GOOD.

"Six Flags bans influencer from all parks 'for life' after his shocking video violating safety rules."

I hope the clicks and likes were worth it.  "'Guests who violate our Code of Conduct are not welcome in our parks,' a Cedar Point rep tells EW of YouTuber Allen Ferrell, who filmed himself eating chicken nuggets on a 310-foot roller coaster."

Apparently "EW" means "Entertainment Weekly," but my reaction to what this fool did for clicks and likes was also "Ewwwww."

Ferrell, who has nearly 4 million followers on TikTok and 1.8 million subscribers on YouTube, shared a video of himself sticking a 10-piece box of chicken nuggets into his pants before boarding the Millennium Force roller coaster.

Ferrell is seen in the footage pulling the box out and eating the nuggets while the ride drops from its 310-foot height. His riding partner then extends a hand holding an open container of sauce, into which Ferrell dips his nugget before it slides off his face.

I once snagged my brother's sunglasses when the g-forces on a coaster you might have heard of did what they do.  I would not have been able to catch a stray drop of dipping sauce even with my younger self's reflexes.  This happened long ago, before people had portable 'phones to take selfies, which is another way to get yourself banned from an amusement park.  "During the ride, the phone came loose and struck another rider, which, according to local news, sent the injured person to the hospital for treatment."

The laws of physics are immutable.  Roller coasters are for riding no-handed, not for amateur photography.  And yes, I have taken point-of-view photographs on roller coasters.  With the management's permission.

HURRICANE AGNES AND THE COMING OF CONRAIL.

Hurricane Helene brought a lot of rain well into the Appalachians, with the mountainous parts of Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee apparently hard hit.  The election-year political posturing and blaming has, regrettably, commenced, with Twitchy's Sam J. calling the acting president "a smug, puffy, incompetent cow," and Salena Zito suggesting there's selective indignation among the coastal cosmopolitans about difficulties confronting "marginalized" populations.

The people have been cut off from the world more than they usually are. Cell service, which has always been well below national averages, is almost nonexistent, and entire communities have been physically cut off because of downed bridges and washed-out roadways. Power is out, access to water and food supply is also cut off, and entire blocks of homes and business districts are now memories.

The images of cars, homes, and bridges being swept away, along with people desperate for water, food, and shelter, have been hard to consume. We are looking at our fellow citizens, our neighbors, and our families, and not understanding where the help is. We also don’t understand where the national news has been, as the story of Helene has earned scant coverage from NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC. Only Fox, which has a lot of local affiliates spread out across the region, was on top of the story.

So why is that? Well, in part, this region has no center of power among U.S. cultural curators; no Hollywood studios, only a few corporate headquarters compared to those located in places such as New York and Washington; and no big centers of wealth.

In fact, many people who work in Appalachia are in industries that are in the crosshairs of elites such as Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Kamala Harris. According to the Appalachian Regional Commission, the regional planning arm of the federal government, the region’s top industries are natural gas extraction, mining, manufacturing, and textiles, all of which have been disfavored by various liberal policies.

And Hollywood's Militantly Normal James Woods posted a photo that sums up his discontent.

This image embodies the Biden/Harris administration in all its abject failure. A sleeping sand slug and a cackling drunk.

All while America sinks into the abyss. pic.twitter.com/34uX30Iv21

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 30, 2024

I'll get into the weeds of whether a strong named hurricane arriving late in September with a name starting with H is anomalous or not some other time.  With all of October to run in the northern hemisphere hurricane season, there are late-summer predictions pending review.

HERE COMES THE WEEKEND. LET'S OWN THE LIBS.

It's always refreshing when the campus cut-ups send up the Excessively Earnest types.  "Students list ‘Apache attack helicopter’ as gender on ‘engineering culture’ survey, angering scholars."  I suppose, for arbitrary values of scholar.

Titled “Attack Helicopters and White Supremacy: Interesting Malicious Responses to an Online Questionnaire about Transgender Undergraduate Engineering and Computer Science Student Experiences,” the paper reported on “individuals exercising discursive power in their language to target researchers and tamper with data.”

