A Techie from the "good old days"

Tech Services 1 · Post by **Tech Services 1** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 4:57 pm

Hello everyone,
"dwolo" pointed me to this website during our correspondence about the upcoming Show Ops reunion.
I've been enjoying this site for a few weeks now, and the Forums are great! I felt I had to join up, because there's a lot I can add to a great many of the topics.
Since no one from the Technical Services Department seems to be here yet, I decided to claim the name Tech Services 1, which was the call sign of the lead technician carrying a two-way radio in the park.

A really cool aspect of Tech Services was we had access to almost every square inch of the park, and we knew people from all departments.
One of the hobbies shared by a few of us techies was photography, and between us we took an enormous amount of pictures around the park. I personally have hundreds of prints and slides. I've been busily scanning everything related to the Shows for dwolo's reunion, and I'm glad to have a place to share some of the non-Shows pictures.

Feel free to ask me questions; I'll try to answer as best as my shriveling brain will allow! I hope some of my friends from the old days will join up and help my memory, and share some of their knowledge and pictures!

Have a Great day!
PPG

JW65 · Post by **JW65** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:38 am

Hey Tech 1, Welcome!

I had an entry in another thread that I bet you'd have an answer for. I was wondering if I could see some pictures of the Gurnee park in the winter. I think it would be amazing to see what some of the rides looked like covered in snow after a blizzard/snow storm. Do you have any of these pictures to post or share some of your experiences about what it is like to work the park during the "off" season?

I'd appreciate knowing!

Jeff

Tech Services 1 · Post by **Tech Services 1** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 12:18 pm

JW65 wrote:Hey Tech 1, Welcome!

I had an entry in another thread that I bet you'd have an answer for. I was wondering if I could see some pictures of the Gurnee park in the winter. I think it would be amazing to see what some of the rides looked like covered in snow after a blizzard/snow storm. Do you have any of these pictures to post or share some of your experiences about what it is like to work the park during the "off" season?

I'd appreciate knowing!

Jeff

Hey Jeff,
I saw that thread- and it was on my mental list to respond to it, because I do have many pictures of the park in the wintertime! It's just a matter of finding the time for scanning and posting them on this site.
Some of the pics are of ride construction (The Edge, White Water Rampage), theatres (Wilderness, Pictorium), and backstage areas.
There's a lot in my collection, so it'll take a while to get through it.

I'll keep posting as long as anyone's interested!

PPG

cwsr · Post by **cwsr** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 1:39 pm

Hi Tech 1,

Just wondering out of curiosity if you had any photo's of Z-Force and Rolling Thunder being built or removed, or even any of it when they were operating.

Thanks in advance, your photo's are great.

Chris

pjm8071 · Post by **pjm8071** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 3:47 pm

Hello cwsr,

I have some pics of Rolling Thunder being dismantled, and some pics of it as it sat in the employee lot. When I get home tonight it will be the first thing I work on, since I rediscovered those pics last night.

Tech Services 1 · Post by **Tech Services 1** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 9:17 pm

cwsr wrote:Hi Tech 1,

Just wondering out of curiosity if you had any photo's of Z-Force and Rolling Thunder being built or removed, or even any of it when they were operating.

Thanks in advance, your photo's are great.

Chris

Hey Chris,
Yes I have several pics of Z-Force being built, and a few of it operating, including one with a train getting stuck during trial runs, with some engineers crawling all over it trying to figure out what went wrong.

As with the other pics, I'll get them scanned and posted as soon as possible.

Rolling Thunder was after my time, as I left the park in the summer of '86. But it sounds like pjm8071 has you covered on that ride!

PPG

pjm8071 · Post by **pjm8071** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:12 pm

OK as promised. Sorry it took so long. It took forever to scan all of those pictures. Most of these pictures were from my last day as lead of the ride... It was also the last day Rolling Thunder would operate during Fright Fest. The following year before the end of the season is when they started to dismantle it. My favorite pic is on My final track walk when I had my co-worker take a picture of me in the trough. Ah well enjoy, and lets see how well this photo album works.

http://photobucket.com/albums/f65/pjm80 ... 20Thunder/

that_guy · Post by **that_guy** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 8:35 am

I've always wondered why parks put bobsled rides in when most of them are taken out, What's wrong with them (I've never been on one)...

Shockwavegirl · Post by **Shockwavegirl** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 11:06 am

If you are taller than 4ft 9.....it's not a comfortable seat is one reason. My knees were ALWAYS at my chin...and I wasn't that tall when I rode it,since I was like 12 I was probably just about 5 ft tall at the time.

SFGAmfreak4life · Post by **SFGAmfreak4life** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 8:06 pm

I was young whe I rode Rolling Thunder so I didn't have a problem with th seats. 3 years ago when I went to Cedar Point I rode Disaster Transport and I was a bit cramped. I was 5ft 4 at the time so it wasn't too bad.

redfishpaw · Post by **redfishpaw** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 7:15 am

that_guy wrote:I've always wondered why parks put bobsled rides in when most of them are taken out, What's wrong with them (I've never been on one)...

My biggest complaint with Rolling Thunder (Blunder) was that the ride time was so short. After the first year or so, I didn't think the ride was worth waiting in line for. Also, I remember the sled's wheels hitting the safety rails several times, which I didn't like either. I thought the curves should have been designed differently. RT is the only bobsled ride that I have been on. There should be better ones out there.

pjm8071 · Post by **pjm8071** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:52 am

Disaster Transport, which used to be at Cedar Point was a bobsled ride. It was a lot better, since it was enclosed, and dark inside. Wonder what ever happened to it.

jonrev · Post by **jonrev** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 3:04 pm

DT is still operating.

Shockwavegirl · Post by **Shockwavegirl** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 4:42 pm

Disaster Transport is still at CP. Was it Halloweekends when you didn't see it? Because during that it is a haunted house.