kimv1972

It was sad to drive past Clermont Steel Fabricators and only see a half dozen pieces of coaster track, probably from an order that was cancelled part way through. But when Covid finally passes, we will see the Roaring Twenties all over again, at least for a couple of years. Next big coaster at a major theme park? 2022 perhaps, maybe for the KI 50th?

The Abner Sureshot and Golden Lamb buildings didn't come along until 1975 or beyond. In the first year, we only had the buildings closest to the picnic ground fence (to hide the parking lot for the locomotive crew and the big propane tank) and two settlers' cabins (and those didn't get finished until June due to weather). The wedding scene appears to be Charlie Flatt's old cabin that was behind the three houses on the straightaway coming out of the loop. Again, this scene came from 1975 or beyond since Charlie still had an arrow sticking out of his chest when I left in 1973. The real Charlie I believe was one of the higher ups in maintenance or construction. Most of the names came from employees, though I don't think we ever had an Abner Sureshot. Notice that the landscape lights on the ground were hidden by fiberglass tree stumps and rocks. In the beginning, even the public trashcans in Rivertown were big tree stumps.

Definitely one of the last done. The train's enginehouse is in it's final location and the short trestle at the water tower is gone from the original I saw in 1971.

Love walnut cabs. Baldwin used varnished walnut until 1879, then switched to painted ash when they went from "lake" (burgandy) to dark olive Baldwin green on their engines. There are Youtubes about how to paint "faux" wood. Who is volunteering to sneak in the enginehouse this winter? #12 always needed a red cowcatcher, domes, and front number plate. And I wouldn't mind buying the park some brass polish for that cap stack!

The CI&LC clip showed engine #35, the "George Rogers Clark", which had a dark blue color scheme that is quite rare for Chance Manufacturing. The engines were actually numbered based on the order that Chance built them, so #35 was a fairly early build. After Coney, it was sold to Guntown Mountain at Mammoth Cave, KY (I got to run it one day!), and today I believe it is still stored and possibly for sale at Beech Bend Park in Bowling Green, KY. The other engine, #34 "Mad Anthony Wayne" is running at Oil Ranch in Hockley, TX. It had the stock Chance color scheme with light blue boiler, red cab and stack.

Don's article noted that the management was surprised by the large size of the trains when they were delivered. Keep in mind that they were probably ordered in 1970, a year before either Busch Tampa or Six Flags over Mid-America opened in St. Louis. Nobody had ever seen a 5700# TE Crown before. The biggest parktrains the Taft/Coney people had seen were Disneyland (5/8 size models and small narrow gagers) and Six Flags over Texas (very small narrow gagers). Possibly they might have seen the 5/8 size trains built by Harpur of Six Flags over Georgia, the same size as Disneyland. Crown already had five lighter 4000# TE engines running at Legend City, Frontier Land, Six Gun, and Pioneer City, but likely the Taft/Coney people never visited those parks. Well, Crowns are definitely NOT scale models. They are the same size as a Baldwin 8-14C, only very slightly smaller than the Miami Valley Narrow Gage RR #2, an 8-18C that led the first train into Lebanon.