The authors wrote that the “backlash” to the project “reflects characteristics of contemporary far-right or fascist political movements in the U.S., such as the synthesis of antisemitism with anti-Black and anti-feminist rhetorics.”

About 25 percent of the “malicious responses” provided some airplane-related response to gender, including several who specifically identified as an “Apache helicopter.”

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. "The scholars had sent the questionnaire link to over 3,000 email addresses associated with 'department chairs, program administrators, and faculty at accredited engineering bachelor’s degree-granting institutions,' who could then forward the survey to undergrads."

Look, just because it's so easy to construct and distribute surveys doesn't mean you should, and a case study that infers all sorts of things about the mental state of students whose inboxes probably get a lot of this sort of clutter isn't valid research under any reasonable standard of scholarship, but who said that minimal publishable units had to meet reasonable standards of scholarship these days?  It's not clear that the bulletin in question is peer reviewed as I understand the term to mean.

GONE.

A few years ago, I made what might be my final visit to Conneaut Lake Park in northwestern Pennsylvania.

The park was home to a wooden roller coaster, the Blue Streak, with an intriguing model board and a lot of air time.

And now, it's gone.

At an amusement park steeped in nostalgia, the 84-year-old Blue Streak — designated a landmark roller coaster by the American Coaster Enthusiasts — was the centerpiece.

A portion of that centerpiece, a wooden roller coaster built at Conneaut Lake Park, laid on the ground as charred ruins Wednesday morning.

The Blue Streak was in the process of being dismantled when it was damaged by fire Tuesday night, a park official said in a Facebook post Tuesday night.

Those over-winter fires have long plagued amusement parks, and yes, that is January 2022 news.  The amusement park has faced an uncertain future, roller coaster or no, for years, and when I last rode it, it was in rough shape and the park chose not to run it in the rain.  It's still another Rust Belt roller coaster loss.  The comments to the video, from an Erie television station, are critical of the park owners. 

There still is an amusement park at Conneaut Lake, although it's wise to check the website to check that the remaining amusement rides (the "classic carousel," they changed to the modern spelling, is still there, and a number of the other attractions are of the portable carnival variety) are operating.

The story also offers a caution to preservationists.  That a hobbyist group such as the American Coaster Enthusiasts honors a roller coaster as historically significant does not imply the honored item, whether a roller coaster or a building is listed with the National Register of Historic Places or as a World Heritage Site.

ANALYZE THE CONTROVERSIES

Digging through the archives: let's consider induced demand.  Let's open with Strong Towns's Daniel Herriges, "The Mobility Trap: Why We'll Never Fix Congestion by Speeding Up Traffic."  That post went online before I heard of Wuhan or coronavirus, and at the time it was Donald Trump sucking up to the highway lobby.

After a four-year reprieve, the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) has once again published its infamous Urban Mobility Report. So if you're seeing a spate of headlines about how the traffic is bad and getting worse, coupled with outrageous dollar amounts that Americans supposedly lose to congestion—like $166 billion in 2017—the source of those claims is almost certainly the TTI report.

This report is pure propaganda for the road-building industry, designed to elicit credulous takes from major news outlets that cement in the public's mind the idea that We Need to Spend More On Infrastructure™. It inflates the cost of congestion in a dozen different ways, by making unreasonable assumptions that don't reflect the real world. It has been debunked repeatedly by a range of transportation policy experts, and yet it just. Keeps. Coming. Back. And without addressing any of the substantive criticisms.

The post provides links to those substantive criticisms.  Go, read, understand.  Some of the substance follows.

Glaring problems with the report include that it assigns the value of time lost sitting in traffic based on prevailing wages, which is a nonsensical practice to economists: the alternative to losing 6 minutes on your commute is virtually never that you could have otherwise earned 6 additional minutes of pay at your job. And very rarely would anyone be willing to spend 6 minutes worth of their wages (say, on an express toll lane) to avoid that congestion—turns out this has been studiedand people will pay, on average, more like $3 an hour, or well under minimum wage.

