Roller Coaster Museum

The second stop is a private one that I tried to add early on but couldn't get a hold of anyone to arrange it with, however giving it another try nearer the time resulted in a hit, and an invite to drop by for a welcome.

For several years now, some enthusiasts, more enthusiastic than me, have been trying to put together a Rollercoaster Museum. A permanent location hasn't been found but the exhibits they're amassed so far are residing in a temporary location at the Larson plant in Planview Texas, which was perfectly located half-way on the drive to Joyland.

A non-descript barn located on the Larson International Plant is the current home to the Museum. Yep, that's the same Larson that make those looping coasters...although Tal confirmed even they don't refer to them as Rollercoasters, despite how Six Flags market them.

Now I'm not overly sentimental about ride history but some of the others were, so this was more a stop for them. I'll also admit to not being an expert on the pieces that were on display.

This is a train from an Arrow coaster that used to reside at Worlds of Fun. It was retired in 2003.

This is Greezed Lightnin', a coaster that required a little detective work to track down (see next page)

An impressive array of trains.

Six Flags New Orleans is currently an SBNO park following the floods that hit there a while ago. 

I did say at the start that I wasn't sentimental about rides going but this was the one that I was probably sad to see go when it was announced. Big Bad Wolf was a stunning suspended coaster that ran at Busch Gardens Williamsburg for many years. It was removed in 2009. It was cool to see they had a car for it here, even more cool when they mentioned they have an entire train elsewhere. It was at this point I realised the "Museum" was only what they had on show, not everything they had; amazing!

Zingo was a wooden coaster at Bell's Amusement Park. I like that Larson have donated the model of their looping ride (not coaster) too!

These rides are still in operation at Dollywood in Tennessee.

A nice display of bobsled train and track.

I hazard a guess this is from a water splash ride of some type.

There were a couple of pieces we were asked not to share, which I've not but it was cool to see them here too.

Two different Disney souvenirs...

In the centre of the room are a couple of old automated ride models, which do still work.

Tal poses with the best car there (in our opinion)

and a few panos from the Museum.

So I entered a cynic but left a fan. It's when you see the rides laid out like this (and this is by no means all they have) that you realise the efforts that have been put into collecting, and preserving the history. What makes that even more special was that this was with little support of the major park companies, who are still to get fully behind the initiative. It was quite a special stop and in hindsight one of the non-park highlights. 

A huge thanks to Carole Sanderson for helping arrange the visit and Hunter Novotny for taking the time out to show us around. 

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