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Fantastic old coaster footage/pics

That's the whole layout of the triple racer. It really was just a figure of 8 design and very short.

However if you look closely you can see the whole thing was mobius. The far right hand lift hill travels over the drops of the other two.

The right hand track becomes the left hand track while the other two shuffle over one to the right. Meaning all 3 tracks were essentially one much larger circuit.
 
roomraider said:
That's the whole layout of the triple racer. It really was just a figure of 8 design and very short.

However if you look closely you can see the whole thing was mobius. The far right hand lift hill travels over the drops of the other two.

The right hand track becomes the left hand track while the other two shuffle over one to the right. Meaning all 3 tracks were essentially one much larger circuit.
Click to expand...
Imagine having to ride all three only to get one cred.
 
Just spotted this posted to the Defunct Wooden Roller Coaster Archive FB group - amazingly high-quality POVs of Colossus and Revolution.



Background on the "lost" documentary feature:

From 1969 to 1984, Shelton Productions created amusement park films for Chevrolet that ran exclusively at various Six Flags amusement parks. Although the film format was standard 4-perf 35mm anamorphic film with a 4-track magnetic soundtrack, it was branded as “Cinema 110”. The films were shown in a facility referred to as “The Chevy Show Theater” or “The Cinesphere Chevy Show Theater”. This dome-shaped building projected these films using very short throw lenses onto an almost-too-large-for-the-room curved screen that filled the viewer’s vision, making it so the image filled the viewer’s peripheral vision. The intention was to make the viewer feel like they were in the middle of the action, and for those of us who experienced it, the effect worked.
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Some colourised footage of the Virginia Reel at Blackpool for those interested (as @rob666 brought it up in the 20 years losses topic):

There's one shot where the cars are so close together - definitely no real controls back then, just solid guess work :D

The most interesting thing about finding that video, is these next two videos on the "You may also like":

I didn't realise Arrow were looking at their own version of the Viginia Reel:

It's interesting for two reasons. Firstly, it would have pre-dated the current spinning coasters by a decade or something. Secondly, it shows the love within Arrow for old coaster concepts. Steeplechase at Blackpool is based off a very old horse racing coaster type. It's great to see that they did actually seem to be looking backwards for "new" concepts :)

There's another video though of the Arrow Pipeline Prototype. I don't think I've ever seen this. It looks like the worst idea ever, but almost graceful. Like a Flamingo with one foot stuck in the mud...

For those who have never seen the original Steeplechase rides:
 
And now that's led down a rabbit hole :D

Here's some great footage of Coney Island in its heyday. Including footage of the Flying Turns, which I've never seen!

It gets going about 5 minutes in. There's this weird gyroscope ride thing at one point, no idea what was going on there. And a very early version of a Superbowl flat ride briefly at one point. Some great stuff dotted through the film.

Also, footage of the parachute ride, the tower is still there isn't it? Looks terrifying!
 
I'm always eternally grateful that Wardley and co. went to check out the Pipeline coaster prototype before buying one.
The idea of what would have happened if that HAD been SW1 or whatever is nightmarish.
 
Will said:
I'm always eternally grateful that Wardley and co. went to check out the Pipeline coaster prototype before buying one.
The idea of what would have happened if that HAD been SW1 or whatever is nightmarish.
Click to expand...

If they'd have received that order, it may have been the thing that saved Arrow! Oh, I see what you mean about nightmarish now ;)

nadroJ said:
^Was going to say @furie, I'm surprised you've never heard of it as this was the original idea for SW1!
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I know all about the Arrow Pipeline coaster development (and the whole Arrow and Schwartzkopf Secret Weapons). I just don't remember ever having seen the video of the prototype testing :)
 
Here's a another footage of David Pickstone's Wild Mouse, this time in 1994, with Midweek documentary named "The First Drop"
Here's behind the scenes footage of RCGB members, David Pickstone, and others rebuilding his Wild Mouse coaster at Brean Sands:

Here's a final product:
but sadly in 1997, David Pickstone was forced to removed this Schiff Wild Mouse coaster, making this the last Schiff wild mouse coaster to be removed.
 
The Guardian website has some aerial shots of old seaside towns, which means nice photos of BPB and Dreamland back in their heyday.

www.theguardian.com

England’s seaside heritage from the air – in pictures

Aerial photographs of England’s best-loved seaside resorts, taken between the 1920s and the 1950s when coastal destinations were nearing the peak of their popularity, tell the story of how they developed. Initially places where the wealthy few bathed in the sea to improve their health, they...
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
The things that always amaze me about these old shots are the number of side friction/figure 8 coasters there used to be littered everywhere. Then piers actually being used for docking boats - something I don't think we actually associate with piers any more.

It was great to see the Switchback in Blackpool before it was replaced with Big Dipper.

The shot of the Winter Gardens was interesting too, with the Giant Wheel. I don't know how many people are aware that there used to be coaster in that area too:
LesMontagnesRusses-1904.jpg


This leads into the shot of Dreamland. I could see three tracked rides in the photo. The Scenic, obviously, but also two others I didn't know anything about. I assume one was "Racing Coaster", and the other "Whirlwind Racer" - an early powered coaster. Footage of it at the end of this newsreel:

Dreamland Filmreel

Racing Coaster looks similar to an early coaster that was at Southport called The Caterpillar. They seem to be like a low-thrill Scenic railway. If you can imagine such a thing :)
 
There's something about those olde-pictures of Blackpool Pleasure Beach when all the coasters were actually on the beach that gets me every time (there's been a few before in this thread) - just bonkers (in a brilliant way).

Saw an interesting post on reddit the other day with some construction / early opening pics of Magic Mountain (so not super-olde) but worth a looksee IMHO.

9n444fpw85w61.jpg

etc - more on the reddit post

https://www.reddit.com/r/rollercoasters/comments/n195lw
 
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It’s always crazy to see now-densely grown parts of parks as barren hillsides - very cool shot of Log Jammer! Similar moment in the Revolution POV I posted earlier - such a different sight line than present day.
 
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