Another error: the study defines “delay” (congestion incurring a cost) as any time vehicles are moving less than free-flow speed. But on some roads, the free-flow speed is actually greater than the legal speed limit. Drivers simply obeying the law are counted by the TTI as evidence of congestion.

The glaring errors in the report go uncorrected because correcting them would defeat the report’s purpose, which is to make congestion look bad and always worsening. Because others have done such a thorough job deconstructing the report's definitions and assumptions, though, I'm going to attack it from a more root philosophical angle that helps explain why this report is asking and answering the wrong questions.

Yes, and Burma Shave had the right idea about what commuters would do with six additional minutes, years ago, plus it's difficult to attribute "delay" on a road moving at slower than the speed limit without considering how much slower, if at all, travel would be on other roads available for that trip.

STUCK ON THE WAY UP.

Every so often, something goes wrong at an amusement park, even at Blackpool's Pleasure Beach.  "Adrenaline junkies were left stranded at the highest point of the 213ft Big One this afternoon. They had been on the notorious - and agonising - stretch of track travelling up to the top of the rollercoaster when it suddenly stopped."

Sometimes, all you can do is keep calm and mind the gap, and don't look down.

The British are somewhat less obsessive about safeguarding their roller coasters than we are in the States.  Years ago, I was at Alton Towers near Manchester, when the afternoon rains came.  (It's the west side of the British Isles, and it rains every afternoon.)  The coaster kept running.  A lightning storm came in.  The power went out.  A train was on the lift hill when the power went out.  Where it stayed.  Until the rain stopped and the power came back on.  The riders stuck up there appeared to take it all in stride.  I viewed the rains as an opportunity to grab a snack and visit the arcade.

The Big One is a good roller coaster to enjoy, although make sure you take in the continuous-track racing coaster while you're there.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE SUMMER?

Northern Star columnist Jack Baudoin is.

What is so wonderful about amusement parks is that you get to experience this saga of excitement again and again over the course of the day with every new ride. You either love roller coasters or you hate them, and if you are in the latter there might seem little reason to go to an amusement park. Besides that wonderful stomach dropping feeling, there are so many other ways to have fun at these locations.

One can play a game to try and win a giant stuffed animal, or take in a show that is guaranteed to make you chuckle or stomp your feet, or simply appreciate the world that you were transported into the second you walked through those front gates.

Amusement parks are a great way for thrill seekers and non-thrill seekers alike to spend a day. Whether getting the adrenaline rush of going on a roller coaster or taking it slower and partaking in one of the other activities, there is something that everyone can find fun at these locations. Once more vaccines are distributed and these places begin to open back up, I will be first in line to feel my stomach drop.

Indeed.

I'm getting too old for the high-performance coasters.  Fortunately, there are some vintage junior coasters not far from here.

A LITTLE BIT OF SUMMER TRADITION.

Salena Zito pays a visit to the Pittsburgh Pirates' minor league park in Altoona, where the taxi squad for the major league club, rather than the Altoona Curve team, stays prepared.  Yes, there's a lot of railroad lore in Altoona.  "Peoples Natural Gas Field, purposely designed to resemble a roundhouse, a homage to this region's railroad past, is the home of the Altoona Curve team, itself a homage to the nearby railroad engineering marvel Horseshoe Curve."

It's possible for the locals to sneak a peek over the fences, or look on from a distance, and without having to buy a membership on a rooftop.

That, though, is not the best news in the column.  This is.  "As the scent of fresh-cut grass delicately fills the air, so do the aromas of hot dogs and hamburgers coming from the grill on the lower deck. Just past right field, there is an amusement park where you can hear the slow clink, clink, clink of the roller coaster as the carriage climbs its ancient wood scaffoldings. The kitschy music found at any ballpark in America echoes throughout."

That's right, dear reader, Lakemont Park is open for business, and the world's oldest roller coaster, Leap the Dips, is operating on a restricted, socially distanced schedule.