When we opened on 4/29/1972, the two bare settlers cabins had been built (I watched them go up in March on very cold Saturdays when we were shaking down the brand new trains), but there was nothing else out there but mud and weeds. Then they started bringing in the old Coney animation, starting with the beaver that cut down the tree at the little pond as we started around the horseshoe curve. It took a while to get the controls timed and sometimes the tree popped back up as soon as the frustrated beaver tipped it over. At other times, it was already down and popped up in his face. Along the hill were some deer and a bear. Trapper Charlie Flatt's cabin I think came next along the straight stretch behind the three houses. He sat there on his porch with his rifle in his hand when an arrow suddenly popped out of his chest and his head dropped. Ol' Lobo the wolf stood in the woods next to the yard switchstand and howled when we tripped the contact on the track. Ed McHale pointed him out on the narration tape and late at night when I was standing there to throw the switch after the last train passed, the passengers thought I was Lobo. The indian mannequins probably were installed next, popping up from behind the pine saplings on the mountain. They had propane rifles, and late one dark night a mannequin caught fire and popped up from behind the tree in an eerie self cremation. There was a tipped over covered wagon on the earth berm behind the houses just as we straightened out after coming around the mountain and a mannequin indian lethargically waving a tomahawk at the poor wagon to scare the termites that infested it. They were way behind schedule finishing up things in the park due to weather, so Fort McHale didn't start going up until perhaps June and for a couple weeks, the carpenters and electricians were part of the show for the passengers since we were open seven days a week. It was a polebarn falsefront made out of lumber slabs cut from logs with two cannons mounted in block houses on the corners. The cannons were propane and shot blanks which tripped an air blast coming out of the water in the pond when the "cannonball" hit. Again it took time to get the controls right and sometimes the ball hit the water before the cannon fired. And sometimes the wrong air blast went off making it look like a cannon shot a curve ball. If I recall, they also had a perforated propane pipe along the top of the wall making it look like part of the fort was on fire. It never really did catch fire, but the first iteration of the Gatling Gun did prove entertaining. One day it self destructed and took a chunk out of the fort, but once they got in right, it worked quite well. I think the last thing that went in was the indian burial ground back in the corner outside the first big curve starting up the hill. One of our crew snuck back there one day with fishing line and tied it to the wrist of a skeleton so it would wave at the passengers. Through today's eyes, many of the ways Native Americans were represented would never be tolerated. Finally they started building the falsefront barn and store that hid the propane tank and locomotive crew parking lot across from the enginehouse and at last my old 1965 Mustang ceased being part of the 1870s. The Inn came after I left, probably 1974 or 1975. But back up to mid-May when they put some mannequins at the cabins, particularly the lady stirring the cook pot. When we opened one morning we were surprised to see the mannequins suddenly had appeared overnight but clothing them had not yet become part of the equation. To add grief, someone had painted some details on one of them. It didn't take long to hear from alarmed parents. Hence, they sent out a very shy red headed area manager to safety pin sheets on them. We were passing him with a fairly full train observing his progress when the wind came up. And there he was, alone with naked mannequins and his face as red as his hair.

I wonder how the eagle ended up on the top of the headlight? He was on the sand dome when I was there.

I dare you to find a KI map from 1971, before the park opened. A college buddy who worked at Coney had one and I wish I would have begged him for it. I would guess they made VERY few of them, probably for employees. I don't remember much about it, but I do remember a couple things that were later changed on the train ride, such as the location of the enginehouse and a second small trestle where the canoe pond would have extended behind the water tower.

As one of the original employees from April 1972, I still have my first year souvenir cartoon map of the park that you see on the internet. But there was one that was published BEFORE the park ever opened. A college buddy who had worked at Coney in 1970 and 1971 had one, and how I wish I had it today. I can't remember many things that changed before the park opened, but I do remember that the canoe pond extended behind the water tower and the train crossed it on a curved trestle. I also remember that the train shed was in the picnic grounds next to the log flume instead of inside the railroad loop as it is today. If anyone ever sees one of those maps, GRAB IT!!! and share it with the rest of us. It is perhaps the rarest of the rare among "Kings Mills Project" souvenirs. I bet they didn't print very many of them.

Basically we used to highball across the trestle hooked up, then shut off and coast until you felt the engine lunge to the right of the first big curve, and that was your cue to drop her in the corner and start digging in for the 1% climb. I never worked steam into the beginning of that curve behind the coach storage, I let momentum get the drivers into it so I wasn't shoving the track sideways. In 1972, we had problems with shaving metal off the insides of the rails due to the track gage being laid too tight. This held the wheels slightly off the rails (we were basically running on the fillets of the driver flanges) so we didn't get good traction. To stop the wear, they hired a kid to walk the track with a grease stick on a pole and grease the insides of the rails. But they didn't tell him not to grease the tops of the rails. It was tough getting up the grade. Chug, chug, slip, slip, slip, slip. Chug, chug, slip, slip, slip, slip. You learned to run by listening to the strength of the exhaust and it really became a fun challenge to use your ear to hear exactly when to back off the sticky throttles just before you spun the wheels. It separated the railroaders from the railfans and it was a contest to see who could make it up with the least slips. Yes, rolling resistance is a combination of grade resistance and curve resistance, so straightening that curve probably helped, but that was a few years after my time. Anyhoo... one wet day with 450 souls on board, it was more slip than chug. I didn't make the grade and had to back down to the trestle to take a second try. We had actors playing Native Americans that came out of the woods on the hill and attacked us, and when they saw me stop, they froze in place. As I backed down the hill, the actors backed into the woods. It couldn't have been better if we rehearsed it. Not long after that, Dick Carmell installed small pipes that poured water on the flanges of the front pilot wheels to cut the rail wear and the kid with the grease stick became part of Kings Island history.

