The Passing of A Legend

Ron Toomer
1930-2011

Tonight, just a few minutes after arriving back from a trip from Branson... I heard the sad news of the passing of a legend. Ron Toomer.

Some of you reading this may not know who Ron Toomer was. There is the unfortunate fact that many coasters are know by their names, occasionally their manufacturers, and rarely their designers. Only are the greatest designers remembered. Ron Toomer was one of those.

Ron Toomer was designer at Arrow Dynamics from the 60's until his retirement in 2000. During that time he quite literally designed the modern steel roller coaster. Starting with Six Flags over Texas Runaway Mine Train, to the birth of the modern hyper coaster Magnum XL 200. Of course his primary contribution to Worlds of Fun's history itself was his design of the famed Orient Express.



In the days before computers, when coasters where designed by pencil and paper instead, Ron Toomer looked no further then a wire coat hanger as his means for designing the steel monsters of the 1980's and 90's. One has to remember that before Orient Express there were really only 2 ways to go upside down on a coaster. The Loop and the Corkscrew. With Orient Express, Ron Toomer introduced the first inversion to the modern patheon of inversions, on Orient Express it was known as the Kamikaze Kurve, today it is known as the Boomerang element. This tight, twisted pretzel roll inversion shocked riders from its inception, all the way to its final end in 2003. Orient Express, and its designer Ron Toomer lead the way into the modern world of coasters with inversions and twists with the names of zero-g rolls, cobra rolls, immelmanns, and batwings.

The Boomerang (Kamikaze Kurve) on Orient Express

Coasters with the names of Shockwave, Great American Scream Machine, Big Bad Wolf, and the still operating Viper at Six Flags Magic Mountain are all a testament to Ron Toomer's genius.

Magnum XL-200 at Cedar Point. A similar appearance to Mamba is not inconsequential.

Ron Toomer's legacy at Worlds of Fun wouldn't begin and end with Orient Express either. In 1989, one his biggest contributions to the roller coaster world opened. Magnum XL-200. At a towering 200 feet tall it became the worlds first hypercoaster. Nine years later, Mamba, a coaster derived from the roots of Magnum began towering over Kansas City's own Worlds of Fun. Mamba, may have not been designed by Ron Toomer, however the technology found in Mamba, could not have been achieved had not 10 years earlier, a man had not came up with the idea of a coaster that towered to the sky. That man was Ron Toomer, and though he may have passed from this world, his visions have not. One more good reason to go out and ride a coaster this weekend.

A NEW Northland Attraction!

Yes I know folks it has been a little bit longer then I expected for an update. However, truth be told it took me a LONG LONG time to scan everything you will be seeing over the next few months. A friend of ours, Bill Valiant was able to borrow a whole box of goodies from Hunt Midwest storage. I cant begin to tell you which felt better, seeing tons of old WoF stuff I have never seen before, or hearing that Hunt didn't throw anything away... (THANK GOODNESS!)

I'll get back to you on that.

I just shared with you the first page of my favorite "find". If you scroll down you will find the rest of the 7 pages of a promotional newspaper insert that ran I believe in the Clay County Dispatch Tribute only a few days after Worlds of Fun had its 1973 Grand Opening.

A lot of it is self congratulatory, advertisements from various vendors involved with park construction. Personally though, I think the ads are part of the interest.

However, if you take the time to read the articles, which I highly recommend by the way, there are a lot of good historical tidbits to be found and discovered. You can read each page by right clicking on it, and opening each image in a separate window or tab.

Page two, If you are going to read any of this, don't miss the Jack Steadman story... it explains quite a bit... Including why the park rides had such err.. "unusual" names. Word to the wise, don't schedule "riding naming" meetings and beer drinking parties at the same time. That is unless you want to end up with rides named Schussboomer and Finnish Fling.

Ah look the park is supposed to be INTERNATIONALLY themed... I would have never realized that.... (sorry I couldn't help it)

Interesting article on the old Fins and Flippers Show...

Honestly, I never knew that there was a bus that was specifically for Worlds of Fun. Pretty neat idea. This page also has a great story on the Worlds of Fun Railroad, most of it is directly lifted from the Press Releases, but still some great stories in there, especially about how ELI got its name. It gives a much better explanation then I have been ever able to give...

If you don't know much at Cotton Blossom or Victrix... read about it here.

Best part of this? Viking Voyager with dragon head boats! Yes there is also a story there about the park shows at the time too.

And finally a word from our sponsors...

Hope you guys loved this as much as I did!

Blast from the Past WOF Exhibit 2011

Wow... look at all the dust and cob webs... Oh well let me haul out my handy windex and paper towel and we shall be good as new and ready to go for some NEW and EXCITING blog posts...

yeahhhhh... I can just hear the excitement.