SUMMER JUST GOT A LITTLE LESS ENTERTAINING.

I'm getting a little too old for extreme roller coasters, but when the opportunity to sample a new roller coaster in the style of the traditional amusement park, count me in.

In the land of four seasons, a summer-only enterprise, such as an amusement park or a drive-in movie theater, leads a perilous existence, particularly as urban development gets closer.  Thus, when the Apex Park chain of amusement parks closes Fantasy Island, near Niagara Falls, and Indiana Beach, just north of Lafayette, it's a sad day at Cold Spring Shops.

Apex Parks Group was formed in 2014. The company has acquired numerous family entertainment centers and waterparks. No reason was given for the sale of the rides. All the steel coasters are available for sale. Of the four wooden coasters (all by the former Custom Coasters International, Inc.), only Silver Comet (1999) is listed. The words “Sell if possible” were noted on the list supplied to possible buyers. The three other wooden coasters at Indiana Beach would have challenges if a move was attempted. Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain (2002) is built into a themed structure. Hoosier Hurricane (1994) and Cornball Express (2001) have some shared structure.

Silver Comet pays tribute to Crystal Beach's Comet; I never made the time to check it out.  When they call Hoosier Hurricane and Cornball Express custom coasters, they're not kidding.  The structure of at least one of them runs over water, that will make adapting it to a new site more challenging.

FREEDOM FESTIVAL WEEK JUST ISN'T THE SAME.

Along the border areas of the Great Lakes, Canada Day on the first and Independence Day on the fourth are good reasons to have a week-long party.  Unfortunately, thirty years ago was the last such week-long party at the Crystal Beach Amusement Park.  "It was a simpler era when, during the summer, the Peace Bridge border checkpoints were manned mostly by schoolteachers on summer break who might or might not ask you where you live before sending you on your way."

Follow the link for some home movies made into streaming videos of The Way It Was.

Have a Minute Maid Orange [pop] with Erin Moran and a ride on the Comet, or take a virtual ride on the Cyclone.

If it's raining, play a few bingo cards or roll some skee-ball.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE SUMMER?

Crystal Beach Amusement Park, in Ontario, has gone the way of many an amusement park, particularly one sitting on prime lakefront property.

Years ago, though, the new Canadian domestic content laws required that commercials for food sold in Canada had to be produced in Canada.

In Michigan, we'd call it orange "pop," but, whatever. Lots of mid-1980s pop-culture in that commercial.

YOU CAN'T BEAT THE BEACH.

That's a mid-1980s slogan for the late, lamented Crystal Beach Amusement Park, which, like many amusement parks in tourist country, was sitting on land more valuable as condominiums or outlet malls than for a summer of thrills, arcades, and sugary treats.

Score one for Green Bay, in which a public-private partnership involving the Green Bay Packers might mean the restoration of a beach at Bay Beach Amusement Park, to go with the Zippin' Pippin' roller coaster, which might be there (in part, unless you believe in butterflies) because a visiting tourist made a suggestion 35 years ago.

It appears as though the beach, once it's restored, will be part of the city park, and the amusement park has no admission fee, with attractions on a pay-as-you ride basis.

Beachfront roller coasters on the Great Lakes.  Life is good.

SUMMER DIVERSIONS.

I had originally planned to go to Boston to do additional field work for my model railroad, which is based on the Gloucester Branch to Rockport on Cape Ann.

Then Amtrak announced the one remaining dome car, a former Great Northern dome lounge, would be making a few trips on the Downeaster during August.  I promptly booked a round trip to Old Orchard Beach, in order to be sure to ride two of the consists that cover the route, and ensuring myself of a dome car at least in one direction.  It's not possible to do that on a Boston to Brunswick and return trip.

There will be no performance logs, this is supposed to be a recreational trip, taken on 22 August 2018.

Pictures below the jump.

ALWAYS WITH THE NARRATIVE.

For the feel-good story a few evenings ago, NBC Nightly News visited a few backyard roller coasters.

