Arrow Development had four original founders in 1946, all very talented men who turned a small fabrication shop into a bustling amusement ride manufacturer and who also secured the contract for most of the original rides for Walt Disney in 1955 and designed and many innovated ride systems over the years.
The smaller Model T and Maxwell cars were a big seller for Arrow and installed all over country and also overseas. The larger cars as in the original posted photo were Cadillac's.
One of the founders was Edgar Morgan, who was a antique car collector and a member of our Santa Cruz Region Horseless Carriage Club. An amazing, talented individual with a passion for Antique automobiles.
This innovated design of the steering system allowed the driver to be able to "Steer" the vehicle around the track, yet the center guide rail down the center of the track would "limit" the steering so the vehicle was unable to leave the track and would also follow the track if not steered.
The wide concrete portions as seen in the original text were used in the loading stations to keep the vehicle in the correct location for loading and unloading of passengers next to the platform.
these "Merry Oldies" were at Geauga Lake Park in 1979, Kings Dominion in Doswell Va still uses them, as does Kentucky Kingdom, and Kings Island in Cincinnati. There is still one at Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA, and Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky Ohio has a ride called Cadillac Cars:
Cedar Point used to have 3 car rides. Turnpike Cars had Cobra and Corvette bodies, and the Antique Cars and Cadillac Cars were 1910 Cadillac touring cars. The Cadillac Cars are the only ones left there.
ReplyDeleteI've been to CP many times, but I don't remember riding the Turnpike Cars, only the Cadillacs.
http://www.cprundown.com/rides/family-rides/52-turnpike-cars
Ancient family history: In Chelsea, Massachusetts in the late teens and early 1920's, my mother's family had a relative who was single and who owned a touring car. On Sundays, ten to fifteen people would load up into that car, plus lamb cubed and marinated for kebab, assorted other Armenian foods, a watermelon or two, and desserts and head for a picnic grove. The owner of the touring car was given to drinking a bit much of Armenian anise flavored brandy called OGHI. On the way home, to steer the touring car, he would place one of the front tries in trolley tracks and merely control the acceleration, deceleration and shifts. So, I get a big kick out of seeing this track set up. A little old Americana for you all. Tom Incidentally, thesefolks distilled teir own!
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