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Off with the trims! Woodencoaster.com :)

Update: March 4 2002: Fire at Whalom Amusement Park destroys historic ballroom

A fire at Whalom Park in New England claimed the park's historic ballroom and almost took out the Flyer Comet along with it. Arsonists are belived to have started the blaze which took down this 70 year old landmark. In an email sent out by Allyson Bowen of Save Whalom Park this afternoon, she says that this does not mean the end of Whalom's fight for survival:

We are not going to give up our efforts to save the Park because we lost the ballroom. There are 35 acres and 110 years of memories worth fighting for. Hopefully the loss of part of the Park will push people to act before we lose the rest of Whalom to the same fate – literally or figuratively.

So the Save Whalom Park fight is still going strong. Obviously the arsonists destroyed a building but not the spirit of the park surrounding it. I remember how upset people were after the Idora sisters were torn down in Ohio and wished they would have acted sooner. New England looks to be the place for coaster preservation right now. The Lincoln Comet might have a chance to live, we need to act now. Help Allyson out and save 110 years of laughs, screams, and smiles from being lost to condos.

Update: March 3 2002: Wooden coasters under construction, state of woodencoaster.com, another forgotton coaster

Woodencoaster.com news: I should be on my new host in a week or so. In case anyone is wondering, I did save the forums from my old host and they will be up shortly :)

Updates on wooden coasters under construction:

My personal comments: First, with #1, how does a wooden coaster cost $9,000,000? I don't intend to go to Sweden to ask, but they must be relocating many rides/buildings or doing something different to make this thing cost about 4 times that of a CCI or maybe Intamin gave them a quote for one of their V2 coasters ;). with #2, I can't wait to see how Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain turns out. There are more pics of this on CCI's site. This will have many good drops, great laterals, some real healchoppers, and will restrain you with just a seatbelt. #3 is a coaster that will really help get Cliff's on the map since their Galaxy really doesn't do it. CCI's site has some diagrams of the layout. Screamscape also has some news and is covering the unnamed beast. And finally, coaster # 4 has me wondering hat these guys are thinking when they hire RCCA. Roller Coaster Corporation of America should keep America out of being associated with their shoddy work. I guess I am a little bias, but just look at their record of Rattler and the other canyon coaster in Spain (I think) and the many complaints with Son of Beast makes you wonder why Warner Bros. Movie World didn't choose CCI or GCI but they made the choice, hopefully it'll turn out as a great coaster.

Idora Wildcat Model: Now available at CMG Models , this model is an accurate model of the Wildcat built using the coaster's blueprints. Let's hope some park want's to reincarcinate this classic!

This week's forgotton coaster:

Conneaut Lake Park is literally in the middle of nowhere. See my trip report or The Trip Report for info on this cool little park. First drop of the coaster is very steep with headchoppers offered by the pine trees next door and the turn around offers a fast whiplash turn. Here is the ride in full. You board your seat. You then enter and S shaped tunnel (complete with gum on the walls) and at the other end of the S tunnel you make a little dip and hit the lift. There are two signs sticking off the handrail (handrail only on right side of track); one says "Do not stand up" and the other says "Hold on". You then drop down the very steep first drop (with the headchoppers) and crest three high, steep camelback hills before enterering a long stretch of straight track that then banks to the right (I actually think I saw a trim brake here! If so, it wasn't on)then the whiplah turn; you complete a simple half circle turn with little banking and you curve down and to the right, then up to the left so you run directly alongside the "out" portion of the ride. You then crest a series of bunny hops (at an almost painfully slow pace) and pass over the tunnel and enter the "first brakes", a banked curve, the "second brakes" which bring you to a near halt, you then pass over a trigger thing that unlocks the lapbars and you stop in the unloading platform. The train then moves to the loading platform for the next run. There are two trains but one is always on the transfer track. Most people run for the front of the train to take advantage of the laterals or the very back seat so a seat in the second to last car is easy to get.

Update: February 26 2002: Off topic: My apologies for the downtime

Hello everyone.

First, I would like to apologize for the downtime this site has had since early Sunday morning. My host was changing around software and something happened with the software which caused my site to get transfered to the new server prematurely. They didn't know why, and still don't know why. So anyway, everything was deleted and so on. I would like to publicly thank their tech support Geoff who owns Netsighting for doing his very best. Anyway, my new host will be VenturesOnline which seems like a deal just as good but is a bit more established than my old host (who I'm not going to name because I don't want to hold a grudge). I would also like to say how quick it was to get my Geocities account set up and online. It may be a little slow but it did serve the purpose very nicely (let's try to go over the bandwith limit :) BTW, this site on Geocities is just to keep us online until we are settled on VO so please don't bookmark the Geocities address. Eventually I will probably also become a VO reseller and do my own hosting. (coaster websites will get a discount, see me later!) Anyway, that excuse of mine is still a lame one IMO. I promised you guys a system to rank your favorite coaster ten days ago and I intend to keep my promise, it will just be a few days later than I thought. So, here is the beginning of the "Forgotton" coaster series as promised in the Feb 16 update:

Forgotton Coaster of the week:

[moved to seperate page to keep main page's loading time down]

Update: February 20 2002: COMET PETITION UPDATE

The final story and official word from Little A-Merrick-A and their quest to save the Comet. Let's all give our support and help to get the shiney NAD trains rolling again!

