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.

     We worked from 12 noon to closing which was around midnight, seven days a week. Needless to say, I had to start early and arrived home late every night, but I loved every minute of it. I had always wanted to work on the high rides at the park, but that would not come about until I had worked several months on the DIPPY WHIP and the FLYING SCOOTERS. Then one day I heard that there was an opening on the RACING COASTER and I applied for a transfer to my favorite end of the park, the high rides. Fred Greenway was the manager of the RACING COASTER, THRILLER, and FLYING TURNS. Although he personally ran the THRILLER. I worked for Bob Lupton on the RACING COASTER for the rest of that first season and most of the next one.

     Many of EUCLID BEACH PARK’s rides were high capacity rides that enabled the park to handle the large summer crowds.  The RACING COASTER (1923-1969) was certainly one of these as it consisted of two 9 seat trains that raced each other over the 2,814 feet of track. The RACING COASTER track was continuous so that you would unload from the opposite side that you boarded which sometimes confused riders. The RACING COASTER’s small fast hills including a triple-down drop, fast flat turns, and the excitement of racing the other train, made this a very popular ride.

     On busy days two sets of trains would travel the course enabling the ride to handle a lot of people. The coaster used hand brakes to stop the trains. The two railed sliding brake was divided into a long section and a short section, each controlled by a handle at the braking position. Due to the counterweight under the platform, it was virtually impossible to move the brake handles until a heavy train was on it, then it was fairly easy to raise or lower the brake to control the speed of the approaching train.

     Operators had to be careful on rainy days as it was possible for a train to slide right through the station brakes and onto the lift. It is hard to describe the feeling you have the first time to see that coaster train racing toward you and know that you have to stop it!

     Actually if you didn’t do anything it would stop itself out in the North 40! Operators were careful not to accidentally stall a train on the long brake as this slowed down the operation. Once the slowed train passed you it rolled to a stop on the unload brake. The train was unloaded and a push on the brake handle would send the train down to the load brake.

     Many times we would stand on the running board and ride the train down to the load position collecting re-ride tickets at the same time. Each ride had a chopper at the turnstile. An operator would watch each rider deposit their tickets onto a moving belt that sent the tickets through a shredding mechanism and then into a bag. If there was a question about the number of tickets deposited, the operator would stop the belt and the tickets could be checked through the glass case. At least it helped to keep us as honest as possible. The load position required us to see that the train was loaded properly. Everyone seemed to want a front or back seat and without today’s queue rails and gates, it could get a bit pushy! Each train had 3 sections containing 3 seats per section. Riders would pull the lap bar down and then when a section was ready the loader would lock them by stepping on a lever on each section. A big part of the fun of this ride was a race between the two trains; therefore, it was important for the two loaders to dispatch their trains so that there was a good race. A good race was when the two trains were nose to nose as they dropped off the first turn-around. On slower days the two loaders could see each other across the loading platform. Facing the direction of the trains, the one on the left was released first and the operator on the right released his train (having a shorter approach to the lift) when he felt it was right to do so. Actually we got pretty good at it considering load variances and track conditions. On busy days when the platform was crowded with riders or when we were running two set of trains, someone would sit up in a tower toward the back of the platform and one the trains were loaded, he would ring a bell once for the left loader to release his train and ring twice for the right loader to dispatch his train. Should it appear that the dispatch was not going to be a good race, the tower could control the speed of one of the lift chains, thereby making a slight correction so that we all didn’t look too bad should management be watching out front. These were fun and sometimes hard working days, but everyone loved the RACING COASTER.