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administrator
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Administrator

Joined: October/01/2003
Location: United States
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Posts: 61

Posted: December/07/2005 at 5:53pm \| IP Logged

We would like to put together a history section for the park and rides. Please forward your memories to me or post them in this section of the forum.

Example: What year was a ride put in. What you know about the ride. Or it could be a show, store, etc. Got the picture. This includes waterworld.

Thanks,
David
mailto:webmaster@AstroworldPark.com

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It has been a fun ride!

astrofreak
Supervisor

Joined: January/08/2006
Location: United States
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Posts: 109

Posted: January/31/2006 at 5:33pm \| IP Logged

Ok I know that Dungeon Drop was installed in 1997 and was about 300ft high and the highest speed I think was 55 mph. I have no pic, but it's pretty easy to draw. Let me just say you got a pretty darn good look of the park when you are that high and *excuse me* it was one hell of a trip down.

The Texas Cyclone was installed in 1976 and the lift was 90 feet high at a top speed of 60mph. VERY bumpy ride, I crack my back after every turn on the North and south ends of the coaster. Wood coaster.

Edited by astrofreak on January/31/2006 at 5:36pm

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Texas Cyclone...R.I.P.
June 12th 1976 - March 09th 2006 at 9:55am
AstroWorld...R.I.P.
1968 - 10/30/05

commorancy
Host / Hostess

Joined: March/08/2006
Location: United States
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Posts: 12

Posted: March/08/2006 at 10:11pm \| IP Logged

>The Texas Cyclone was installed in 1976 and the lift was 90 feet high at a top speed of 60mph. VERY bumpy ride, I crack my back after every turn on the North and south ends of the coaster. Wood coaster.

Actually, in 1976, the ride was actually pretty darned smooth from what I remember. It didn't start getting herky jerky until about a year or so. The turns were always a bit tight, but not that rough. The roughness started when the wood aged and buckled from the heat/moisture. That's why they had to do heavy readjustments on the tracks just before opening every year.

We also had to ride the Texas Cyclone every morning (to warm the tracks) until they decided it was safer to run it with weights than with people (sometimes both). I remember employees bringing blankets when having to ride the ride with the temperature outside at 40F (and sometimes rainy). Not a pleasant ride... especially if the ride didn't make the curve all the way and rolled backwards (yes, this happened more often than you would think). So, if it did, you had to just sit and wait for it to rock back and forth to complete stop before getting out (up to 20 minutes). I'll tell you, blankets were handy in those cases. And, trying to get out of the bars without them opening up properly was a chore.

I guess I could expound on this. After we were situated in our own ride in the area for the morning (the park, at the time, was broken into three ride operational areas), we had to finish our own safety checklist for our assigned ride. Then all rides in the area would receive a call requesting one person from the ride staff over the help 'weight' Texas Cyclone during the morning run. They also did this on the Dexter Freebish/Excalibur ride. Although, I didn't ride that one nearly as often in the morning. But still, blanket city. Excalibur, on the other hand, didn't fall backwards that I ever remember hearing.

All ride operators were required to run through a safety checklist every morning followed by riding the ride to detect any problems. We were also supposed to ride the ride every hour to check for problems. We also had to call in turnstile counts to research every hour on the hour... and believe me, the research people got peeved then they didn't receive the call (we also had to write the counts down on a clipboard which was turned in each night).

Edited by commorancy on March/08/2006 at 10:21pm

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Brian Wright

commorancy
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Joined: March/08/2006
Location: United States
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Posted: March/08/2006 at 10:28pm \| IP Logged

I also worked for the ringmaker (several years after rides). It was during that time that the original Skipper and Dolly were in the dolphin pool when it was overchlorinated and they died. The ringmaker shop, at the time, was in the red firehouse store right next to the dolphin pool (not the best place to put a silver jewelry shop... chlorine and silver don't mix.. tarnish city).

We had wondered what happened one day when the dolphin pool was empty. It wasn't until much later I had found that they hired some new pool maintenance people and they overchlorinated the water ... killed the dolphins. I don't remember those dolphins real names (it wasn't Skipper and Dolly).

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Brian Wright

ehbowen
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Newbie

Joined: July/11/2006
Location: United States
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Posts: 1

Posted: July/11/2006 at 5:16am \| IP Logged

I worked during the spring and summer of 1980, and the two biggest events of that year that I recall were the construction and opening of Thunder River and the actual removal of the Astrowheel.

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--------Eric H. Bowen
RR Conductor/Le Taxi 1980
Season Pass Brat 1976-1979

JULESJNZ
Newbie
Newbie

Joined: January/11/2008
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1

Posted: January/11/2008 at 6:28am \| IP Logged

I worked as a foreman on the Bumper Cars in the summer of 1978 and I remember being called to be the "guinea pig" for the Dexter Freebish every morning. Sometimes it was still real foggy outside and when we would be up at the top you couldn't even see the ground below you and it was kind of creepy to ride it that way.

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Julie Jones (Bullard)
Rides Dept. (1976-1978)

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