But the technocratic impulse dies hard, and sure enough, seventy-five seconds in, there's a brief clip of an unoccupied car leaving the rails and the obligatory whingeing about the absence of regulation.  As if daddy or grandpa are going to leave their kids or grandkids at risk of injury to save a few bucks.

The youngsters featured in the clip have the right idea.  Relatively little waiting for the roller coaster, and none of the annoying commercials the big amusement parks have taken to playing to placate the herds queuing for their ride.

AGAINST THE ODDS.

It's difficult for the owners of a lakefront amusement park to resist the offers of developers who would like to sell upscale waterfront dachas or condominiums.  Call the roll:  Waukesha Beach, Muskego Beach, Crystal Beach, Nantasket Beach, Revere Beach, complete the list as an exercise.

Conneaut Lake Park, which we visited (fearfully for its future) last year, reopened, to the delight of day-trippers.

The park, which is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, appears to be gaining traction with its $10 ride pass. Several visitors said they decided to visit after reading about this year’s lower price on the Internet.

The Internet helped deliver Jodie Terlisner and her two sons, ages 8 and 10, to the park Friday afternoon. Ms. Terlisner, who lives in Atlanta, was staying with her family near Chautauqua Institution when they decided to visit the park.

The nonexistent lines at Conneaut Lake Park — the Blue Streak was running less than half full Friday — are both part of the park’s appeal and one of its biggest challenges.

Yes, there still is a Chautaqua Institution, just off the relatively new Southern Tier Expressway (Interstate 87) that soars across the southern end of Lake Chautaqua.  But the legal tangles confronting Conneaut Lake Park remain.

At a hearing Tuesday simulcast in U.S. District Court in both Erie and Pittsburgh, Chief Judge Jeffrey Deller of U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Western Pennsylvania said Trustees of Conneaut Lake Park has 14 days to file a revised, more detailed disclosure statement with the court on how the amusement park will reorganize its debts. Deller will set a hearing on the revised disclosure statement approximately one or two weeks after the filing.

Attorneys for the amusement park's creditors, meanwhile, object to the disclosure statement and have called for a liquidation of the park's assets to satisfy its outstanding debt.

Trustees is the nonprofit corporation that oversees operations of the park, which is a public trust. Trustees filed for federal bankruptcy protection in December 2014 to reorganize the amusement park's debts, which total approximately $3.9 million. The park's debts include overdue real estate taxes, interest and penalties that now totals more than $1 million.

"I see no reason why a resolution can't be had in this case," Deller told all sides at the conclusion of the hearing.

Trustees' proposed reorganization plan would use $611,000 in insurance proceeds from a 2013 fire that destroyed the Beach Club night club and the sale of some waterfront property to satisfy the outstanding real estate tax debt and emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The waterfront property in question is north of the midway and the Conneaut Lake hotel. Whether the owners of waterfront dachas will want even a small amusement park to their south remains to be seen.

Thus, for Throwback Thursday, a visit to Conneaut Lake Park in July, 1984, before the ballroom and Beach club burned.

Here's where I picked up the variant spelling of carroussel.  Yes, I procured tickets.  At the time, there was still the remnants of a brass ring dispenser, something that's only in operation at Knoebels Grove any more.

A few riders are procuring tickets.  The games of skill are in operation behind, down toward the lake.

Hell Hole is one theme for the Rotor, a rubber-lined spinning drum for which the thrill is the sudden dropping of the floor once there's sufficient centrifugal force.  These attractions also provide a gallery for the less-daring members of a party to observe the daring ones spin around.

The train, in better days.  It's not the generic Chance C. P. Huntington locomotive.  Slightly non-standard crossbuck.  And it looks like I only get to Conneaut Lake Park on rainy days.

One of the unique roller coasters at Conneaut Lake Park was a wood-framed Wild Mouse.  There were a few of those permanent installations once, but as far as I know they're all gone.

On board, it's the canonical Wild Mouse snap-hairpin-turns topside and a few big drops on the way back to the station.  The Wild Mouse tradition lives on, but the latest trick, as at Waldameer Park nearby, is revolving cars.