The train has always run clockwise and the rail "walks" around the loop since the loco's wheels are always pushing backwards on it. Every year things need to be realigned, and maybe even a bit of rail taken out to compensate. We proposed at one time to put a crossover on the double track so we could equalize the wheel wear by running the other way, but the water tower prevented that being practical. Since the left side of the coaches are open, the intent was to put the trestle walkway only on that side, but the carpenters put it on the wrong side so they had to add the second one. I walked out on it in December 1971 before the second one was added. The original cartoon map published in 1971 when Coney was still open showed the enginehouse outside the loop parallel to the last straight before you curve into the station (in the picnic area), and a low trestle just after you pass the water tower leaving the station. When we opened in 1972, there was a small field behind the watertower and the intent was to extend the canoe pond over there, no doubt deleted by the cost of the extra trestle. If anyone can ever find a copy of that cartoon map from 1971, I would love to see it. A college buddy who worked at Coney had one and I wished I had bought it from him. I've never seen another one. It is truly one of the most rare KI souvenirs. I wish I could remember other things in the park that were changed since that one was printed.

Well, I posted this, and then it refreshed to the next page and I saw someone got it!!!!! Way to go, Ty. The guess at the new restrooms between Rivertown and Antique Autos was VERY close! Yes, they were put up mid season in 1972. But before they broke ground on that building, they found that they had to rush an expansion on the women's side of the restroom between Rivertown and HB land. If you look at the pic I posted at the beginning of 1972 and the one from October 1972, you will see an extra cube on the back of it next to the small flume. The men probably didn't even notice. And of course, the city limits of Rivertown have moved south, so that building is no longer in Rivertown. Also notice that during one of the weekends in April before we opened full time, they added the red theme color to the blacktop walkways! You can see some of HB Land's green in the arbor and near the back of the restroom.

Nope. Next clue: Not all of the guests appreciated it, in fact it was probably less than half of them.

Someone got close but no cigar yet. Next hint: it's not in Rivertown anymore.

I get back to the park about every five to ten years. It has grown into a very green space which I really like. In 1972, the only trees were in Rivertown. The ginkgo trees from Coney were nice looking but didn't offer shade, and all the trees on International Street and other areas were just sticks. It was a hot park covered in blacktop, painted different colors in each theme area. Rivertown was red, Octoberfest was brown, HB was green, Coney was black. I do miss the laid back feel of the family run park, but the coasters are awesome. It is sad that they have lost so much of the theming. Costumes used to be themed to the areas as well. Machine has replaced Magic. They really missed the boat by not designing transportation into the park. It would be nice to have today, even if the park expanded outside the track loop. Opryland had the best train ride of them all. It offered transportation from one end of the park to the other, but it wound through the park instead of around it like Disney, and the track earth berm separated theme areas with bridges under the track at the entrance to the areas. They once told me they could attribute about ten cents per patron hour in sales to the advertisement the train ride gave to restaurants, souvenirs, and games. But overall, I'm proud of the way KI has grown, and I look back at it with the same sentimentality I have for my college and high school. It was two of the best years of my life, and I grew to be much more of a people person from working there.

Nope. Second hint: It wasn't built yet when this picture was taken.

Nope, the two settlers cabins actually did make it in before April 29. First hint: it was not on the railroad but it was in Rivertown.

OK, here's a trivia question for you. What was the first NEW construction added to the park after the park opened in 1972? It was probably finished and in use by July 1972 and was built in a rush.

Way cool! I have never seen that video clip. That was 1972 (I painted the headlight bracket red in 1973), and yep, that's me poking my head out to see if anyone was on the track. Thanks for posting that. Bill Bosse, one of the Cinder Sniffers who was good at sheet metal, made that stack cap in '74 or '75. Not sure why, but I think the original stack on #12 was a Crown "quicky" to get it out the door since they were busy then and Crown founder Ken Williams had just died so they might have been short handed. It was a horrible job of bumping some 10 gage around on the brake. Nothing smooth at all. Their earlier balloon stacks were much better proportioned and made, and I would have loved to have had one of them. I notice that the cap stack is now painted red like Tweetsie.