You know I really don't like photos of myself... however I have to take the opportunity to show the cool sign Brandon (FINALLY!) made for us. And think... it only took 3 years!

Randal Scott and his Project 31 also co-partnered with me for this year's exhibit. For those who haven't yet seen his coaster models, I believe they should be at Union Station on permanent exhibit starting in October. Definitely check out his website http://www.modelcoasters.com/project31.htm

The headliner for the show was the display of part of the EXT (stand up) car.

Another new addition this year was the display of our 1980-1981 off season aerial photo. It had sat curled up in a tube for years, and we were happy to finally get it scanned, printed, and mounted for view!

For those that have seen previous incarnations of the exhibit this should look pretty familiar. This year I was able to organize some of the brochures, newspaper clippings, etc, and put them better on display. So you can see a copy of the 1973 brochure on display in front. To the far right is the Zinger structural support.

After being asked about various non-coasters over the years I decided to create displays for the various themed worlds, and picked the two with the largest collection of unique non-coaster rides... Scandinavia first. There is also a Schussboomer wheel on exhibit in front.

And Americana. On Saturday morning we received two new donations from a park employee. Seen here to the right is a cleat from the Cotton Blossom (tie off). May it rest in peace.

Orient Express corner, and there are lots of things to look at here. Starting from the corner, far left, is an Orient Express break shoe. Directly above that is a foam logo from the park's 10th anniversary, and 1977 souvenir map. To the right you can see an Orient Express chain link, coaster rail, road wheel, and anti-rollback trough. The small can in the center? An Orient Express Survival Kit. From the label it appears it was given out as part of the Media Kit for Orient Express.

So what's inside? Well we don't really know as it was never opened. Ahhh mint condition!

Special Thanks to Bill Valliant, for providing the Orient Express Survival Kit, 10th Anniversary Logo, and more from the Hunt Midwest Archive. Thank goodness they didn't end in a landfill!

Rounding out with modern history. Moving from left to right. The large wooden stack, is an example of a wooden coaster track bed section (in this case actually from the Raven), 1989 souvenir map, and binder including Timberwolf construction photos.

Remember earlier when I said we received TWO donations? Well take a look at #2! Poor guy who donated this item received a loud, ear splitting girly scream from me on first glance. I wasn't the only one who never thought they would see one of these dragon heads ever again. For those that don't know, the Viking Voyager boats used to all sport red dragon heads, of which this is one of the few surviving examples.

Of course we were only half of the exhibit, the other half was filled with Project 31, or the Worlds of Fun coasters of 1980. Can you name all of them? Well here is the most grand, the Orient Express. Not to be confused with the Mamba. Which some still needed reminding... has no loops. Of course I guess you could say the two are related, in a second cousin, married to your sister in law, kind of way.

Here is a great YouTube video of the Express model running.

Brandon gifted both us some rather unique parting gifts... My favorite was some mini-caterpillar earth mover machines. We will let you use your imagination of what these scaled down machines are preparing to do...

So I will once again leave you, but hopefully this time not for as long. I have a box sitting on my loveseat, that is being scanned right now, and its full of fun (OLD) Worlds of Fun stuff, that I will happily share with you as soon as I am done, which shouldn't take too long....

Grand Re-Opening Weekend!

It's been awhile, time consumed by finals (EKK!), and a trip to Disney World and Star Wars Weekends (yeah!), but back to Worlds of Fun we must always go. So with three weeks off Jeff and I headed back to Worlds of Fun for the Grand Opening of Planet Snoopy and the Grand Carousel. Since we had a wedding to attend later that day we only spent about two hours at the park, so the report will be slightly brief. But hey.

After a great breakfast provided by the park, and with everyone lined up for the quick parade to Planet Snoopy... I had to check out the carousel. It was officially drool worthy. A couple of quick comments. For its grand re-opening, the carousel didn't sport its band organ. I did however check on the progress of said band organ. From what Brandon tells me it is being restored by an older gentlemen, that seems to take longer and longer each time the park checks on the band organs status... Sounds about right. :)

Check out more photos on Facebook!

The first new Planet Snoopy attraction to open was these tini-tea cups. Woodstock's Whirlybirds.


A new ride for this weekend, that miraculously was finished in time! Peanuts 500. Peanuts 500 is actually a smaller, but from a rider's experience, remarkably similar version of the old early 20th century W.B. Mangel's Whip. Which looks like this...

Just goes to show that no good ride every really dies.


Last new thing in Planet Snoopy is the nice little snack stand. Which has no. name.