Official story on the newly updated Comet Page

Thank you Boston Herald News for mentioning us and the Lincoln Park Comet in your February 17 edition. Story Here

Update: February 16 2002: New feature(s) coming, Park Forums, Comet update

New features coming: I am working on a system to rate your local wood coaster, it's park, leave comments, etc. You could look for this in about two weeks. A new feature that I will do every week is feature a "lost" coaster, meaning one that is rarely talked about (say the Jackrabbit at Lake Clementon or the unnoticed Intamin (steel) racer in Argentina).

Park Forums: Each major park (or cluster of parks like in Wildwood NJ) will have it's own forum at The Boards. Also,
mods are needed to keep order in the forums. If you are interested, please sign up and use the U2U messager on the forums and message user bigkirby .

Comet Update: Info on contributing to Little A-Merrick-A- to move the Lincoln Park Comet will be available next week. The park will be providing info directly to you guys on their mission. I personally can't wait :)

Until next week!

Have a nice day.

Update: February 12 2002: Refocus on the Lincoln Park Comet:

Refocusing on the Lincoln Park Comet, I would like to remind everyone that the petition is still in full swing. Also, if you would be willing to contribute (see Feb. 3 update below) please head over to the contact page and pop me an email. If you do have your own website and would like to link to the Comet Petition, the petition page has a link code you can add to your site or just link to the petition page feel free to do so. Keep on signing! And again if you would like to contribute to save the Comet, please email me and I will email you when I get the full info ready (should be on the 13th-14th of Feb).

Together we can save this coaster!

Update: February 3 2002: Whalom, Lincoln Comet, new poll, new article, new forum:

Lincoln Park Comet: A new forum is setup here for the Comet. I guess in the Petition email I was not clear about what I was asking and for that I apologize. Little-A-Merrick-A wants a ballpark figure of how many people would be interested in paying around $50 to move the Comet, and in return, you would recieve a lifetime pass for the Comet. If you would be interested in something like this, or want general info on it, please Contact. If you would (or would consider) donating $50 or so, I will put you on a periodic email list to fill you in on details. I will also have the Comet Petition page updated very soon to reflect the changes in it's preservation. Also, if you have not signed the petition, you can still do so; the more names, the better. Thanks.

Poll: There's a new poll on the boards. What is your favorite wood coaster state?

New Article: Ohio Coaster Wars

New Forum: Fantasty Rumors is all set to go!

Whalom Update: With all the rumors about Whalom's sale to a developer I emailed Allyson Bowen, head of the Save Whalom project. Here is what she had to say:

I imagine that some of you have and some of you have not seen the press on Whalom Park that came across the newswire this morning. There was coverage in the Boston Herald, Worcester Telegram, Fitchburg Sentinel and other media outlets. Unfortunately, not all of them included the whole story. Here it is. Save Whalom Park is still going strong. We are going to fight to save Whalom from being torn down for development until there is an actual deal signed AND CLOSED – with us or with someone else. I found out yesterday that the Whalom Park Amusement Company has signed a purchase and sale agreement with a developer (they are being closed-mouthed about who it is). However, this agreement does not signal doomsday for Whalom Park. A purchase and sale agreement functions more like an option for the developer. He has a certain amount of time to do due diligence on the property and can back out of the deal at any time for almost any reason. I strongly believe that there is a real possibility that the developer could pull out of this deal. He has not yet obtained permits or zoning changes from the town. Nor has he done environmental studies. Even if he does not pull out, but simply lowers his offer, we will then have a chance to make a competitive bid for the Park property. We are not going to give up on Whalom Park until the fight is really over. If we give up now, we can never save the Park. We lose the chance we still have. We are continuing with our efforts to secure additional investors, obtain financing and, of course, sell Whales. I hope you will continue to support the effort and spread the word. Thus far we have raised $19,000 from Whale sales and are working toward our goal of selling 10,000 Whales for a total of $500,000. I want to thank all of you for buying a Whale (or a dozen) and ask you to encourage your friends and colleagues to do the same. Now is the time to act. We may only have a couple months left to Save Whalom Park! Sincerely, Allyson Bowen

So there you have it. There is still a good chance for this beautiful New England park to stay on the map. Save Whalom.

Update: February 1 2002- COMET PETITION!

