Share Posted August 11, 2010 This next set is from my first ever visit to Kings Dominion in 1992. While there were some aspects of the park that I liked I had thought, and still think, Kings Island is the better park. I didn't get to return to KD until 2003 and Paramount had made some drastic changes to the park by then. The entrance area. Berserker, my very first Looping Starship. I have to admit I'm a park observation tower geek. The KI and KD Eiffel's are my favorites. I always thought KD had the nicer I-Street and the better fountains compared to KI. Compare this particular view with the KD of today. Looong before the skyline became "intimidating". Now for a few shots of Anaconda. I believe this was the most recent addition to the park before Hurricane Reef was built. Rebel Yell I miss going backwards on these racers. The view while going up Rebel Yell's lift. I'm probably one of the very few who actually liked the Intamin Flight Trainers. A few photos of Shockwave. I wonder how much longer this one will stick around. Shenandoah Log Flume The entrance to Grizzly. IIRC you had to cross railroad tracks to get to this point. I loved how secluded the Grizzly was. When I returned in 2003 was I quite disappointed that Paramount removed a lot of the trees by the fan turn for Hurler. This one's for Montezooma. The ending of the Haunted River. To the left you can see a small part of the Smurf Mine ride. Now for some Avalanche, a far superior ride compared to the Intamin version. It baffles me as to why this particular model never took off in America. Final photo, Ghoster Coaster as taken from the platform of the dry water slide complex, whose name escapes me right now. Thanks for viewing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angryemobeaver Posted August 11, 2010 Share Posted August 11, 2010 Wow, thank you so much for posting these amazing photos! I especially loved the 92' KD ones! Those Drachen Fire ones are extremely rare too! Do you have more photos? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted August 11, 2010 Share Posted August 11, 2010 These are great! I just linked them to the Park Index Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geauga Dog Posted August 11, 2010 Author Share Posted August 11, 2010 As for more photos these are pretty much all I have from these two parks. I just scanned a few old CP photos from around 1991 (a still relatively new Magnum before the Soak City expansion and a brand new and decent Mean Streak as well as a couple of Avalanche Run before the Disaster Transport makeover). I'll post those in a few days. I didn't really start travelling much and take lots of photos until after 2000 . I'll be posting a few of those later on including more CP and some KI pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajc47 Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 Great pics Geauga Dog. Keep 'em coming. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dailey Enterprizes Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 Those are awesome pictures. Sometimes I wish I was born earlier so I could have experienced these parks when they were charming and traditional. I love that shot of BGE's Lochness Monster with no Griffon or Alpengeist because I feel the atmosphere is more important than having some "Rollercoaster Tycoon" type skyline. As for the King's Dominion pictures they make me want to watch the movie "Rollercoaster." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solid Gold Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 How much for the Drachen Fire cup? Seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmaxsba2408 Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 Has there been of is there now any coaster that have the lights that run the length of the trains that Drachen Fire did? Always thought is was so cool watching it run it's course at night with the red glow stripe on the train. Seeing that close up shot of the coaster car brought it all back for me you if you look close you can see the lights. Drachen Fire was also one of my favorite coasters. A bit rough yes but not nearly as bad a people make it out to be. Thanks so much for posting that and everything else. I also wonder how much longer Shockwave will be at KD, I just hope it is long enough for me to get to ride it again. I really miss the KI King Cobra, to this day King Cobra and Shockwave are my favorite stand-up coasters and the only stand-up coasters I have ever had air-time on! They are so much more fun than the B&Ms of today. Yes B&M's do a lot more stuff but in this case bigger is not better. These Togo's are/were short, simple and perfect! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wood Dragon 1988 Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 Excellent pictures!! My parents took me to Kings Dominion in the early 90s, but I have little to no recollection of how it looked beside the relatively few pictures we took during our visits! I'm always told that Scooby Doo used to be that green color when I first rode it as a little kid. I think I heard somewhere that The Lost World mountain had a log flume in it, but I've never seen a picture of it....it was a big surprise to see it! The only attraction my parents seem to remember from the future Volcano mountain was "Smurf Mountain," which they describe as a mine train that really wasn't even a mine train. Everyone seems to think that ride was the biggest rip off of all time, and the lines were incredibly ridiculous for what what the ride really was! Anyway, great pics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillgeek Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 Old school....... I love it! Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgwfreak777 Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 Where was Haunted River? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carolinacaniac Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 ^Wes, I think it was in the mountain that is currently occupied by Volcano, if you look in the pond in front of the turn to the launch you can still see a trough where the boats may have run at one point. -Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esvadj Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 Great photos! Love the old pics of Busch Gardens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roadkingpolice Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 Thanks for sharin, great to see picks of the good old days Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRACHEN_FIRE_FAN-BOY Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 WOW! Thank you so much for your photos! Its amazing how much KD (not really BGW) has changed over these years. Once again, thanks for the photos! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MayTheGForceBeWithYou Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 Haunted River looked pretty neat... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoCo Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 Great stuff, awesome to see Drachen Fire, especially. I LOVED that coaster, if for little else than that wicked first drop/inversion combo. And ol' Wolfie... *sniff* ... hold on, there's something in my eye [wipes away tear]... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedarpointfangirl Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 ^^ Haunted River was really neat. It used to be a favorite of mine in the park. I can still remember that musty rocky type smell when we first entered the mountain. LOL. The drop of at the end of the ride was great!! I remember this was make out central on the boats cuz it was so dark. Should have really been the tunnel of love! Anyways..great pics, oh the memories!! Just went back to KD in June, I hadn't been back since they were contructing Anaconda. So much of course had changed, but I was still nice to be back there again! Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
let1gre Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 Those are both my home parks, so it's cool to see what they looked like before I was even born. I haven't been back to BGE since '00, though, so I'm sure it would be pretty different for me as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkd freak Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 Its always nice to see both of these parks in its younger days... I still think till this day, Drachen fire was a great coaster! Far as the Water Complex, that would be Racing Rivers(Riptide, Splash Down, & Torpedo) Here's some memories I also posted some time back...http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=42618 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillrider Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 Here are a few pictures of the mountain that I took last summer. There are still a few signes that there was a flume ride in the volcano. Not sure if this was from the flume ride, or a coaster? This was taken from volcano line. Would it kill them to put some fans or air conditioning in the line for this ride. It was like a sauna in here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BitterOldHag Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 Great pics G-Dog. I loved Haunted River and still rate it in my Top 5 Flumes of All Time. I remember there being a Rotor inside that mountain too. One question though- would Drachen Fire have been considered "groundbreaking"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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