The Blue Streak roller coaster, which is highly regarded even in a world of linear induction motors and 400 foot vertical drops, once had a model board in the station showing the progress of the train.

On board, there are three air-time hills on the way out, and good low-profile coaster action on the way back.

It's the fate of the Blue Streak that keeps coaster enthusiasts involved in attempts to keep Conneaut Lake Park operating.  That it's a human-sized amusement park, where riders are not subjected to television commercials while they're waiting in line (Six Flags accommodate long lines by providing pop stands at the 30 minute point) is also reason to hope for a resolution of the bankruptcy that doesn't involve the auctioneer.

THE BLUE STREAK IS STILL RUNNING!

Last week's tribute to White Swan Park included Conneaut Lake Park in the list of late, lamented amusement parks.

Incorrectly.  The park reopened Memorial Day weekend in trusteeship.

This will be the new Trustees of Conneaut Lake Park’s first full season of operating the amusement park. Three of the Trustees’ seven-member volunteer board also are board members of the Economic Progress Alliance of Crawford County, the county’s lead economic development agency, of which [Mark] Turner also is executive director.

The new group of Trustees was put in place by Crawford County Court of Common Pleas in June 2014 after the previous volunteer group resigned. The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General had filed a petition in county court seeking to oust the old board citing the previous board’s lack of fiduciary responsibility in protecting the park’s assets which are held as a public trust.

The Blue Streak and classic carroussel are operating, as is the Traver Tumble Bug, and the Tilt-A-Whirl (that design is antique too, no?) has fresh paint.

THE USUAL STORY.

A few years ago, I suggested that a Galaxi roller coaster at Old Orchard Beach once was at Pittsburgh's White Swan Park.  (A Pinterest user picked up the photo under those premises.)

When White Swan Park gave way for improved road access to a new Pittsburgh air terminal, the Galaxi there went to Joyland Amusement Park in Lubbock, Texas.

White Swan Park itself is a fitting subject for a #ThrowbackThursday.  Here's a look around the grounds in August of 1986.  (For a wallow in the past, feel free to visit the dearly departed Melrose Park Kiddieland, Hoffman's Playland and Conneaut Lake Park.  Be cheerful, though, that Waldameer Park, Knoebel's Grove, and Little A-Merrick-A are still entertaining children of all ages.)

The tariff.

Incentives matter.

Slide rules aren't the exclusive province of rocket scientists.

Ride the Mad Mouse, not quite the same thing as a Wild Mouse.

The view of the Mad Mouse from the Galaxi.

Just before the Galaxi makes the plunge.

The view of the arcade, from the Ferris wheel (genuine Jacksonville Iron, by the way.)

Where, if the carroussel or the roller coasters were too thrilling, for a quarter you could ride Muffin.  I hope some arcade bought her.

THE YEAR'S NEW ROLLER COASTERS.

We saw, earlier this year, that Hoffman's Playland of Colonie, New York succumbs to the Opportunity Cost Principle, while Conneaut Lake Park in northwestern Pennsylvania is subject to a sheriff's sale, now scheduled for February.

There are, however, still some amazing rides in Pennsylvania.  We start at Waldameer Park, on the west side of Erie, Pennsylvania.  Erie has long been a first night stop on Cold Spring Shops road trips to the east, which generally begin with a morning departure, a prayer to the Patron Saint of Fluid Tollways, and some fast running to get into Erie before the amusement park closes.  The running is faster now that Indiana and Ohio allow legal 70 mph driving.

A check of the archives, though, shows that Waldameer has not been the subject of a post.  There's opportunity to correct this oversight. and recognize the resurgence of Waldameer as a place for the roller coasters.

For years Waldameer operated as a picnic grove, with attractions primarily intended for the younger set.  The Comet roller coaster started running sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s.

The Comet has cousins operating close to Cold Spring Shops headquarters.  Here's Meteor at Little A-Merrick-A near Waterloo, Wisconsin, which was moved from a private picnic park southwest of Chicago.

