Welcome Back to Euclid Beach Park

     As a child growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, the high point of the summer was whenever the family would pack a picnic lunch into the car and head for EUCLID BEACH PARK (1895-1969). As we neared the park my heart would pound faster and I would almost get down on the floor of the car to catch the first glimpse of the famous Arch entrance to the parking lot and the tracks of the far turn of the THRILLER roller coaster. My childhood dream was to someday work at this famous amusement park. During my college years (1947-1951) I fulfilled that dream by working my summer vacations on various attractions in the park. Living in the western suburban city of Lakewood, getting to and from the park which was located on the eastern side of the city, was not an easy task.  I had a 20 minute walk to a streetcar line that would take me to Union Square where I transferred to another line for the final leg of the trip to EUCLID BEACH. It took me about 90 minutes each wat to complete the trip.

      Toward the end of my second season an opening came up on my favorite ride, the FLYING TURNS. Fred Greenway would laugh when I would proclaim that I was working on the best ride in the park. Of course his THRILLER was a great ride and rode lots of people, but I still believe that the FLYING TURNS was the best and most unique ride at EUCLID BEACH PARK. When this thrilling bobsled-type trackless coaster opened in 1930, it was the second FLYING TURNS ride to be built by John Miller and J.N. Bartlett. This version was much higher than the original one and was squeezed into an area of about 261’ x 61’ and ended with an unbelievable double spiral crowd brake. In 1930 it operated with two load/unload positions, one on each side of the platform. Later only the outside position was used. The inside track was used for storing trains and had a hoist at the unload position for maintenance. The ride was only 70 seconds long, taking 40 seconds to reach the top of the long lift, but those 30 seconds down were quite intense. There were several other similar rides, but EUCLID BEACH PARK’s version was higher than most of them, descended faster, had a high speed figure-eight section, and head jarring double spiral crowd brake at the end of the ride. Because it was common to find wet cushions, mild hysteria, and one time I had two women faint in the same train.

     On a warm dry summer evening, the speeding trains climbed so high on the barrel walls that the side mounted brake shoes would sometimes scrape the steel guard rail and sparks would fly creating an additional thrill for the nighttime riders. The trains consisted of three articulated cars with each car holding two people, one sitting on the floor with the other rider sitting between their knees. This proved very popular with young couples. Men sitting with their legs stretched out quite often lost their pocket change while going up the lift hill. This was particularly true my first year on the ride as the track on the lift was very bumpy. Before opening and whenever a new train was put into operation, the cars were loaded with sandbags and run through the ride three times before riders were allowed on board. This procedure enabled the grease to warm thus being the train up to speed. Both the load and unload brake positions had a row of handles. The two on the left controlled brakes on the left track and the two on the right controlled the right track. The unloader had a red emergency brake as well. Both positions had a lift chain shutoff button. The loader made sure the weight of the train was in the front. The lead car always had to be loaded; otherwise, the train literally flew through the barrel. The brake shows were on the side bumpers of the cars as were the anti-rollback ratchets; therefore, a squeeze-type brake was used. Only one train could be in the barrel at a time as there was no way to stop it between the top of the lift hill and the brake at the end of the ride. Two trains were always used. On a slow operation the loader could wait for the other train to reach unload before dispatching the second train. As it became busier he could dispatch when he heard the other train race through the bottom of the figure-eight located over his head. A three train operation required team work between the ticket taker/grouper, dispatcher, unloader, and a fourth person who could handle load/unload problems and change wet cushions on the run. The fast operation required the loader to use a clock in front of him to properly time the dispatches. When I worked there the dispatch time was normally 40 seconds, but could never be faster than 35 seconds. The slope of the platform was fairly steep; therefore, a train would speed up quite a bit between unload and load. There was an additional brake between the two positions so that the loader could hold another train on it or use it to slow down the one coming from the unload position. Although the trains were fairly quiet coming through the barrel, they rattled around while coming through the crowd brake. The train entered this spiral brake at full speed (around 25 mph) and emerged very slowly.

     The unloader controlled a brake in the short section that followed to stop or slow down the train as it rolled to the unload brake. All brakes were normally closed except for the emergency brake which had to be activated by the operator. After the straightaway the track split to the right running track or to the left storage track. A switch had to be manually thrown to take a train off onto the storage track. The cars were jointed in the middle to make them more flexible while negotiating the tight turns. Sometimes a bolt in this joint would break and the train would have to be removed from operation. To detect this problem, an operator would regularly have to walk the barrel looking for broken bolts as well as hats, wigs, false teeth, coins, etc. The barrel was painted where the trains normally ran. You could, in theory, stand on the unpainted surface and let the trains race past you; however, this would not be wise and was not permitted. A stairway connected several levels of the barrel and provided platforms on which to stand while the train flew by you. The anti-rollbacks on the lift hill were quite loud so that an operator walking in the barrel knew that a train was coming and should step out of the barrel. When a broken bolt was found, the train had to be located. One would be pulled, hoisted, and inspected. If you were lucky, it would be your first guess which made you and the mechanics very happy. During the time I worked on the ride, any money found was kept in a box and it unclaimed would go toward a party at the end of the season. As mentioned earlier, when the lift was bumpy quite a bit of loose change ended up in the barrel and eventually in the box. Every evening near closing time, Mr. Johnson, the park manager, would take up a position near the THRILLER and FLYING TURNS. He would look at the crowd and look at his watch. When he raised his arms, the park was closed and the three high rides would race to be the first to turn off their track lights. If you were a lucky last minute rider you might end up having a thrilling ride in the dark! During my last season at the park I was the straw boss of the FLYING TURNS. There was on day that I will never forget. It was the Goodyear Picnic, one of the busiest days of the year and one in which we set a record of over 6000 riders on the ride.

     We started the day with 3 trains running at a 35 second dispatch. After dark I left the ride to get something to eat, and when I came back I could see that there was a loaded train stopped part way up the lift hill with an empty train about 15 feet behind it. I ran up onto the loading platform to learn that the dispatcher had dispatched the loaded train and was talking to a girl while holding the brake open and the next empty train went through loading onto the chain. Fortunately the unloader saw what had happened and hit the chain stop button. It was dark, the lift was steep, and the handrails were full of possible splinters. I decided to try a system that I felt could separate the two trains. I placed men at the top and bottom of the lift with flashlights while I stationed myself at the lift motor house. The plan was that the man at the top would signal the man at the bottom when the first train cleared the chain, and I would stop the second train on the lift. The chain was started and the two trains went further up the lift and then the motor stopped and could not be restarted.

     Now I had a loaded train further up the lift and had no choice but to walk the riders down the lift while I tried to find the electrician. When he arrived he told me he had just installed an overload system so that two train could not be on the lift at the same time. It did its job well and proved to be a good safety system. Now with everyone at their place and the electrician at the motor, we put my original plan into operation. I was now back with the unloader. The chain was started and then stopped as planned. The next thing I heard was a shout that the chain had coasted and now we had two empty trains coming down through the barrel. The empty trains made a lot of noise as they bounced around coming down toward unload. We planned to let the first train come through full speed and stop the second train on the emergency brake. It worked fine and we were able to resume our fast operation for the rest of the evening. To this day I do not know what happened to those poor people stranded on the lift as to whether they finally got to ride or even got their tickets back! I will always be grateful to that electrician and his new safety system that kept me from making a terrible mistake. Even with all of this happening, we still set the record on number of rides that day.