Here we are saying goodbye at the station

[austin_dern]

Here's the second and for now final round of pictures from Rye Playland, until our next visit, whenever that should be.

	We went to Playland toward the evening and so got to enjoy it becoming lit to its wonderful early-60s remodelled style.
	I was not allowed on the bumper cars. Apparently, I'm too tall. So I amused myself instead taking photos of the Dragon Coaster as the sun disappeared past the horizon.
	This is the Dragon Coaster. As part of this wonderful ride, you go rolling into its mouth. A cool mist sprays as you enter so there's fog and surprise and the weird change of sound as you barrel into the tunnels. It's fantastic.
	This is a bit of art at the Dragon Coaster entrance.
	This is one of the Dragon Coaster's original model cars. They ran until the 1980s, and they don't have any of those fancy post-1920s roller coaster safety devices like seat belts or a restraining bar. You were just kept in your seat by being sensibly dressed for an amusement park in three-piece suit and straw boater.
	Underneath the Dragon Coaster is a neat little ``mine ride'', in boats going along a canal path. The rides were built together and part of the mine's experience is hearing the roller coaster rumbling overhead. Unfortunately the lighting and presence of a plexiglass tube make it difficult to prove this, but there's a safety monkey in that tube telling riders how to be safe.

Trivia: In September 1904 there were 1,800 laborers on the Panama Canal Commission's books. The fortnightly payment took six and a half hours to complete, and involved filling in 7,500 individual sheets of paper weighing in total over 102 pounds. Source: The Impossible Dream: The Building of the Panama Canal, Ian Cameron.

Currently Reading: The Far-Out People, Editor Robert Hoskins. Anthology of such wild far-out crazy groovy writers as Isaac Asimov and Chad Oliver. (OK, they're the normal end of things.)

Comments

[rapidtrabbit.livejournal.com]

You are aware of course, that the future of Rye Playland in it's present state is unsure. So far Westchester County has not decided yet whose proposals to remake the park they will accept.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping for the best.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Here's hoping.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I know, and it's one of the many things that leaves me sick.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

That dark ride with the boats is what's generically called an Old Mill.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Old Mill. Someday I'm going to learn well enough how to tell generic ride names from specific ones and how they get assigned. I'm still just starting to know the vocabulary.

[rapidtrabbit.livejournal.com]

Ever since that fatal incident involving the unaccompanied 3-year old kid on the ride, they now no longer allow single persons on the ride of any age. So that now excludes me from the Mill since I usually wind up going to Playland alone.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

That's a nuisance. They don't even let single riders pair up?

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Height levels on bumper cars? Wot is this world coming to??

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I know. But the general attitude at Playland is to let things run at the high speed, high collision levels popular back in the 1920s, so I wouldn't be surprised if the bumper cars could get up to 40 miles per hour and collisions become really bad if you're too large or small.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

wonderful early-60s remodelled style.

I love the green and yellow luminaires. Sadly, the Ferris wheel looks to have a much more modern style of lighting rather than the lovely pastel fluorescent tubes from the 1960s.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Well, the park isn't frozen in time circa 1961; it's just a lot of eye-catching elements that are. It's a great place to see and to walk.