In other news... landscaping is seeing some changes through the park. Not all necessarily bad. I know that landscaping is seriously hurting for staffing so I try to give them the benefit of the doubt. Even though there are some areas that seriously need some love (and de-weeding) In this photo though it looks like new palms were added... What I didn't even notice at first though is that there used to be trees there. Of course, I am never a fan of tree removal, but I guess sometimes its not always THAT bad. It does open up the area, and after all the addition of trees through the park seems to exceeding the removal...


Another recent "addition" is this signing proclaiming the Americana food court. Nice addition.

Other things at the park unfortunately weren't so nice. Not trying to kick a dead horse but I was SHOCKED when I saw/read about five rides being down on Saturday morning, Thunderhawk, Skyliner, Zulu, Timberwolf and Monsoon. A lot has been said about this, and man I don't mean to be debbie downer... but seriously?

Another thing is that music thing. I STILL have a hard time not grimacing when I hear the pop music in Scandinavia. To top that off its BAD pop music, like bad remakes of 1980's music, that should have STAYED in the 80's. Some of it having somewhat questionable lyrics. And we are still thinking that this music is somehow BETTER then what the park had before?

One thing is certain, Worlds of Fun never ceases to amaze in how well they can do in certain aspects of the park, and so ... not so well in other areas. Hopefully with new project construction winding down, the park can begin to concentrate on the rest of the park.

Oh... and BTW SOMEONE STOP THE RAIN.

It's ALIVE!!

Yes, folks the carousel operated with all horses, on its own power for the first time since 2007. However, before everyone rushes out to the park for a ride... HOLD YOUR HORSES. It will be awhile still before this carousel is ready to take its first batch of riders. It still needs a band organ and electrical controls, queue rails and more.

To be honest I am not sure who that was really directed to myself... or everyone else.

The journey isn't over quite yet, but its been an amazing journey and I thought with the carousel now in full regalia it would be nice to maybe take a look back at where this carousel has been. Its been an amazing transition.

Here is a photo of the same carousel at Geauga Lake...

Same carousel today at Worlds of Fun... (not the same horse though). I haven't even seen this carousel in person and I can already say its one of the most magnificent carousels I have seen. Certainly in the best shape. Jeff (who always gets to do everything before me) says its even more amazing in person.

Before... at the Carousel Works factory.

After... (same horse this time)

Before...

After... Everyone say OOOHHHHH... Everyone say AHHHHHHH. PRETTY. Parents remember to clean your kids hands off before boarding. Kids spit your gum out BEFORE getting on board. (not like that's going to happen but I can try)

Before... the horses arrive at the Carousel Works Factory.

After... the same horse again.

The Band organ cover, again at the Carousel Works factory...

After... Amazing transformation. Just Amazing. Congratulations Carousel Works and Cedar Fair.


More Photos can be found on Facebook.

Putting it All Together...

So a few days ago we looked at the Grand Carrousel's initial assembly, and only a few days later work has progressed quickly. Saturday we saw the platform fully assembled and the addition of the two chariots. Today, Sunday even though the park wasn't open to the public we were invited by Brandon to take photos of the the appearance of what makes a carousel a carousel... the jumping horses.

Today we took a look at the 4th row of horses addition to the platform. With most classic carousels the 4th row features the smallest, and least ornate horses. However, even though the 1st and 2nd rows are home to larger and more ornate horses, each animal is just as valuable... these just happen to be more pint sized.

A few weeks ago I was asked why the platform was situated on a flat span of concrete. There are some carousels (mostly brass ring carousels) that actually have basements, and the jumping poles actually go through the floor. With most carousels though the brass pole slides up and down a steel pole. Its simple in its function, but its set up requires a great deal of care as we will soon see.

This is a bit of confusing photo, but basically whats happening here is that the carousel works employee with the screw driver is actually attaching the foot holds to the black inner pole (which the brass pole will cover).

Here is a better view, you can see the black steel footholds.

The brass covering is inserted over the black inner pole.

The same horse being hung. Each horse hangs from the cranking rod itself, which of course is what causes the horse to "jump". If you look up in the photo to the actually (cranking) rod, you will see another worker attaching the horse and bushing to the rod.

A little bit closer look up above.

An overall view. In this photo the horse is attached to the cranking rod above, and is being lined up to attach to the platform floor.

Attaching the horse to the platform floor. This process isn't as simple as it appears though as we will soon see.

Here is what I meant above. The pole has to be long enough so that the horse doesn't hit the floor, but so that it isn't so high above that a rider can't get aboard.

Another step in the process is measuring the inner pole, so that the brass pole can be cut to match.

Attaching the painted pony.

Outside of the horses themselves these painted wooden boxes are being assembled and attached to cover wooden braces.

More photos can be found on Facebook!