In an email sent to all petition signers:

Hello petition viewers. I'll get right to the big message; the Comet may very well have a second chance at life. Now, it's easy to sign a name on an online petition, but I want to know how many of you are actually willing to do something more. The trains from the Comet have already been saved. This park (Little A-Merrick-A Amusement Park) want's to move and restore the Comet, but the cost to do so is almost prohibitly expensive. They could easily build a much larger coaster for the amount ($2.4 million dollars) but want's to save history in the process. I know that many of you who have signed this petition have websites of your own. I would like you to spread the word. The petition website (woodencoaster.com/comet) will be updated as the process takes place. This will be a long and hard road, but the Comet could very well be saved. Little A-Merrick-A Amusement Park needs your help. Basically, put your money where your sig is ;) Little A-Merrick-A Amusement Park will offer free lifetime passes to the Comet (or it's mock replacement should it meet the chainsaw) for financial contributers. Also, I have another offer from Little A-Merrick-A Amusement Park. If you visited the Comet during it's ongoing time of abandonment and ripped off parts from the coaster (wheels, lapbars, headlights, breaks, etc.) they would be willing to pay a reasonable amount to have the original parts returned. Basically if you stole these, you will get rewarded for returning them (no, the will not bust you). To sum this all up, Little A-Merrick-A Amusement Park has the NAD trains from the Comet and is restoring them. Contrary to popular belif, the Comet is not available for free and must be bought in order to be moved. If you stole parts for the Comet, they want to buy them back. If you contribute to the Comet, you will get a lifetime pass for it or it's replica replacement. They are willing to listen to any ideas you might have for finding financing and although they could build a bigger coaster than the Comet for $2.4 million, they have no ruled out moving it. I will send out updates with more information, depending on the response I get now. This is real folks. The Comet rollercoaster has a chance to carry happy riders again. I want to see that happen. I will send more information once Little A-Merrick-A Amusement Park and myself see how much of a response we get from you guys. If you have any questions please head over to http://www.woodencoaster.com/contact and I will send the message to the right people. Thank you.
Kirby.

Send any questions to The Really Cool Contact Page.

Also, time is critical for Whalom. The park is on the chopping block and the axe is in the hands of a developer. Screamscape indicates that a developer has put in a bid to buy the amusement park.

On a happier note, it seems that Americana will get it's new lease on life and the owner has entered a management contract with the former owner of the Pugh carnival. [Americana Amusement Park]

The editorial of mine on Ohio Coaster Wars will be added on Sunday. Enjoy the forums, enjoy the news, and enjoy your weekend.

Update: Jan 28 2002

A new article: Trims- The decline of coasters (50s-80s)

Update on the Comet petition. I can't say everything now, but sometime this week I will have brightner news. I will send out an email to everyone on the petition. On the Forums, please vote for your favorite coaster here. Next week I will post an article of the coaster war of Ohio, featuring the comparision between Cedar Point, Geauga Lake, and (Paramount) King's Island over the years. Also, I could use a few new ideas for things to write about for my weekly article. If you have any nice ideas, please email me. Stay tuned.

Until next week.

Update: Jan 20 2002

I have finally gotton the forums up and running after a failed attempt last week. Go there now.

Here is another article I wrote, which I like to call Upstops

I have added a new (or old) trip report on Conneaut Lake from my trip there in September. Conneaut TR

Another great site that is not mentioned enough :)

Update: Jan 13 2002

The forums are completed. I have decided that this site design, single first page, no frames, no ads, and nothing messy is the perfect design for now. I will add a menu frame above the Flag sometime after the forums are completed. Also, if anyone would like to use my Save Whalom logo thing in the last update, please feel free to do so. I will have my trip reports from Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, Cedar Point, and Conneaut Lake Park ready within a week or two.

Now, the first article of a series , which I'd like to call Bigger Isn't Always Better- The story of an Ohio Park

Also, do you know this spider? He keeps showing up on Cedar Point's construction cam aimed at Wicked Twister's site. Looks like he can't get enough of the show. On a side note, Wicked Twister is going up very fast. Last week I was looking at a pile of supports where the tower is now. Great Job CP!

Last thing for this update, I'd like to start the official Woodencoaster.com list of links:

The official rating:

The Trip Report

Coasterbuzz

History

Accidents and Reports

Joyrides

Coaster Gallery

RCDB

Have a great day!

Update: Jan 6 2002

We need to save Whalom Park in MA from the auction block! We have lost too many classic coasters in the past two years to allow this to happen. I feel strongly about this and hope you will help give this classic park a second chance at life.

Site Update!

If you are a frequent visitor of this website, you know I have been having problems with it since, actually, since August. I am still working on it but I cannot give an exact date of when it will be ready.

All material is Copyright 2002 Woodencoaster.com. All rights reserved.

Gemini picture is Copyright 1995-2002 Joe Schwartz, All right reserved. Image used with his permission and our thanks.