And here's the story of Little Dipper, moved to Six Flags Great America, from the late, lamented Melrose Park Kiddieland.

And yes, I did get one last ride on Little Dipper, and the free Pepsi, before Kiddieland closed.

At Waldameer, on the other hand, everything old is new again.

There used to be a gully coaster called Ravine Flyer at Waldameer.  There's again a gully coaster, in the same place, with a different layout, called Ravine Flyer II.  I'm more careful about bringing cameras onto roller coasters than I once was, thus you'll have to take my word for it that it doesn't let up.

That first drop leads into a gully and thence to a right hand turn.  I wonder if this Bob & Tom is the same drive-time duo that used to push the envelope in Indianapolis.

But that's not the only new coaster at Waldameer.  Steel Dragon shows the track configuration of a Galaxi with a few Wild Mouse-like hairpin turns.  But the four-passenger cars pivot!

And on a pleasant Wednesday evening, July 30, there are clear skies and a waxing crescent moon, also shining on the riders at Cedar Point to the west.

The next week brings us to Knoebels Grove.  We've been following progress on the Flying Turns for years.  It's now open, and queues form before the attractions open.  Knoebels, if you have never been there, is a large picnic grove with a collection of attractions of various kinds.  Free parking, too, and visitors can buy unlimited riding, or tickets to suit their fancy.

I'm told that this Flying Turns is neither as tall or as long as the originals at Euclid Beach or Riverview, and I didn't see any blue grease on the tracks, a feature someone who rode the Euclid Turns recalled.  Whatever the reason, this Turns runs short trains with a weight limit on each car.

Used to be, I'd buy the unlimited ride pass and enjoy the park all day.  This time, I purchased a bundle of tickets and rode selectively.  That included the Turns.

On this Friday, August 8, though, that did not include the Yellow Submarine.

It's there, though, along with numerous other attractions to please any constitution, and crafts, and food.  And summer is coming.

THE CYCLONE INFERNO.

Years ago, the American Coaster Enthusiasts' Roller Coaster ran a short story involving several young coaster enthusiasts, lost on the back roads somewhere near the Ohio - Pennsylvania border, who heard the sound of a distant roller coaster that, upon investigation, had an amazing first drop and some subsequent features to deliver sinful souls to Satan.  It wasn't their time, which is why their story was able to be told.

Now comes the Euthanasia Coaster.

Here’s how the world’s oddest suicide method would work: First the rider would face a long, slow climb up to more than 500 meters, giving him or her a few minutes to think back on life and contemplate the decision. At the top, there would be time to say a prayer or blow a kiss to relatives (or bail) before pressing the “Fall” button and plummeting into the long steep plunge followed by the first 360-degree loop. That’s where most riders would die. According to [inventor Julijonas] Urbonas, traveling at 100 meters per second, the person would experience a G-force-induced loss of consciousness due to cerebral hypoxia (lack of oxygen reaching the brain), which often causes a sense of euphoria. Just in case that first one didn’t do it, six more consecutive loops would finish the job.

The concept, not surprisingly, does not appeal to more mainstream death-with-dignity advocates.

No surprise the idea’s attracted no commercial interest, though perhaps it will end up being featured in some futuristic, scary movie. The debate around the right to die is already contentious enough without trying to turn it into a show.

Just modify the plot slightly, move the loops underground, and the screenplay has already been written.

OPPORTUNITY COSTS.

Word reached Cold Spring Shops, early in the summer, about the planned closing of Hoffman's Playland in Colonie, New York.  I accordingly worked it into the list of stops to make enroute Rockland for the Lobster Festival.

These trains with trucks that look out of place under anything other than an F unit are becoming fewer and further between.

It's about 7 pm on a Thursday evening (July 31) and there are respectable crowds on the midway.  The junior roller coaster in the background apparently provided coaster enthusiasts with sufficient grounds to visit the park.

With the closing of the country's Kiddielands, the summer birthday party traffic, alas, is more likely to be diverted to the likes of Chuck-E-Cheese.  Jeeze.

