Amusement
Rollercoasters and amusement parks have been a passion of mine since I was a little one and my parents would take me to Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm (pre Ceder Point) and Magic Mountain (pre Six Flags). Since then I have visited hundreds of parks across North America.
26 Amusing Facts About Amusement Parks (Mental Floss)
A couple mistakes, can you spot them?
Today in Amusement History
Many moons ago, there was The Amusement Park Almanac, compiled by Dave Althoff and published periodically on Usenet. Anyone out there remember, or even know what Usenet is, let alone use it? For the last few years it has laid fallow with no updates and for a time, no home. That is till I came along and revived the Almanac. After getting the OK and support from Mr. Althoff it is alive again, living on DerekClayton.com/tiah. Both of us are now maintaining the list, updating it for current events and slowly filling in the events that were missed over the last few years.
But it is no longer just a list – oh no indeed! First off, it is now in a true database. Secondly, it can now be viewed in many ways – via website, Yahoo Widgets. And if you have your own website, you can easily add it to your site (see the website for details).
Amusement history is an important part of American history, and Americana in general. Hopefully this will help keep it alive.
PS, if you need a Yahoo Widget, Google Gadget, etc… developed please let me know, I have your solution.
The Amusement Industry is all aTwitter
Twitter? What is this Twitter I keep hearing about?
Twitter itself describes itself thus:
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
Wikipedia goes a little more in depth:
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. The service is free to use over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees.
If you are already Twitter, continue reading, if not you may want to check out the Twitter site first.
Although Twitter has been around a couple years, 2009 has brought a huge explosion in use. Below is a list of Twitter users involved in the amusement industry. It is hard to keep up with all of the new accounts, so this list is as complete as it can be when this article was published. If you know of any Twitter accounts not listed below that should be, please let me know.
Parks/Attractions
| adventurepark | Adventure Park USA |
| alton_towers | Alton Towers |
| CanobieLakePark | Canobie Lake Park |
| carowinds | Carowinds |
| cedarpoint | Cedar Point |
| ColumbusZoo | Columbus Zoo |
| ConeyIslandFun | Coney Island |
| TheCyclone | Coney Island Cyclone |
| Darienlake | Darian Lake |
| Dollywood | Dollywood |
| Draytonmanor | Drayton Manor |
| funtownusa | Funtown Splashtown |
| GhostlyManor | Ghostly Manor |
| WonderlandPier | Gillian’s Wonderland Pier |
| HolidayWorld | Holiday World (the first park on Twitter) |
| KingsIslandPR | Kings Island |
| LaRondeSixFlags | La Ronde |
| LEGOLANDWindsor | Legoland |
| MagicSpringsFUN | Magic Springs |
| NavyPier | Navy Pier |
| OhioStateFair | Ohio State Fair |
| PaultonsPark | Paultons Park |
| beachboardwalk | Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk |
| santasvillage | Santa’s Village |
| RealShamu | Sea World |
| TheRealMrSix | Six Flags (Mr. Six) |
| SixFlagsMexico | Six Flags Mexico |
| SixFlagsOverGA | Six Flags Over Georgia |
| SplashinSafari | Splashing Safari |
| sftv | Six Flags TV |
| wdwnews | Walt Disney World News |
| Wild_Adventures | Wild Adventures |
Companies
| thegravitygroup | Gravity Group, The |
| GreatCoasters | Great Coasters International |
Organizations
| ACESOAR | ACE SOAR (Southern Ohio Area Region) |
| Darkride | Darkride and Funhouse Enthusiasts (DAFE) |
| IAAPA2009 | International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) |
| FlaCoasterClub | Florida Coaster Club |
Other
| TheDisneyBlog | Disney Blog, The |
| Disney_Tweets | Disney History and Walt’s Quotes delivered twice a day. |
| Attractions | Orlando Attractions Magazine |
| pointbuzz | Point Buzz |
| ThemePark | Theme Park Insider |
| ThemeParkReview | Theme Park Review |
| AmusementPark | Today in Amusement History |
| Roller_Coaster | Ultimate Rollercoaster.com |
| screamscape | Screamscape |
| DisneyD23 | D23: The Official Community for Disney Fans |
People
| RaptorGuy | Brian Neal (ACE Southern Ohio Representative) |
| DerekClayton | Derek Clayton (ACE Southern Ohio Webmaster) |
| DAFE_Rick | Rick Davis (DAFE President and Founder) |
| CPTony | Tony Clark (Cedar Point’s Interactive Marketing Manager) |
| SantaClausLand | Paula Werne (Holiday World Director of Public Relations) |
| SchlitterTweet | Jeffrey Siebert (Schlitterbahn’ Director of Corporate Communications) |
| Will_Koch | Will Koch (Holiday World CEO) |
Note: this article was cross-posted to the ACESOAR website.
Gravity Group Unveils Next-Gen Wood Coaster Train
Not content keeping busy with designing new coasters, our friends have added to their repertoire.
Excerpt from the press release (http://thegravitygroup.com/gravitycast/timberliner/):
Cincinnati, Ohio —- The engineers at The Gravity Group started with a blank sheet of paper and ended up with the next generation of trains for wooden roller coasters.
“Timberliners incorporate new technology – such as magnetic braking and restraint monitoring – that wasn’t even imagined when wooden coaster cars were first developed,” says Michael Graham, lead engineer for the project. “When it comes to wooden coasters, The Gravity Group has more experience designing rides than anyone. We’ve applied that expertise in designing trains that addresses every facet of roller coaster performance and function – from maintenance and safety to rider enjoyment and capacity.”
Timberliners are designed to be compatible with existing wooden coasters, allowing a park to upgrade their roller coasters with Timberliner trains.
Key features of the trains include:
- Single-bench design
- Shock absorption and ergonomic styling
- Unparalleled ability to smoothly navigate the track for decreased train & track maintenance
- Innovative restraint system for unsurpassed safety and security
- Restraints designed for higher throughput
- ASTM F2291 Class 5 restraint with integrated monitoring
- On-board sound system capable
- Magnetic braking capable
ACE SOAR Website Live!
The American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) Southern Ohio Area Region (SOAR) website is now live. With almost no budget I was able to provide this non-profit, and all volunteer, group a full featured Internet presence quickly and cheaply by starting with WordPress, adding custom skin, and a few off the shelf WordPress plug-ins.