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Okay, now the Carousel Song made me want to cry because it brought back employee memories. These books made me cry alright, I'm a big sissy now!! Just seeing them brought back such wonderful memories as a little kid spending all day at the park in the late 70s and then reading through those souvenir...

Do you think the wheel and structual issues were the reason they didn't relocate it? My understanding was they tried to sell it and couldn't find a buyer. If this final wheel incident is true though I would bet that was the straw that broke the camel's back for Six Flags on this ride. Tidal Wave wa...

Great stuff man, very interesting, would have been a stitch to be there.

--Guy

RLAiello wrote:Wow... either you kept an EXTREMELY detailed diary, or you have an AMAZING capacity for memory. This is great stuff. Thanks for sharing it all!!!

It's a memory that absorbs all sorts of crud and retains it! It drives my estranged wife crazy.

--Guy

Okay Shockwave fans, I'm about to unleash a whole boatload of musings on your favorite ride because it was mine as well. My first year in Rides was '89 and while I started out on Dive/Cajun I got transferred to Shockwave pretty early in the season (May or June I think) because I started dating someo...

Rich, you have me almost in tears with the Carousel Song. I'm having many visions of running to close queues right now! Thanks so much.

--Guy

That was the idea, they would stack a bunch of towels together and place them on the track to get run over by the train, gradually they were able to bring the train to a stop with enough towels.

I had a lot of friends on Wave crew and I can't remember but I may have even done attendant training on Wave when I was Lead over at Lobster/Gig, can't remember but I remember a lot about the ride operations. On Wave if you hit the e-stop at the wrong time it was possible to hang a train so that it ...

I was assigned to Dive/Cajun my first year in rides in '89 and have a few thoughts on this. I definitely remember the plaque Brian is talking about but I think that was just the common manufacturer's plaque and didn't make any reference to Riverview on it that I remember. I remember it had the name ...

Great pics, brings back memories as '89 was my first year in rides. I may have even been running Rapids that day, depends on what month. Yes, it was Bugs Bunny Land at that point, or BBL to staff or BBHell if you were a ride op working there. BBL became a "Siberia" of sorts for ride ops wh...

There's been some talk about Power Dive so let me clear some of it up because it was the first unit I worked at in '89. I won't share what our nickname for it, coined by the immortal Jim Hartke was!! When I started at Dive in '89 it was the second year for the ride. There wasn't any sound anywhere i...

Was definitely a great addition and a fun ride from an operator standpoint given all the different position available to work at. When I was there the typical crew had at least one person in controls -- that is the main room you see when going down the final stair that has all the cameras. Occasiona...

Oh, and on access under the tower there's definitely components that are below ground there or within the tower. There's an access panel into the tower there, there's an access panel inside the cabin itself which is what I believe is commonly used to access a similar tower access door at the top of ...

I was lead at Carousel/Tower in Gurnee (the ride unit that handles both rides) in '91 and part of '92. Hopefully I can help with these but remember I was a dumb kid then. :P On storing it up I never remember it being up all winter, that is usually an in-season thing. In-season the cabin is stored in...

Looking at your operator badge Brian you look familiar, were you on West side? I was a north sider.

--Guy