And there's a good stock of vintage Jacksonville Iron to be sold.  Here's a Little Eli, there is also a Big Eli and a Scrambler on the grounds.

The reason for the park's closing is familiar: the owners want to retire, and the land is more valuable in a year-round use.

The Hoffmans, who met at the playland, said last year that they wanted to retire and planned to close the amusement park that has been part of many area residents' childhoods and parenting memories. Petitions and a Facebook page called for saving the playland, which first opened in 1952. Efforts were made to find a buyer, but the Hoffmans wanted someone to move the equipment elsewhere so they could develop the valuable land on Route 9 where the playland sits.

The area is booming with retail and residential development including the $50 million Village of New Loudon next door that includes a mix of residences and retail outlets. That land is where David Hoffman's uncles once ran businesses including a driving range, a miniature golf course and a snack stand.

The golf facilities are long gone, and the stores and eateries appeared to be doing a good business the evening I was there.  The article suggests a buyer for the attractions in toto might be in negotiations; the planned auction of the equipment piecemeal has been postponed.

Today is the last day of operation at Hoffman's, and it is going to be going out busy, the same way the Melrose Park Kiddieland did five years ago.

Although northwestern Pennsylvania isn't experiencing the same kind of commercial activity as the Capital Region, Conneaut Lake Park also face the problem of being unable to cover their opportunity costs.

Mark Turner, the [Economic Progress Alliance of Crawford County] executive director, did not respond to several requests for comment. He has said park trustees will consider filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to stop the sheriff’s sale and freeze the park’s assets, according to The Associated Press. The redevelopment agency could then proceed with plans to renovate the park, transforming it from a summer amusement park and lakeside resort to a cultural destination that can earn revenue year-round.

“We have to convert the park from a 10-week business model to a 12-month business model, or we will not achieve self-sufficiency,” Mr. Turner said in June.

Developers would like to build a new lakeside performing arts center and outdoor amphitheater, and possibly condominiums, and would improve the hotel and amusement park already in place.

Condominiums and roller coasters don't mix ... let us call the roll of Nantasket Beach or Crystal Beach or Muskego Beach.  But the roller coaster at risk is a classic.

The Blue Streak celebrated its 75th birthday last year.

Immediately next to it is an even older, classic, carroussel (I'm using the spelling the park used to use.)

On this rainy Monday, August 11, there are few riders on the grounds.  The kiddieland section is in operation, as much of the crowd is the pre-school set.

That's a Junior Tumble Bug, and a number of the other junior rides are similarly classic.

The Little Dipper was available as training, for patrons not yet tall enough to ride the Blue Streak.

But many of the adult rides are property of concessionaires who, concerned about the prospect of a sheriff's sale, have been removing their rides, or stripping them for parts.

The other old rides still operating are the 1925 Tumble Bug, 1937 Blue Streak wooden out-and-back roller coaster and 1949 Tilt-A-Whirl. The coaster was not operating the day I visited, and I learned it often is shut down. There hasn't been a Ferris wheel on the grounds for several years.

The Tumble Bug is one of only two full-sized versions still operating in the U.S.; the other is at Kennywood near Pittsburgh. Chippewa Lake Park also had a Tumble Bug, and in my archives is a photo of Vaca sitting in one of its cars when we explored that park.

The Tumble Bug underwent a test before the park opened.

Properly, that's a Traver Tumble Bug as in the Traver Engineering that gave the world the Crystal Beach Cyclone and the Revere Beach Lightning.  But the water-park behind looks derelict.  This article provided the status of several resort attractions beyond the midway.

Next to the Tumble Bug, the Musik Express is partially dismantled (or never fully assembled?)

The base of the Round-Up, and the rusty water tower behind, lend a post-apocalyptic air not moderated by the overcast and a threat of rain.

And the train, similar to the one at Hoffman's, hasn't turned a wheel in some time.  The locomotive might have surrendered its driving wheel to keep some other amusement park train running.

Despite local boosters hope for a reprieve, the sheriff's sale is set for November.