It was a cold misty day when we opened on April 29, 1972, and it stayed wet through most of May and June. There was no animation or buildings along the railroad since construction was put behind by the weather. A sound system was set up in the station so the conductors could tell the crowd what they would see if they came back in a month or two. It was just a track through a mudhole out there. There was literally nothing to see. And there were probably a few guests that were ticked off. After all, they had paid a whopping $5.95 gate price, and the average person spent another six bucks on food, games, and souvenirs. Yep, the per cap was twelve bucks a head out the gate!!!! Taft was worried since they had mortgaged themselves to beat Fess Parker's Frontier Worlds to opening, even though owning old Coney's rides made KI a steal at $33 million. Fess and his California investors were planning to spend $100 million in Boone County before they threw in the towel. But we were on shaky ground. If I recall, management told us we needed 11,000 to break even and we had days that barely topped 8,000. They wanted a soft opening because one of the reasons Freedomland failed was bad publicity from 64,000 plugging the highways on opening weekend. But I think Kings Island's first two months were a lot softer than they imagined. Even in a park as small as it was back then, you had to search the horizon to find paying patrons. We questioned why they built such a big parking lot. One rainy night I sat on the locomotive for over an hour without even seeing a guest walk through Rivertown. We were the farthest point of civilization so people often never even made it back to the corner of the park. But we did not close early. That was unthinkable. We would use a 110 ton train to take two people out for a ride at 10:59 if they showed up. Not an economical operation. Then on July 4th, all hell broke loose. The world discovered us. The parking lot was packed. We were to close at 11:00, but an announcement over the park's sound system extended closing to midnight. An hour later, the crowd still had not gone away, so we closed that night at 1 AM. And that was not just International Street, it was every ride in the park. The train left on its last trip at 12:45. For the rest of the year, we were busy and some weekends the line for the train was out into Rivertown's main street. We had a contest with The Racer to see who could haul more bodies in a day and we had our extra crew standing in front of The Racer directing guests to the train. We had them beat until the last hour when people wanted The Racer to be their last ride. Taft had dodged a bullet and I'm sure there were some humongous sighs of relief up in the front office. What would a crowd of 8,000 look like in the park today?

My "interesting qualifications" were just a real interest in steam, fostered by my grandfather who had steam farm engines before I was born. I spent two years there and maybe after I retire I may see if I can go back and work Year 50. That would be really cool, but it is a whole different company. In 1972 it was just Coney grown up with the Schott/Wachs/McHale/Spiegel oligarchy still running it. It was still a little family park and we got away with stuff that OSHA and the park would never allow today. The train was Ed McHale's favorite ride and he spent money on us. So much fun working back in the enginehouse because we were alone back there in the woods, no Whitewater canyon, no Mystic Timbers, no waterpark to stop at, just an occasional picnic ground kid peering through the fence. It was the quietest corner of the park where people snuck in at night hopping the fence. I was a music major at the time, so naturally I asked about what the entertainment division would be doing to show a little more seriousness about wanting to work there, but the locomotive was where I really wanted to be.

In going through old papers, I found my original letter from Bill Reed, Assistant Director of Ride Operations. In 1971, I had met Lew Brown who had a 14” gage oil fired 4-6-2 in a park in Waynesville. At Lew’s suggestion, I had written to the park after seeing a picture in the Dayton Daily News of the first test run of #19, then Simon Kenton. Note Bill’s spelling of “propane”! In the second page that I did not scan, he mentioned that they had hired two people already, obviously Lew and Kenny. On my Christmas break from college, I interviewed and was given a tour of the park in a yellow Volkswagen Beetle by a twenty something blonde kid named Al. Al Weber would someday be the General Manager of the park and eventually be kicked upstairs at Paramount. The entire park was still a muddy unpaved mess and most of it was still under construction. We watched workers hand push cars over the hills of the Bavarian Beetle in Octoberfest. There were Antiques Cars driving on International Street. The train station was full of canoes. We walked out to the trestle which had a walkway down only one side, and it was on the wrong side so they had to add the second one. Al drove me back to the enginehouse and my blood pressure rose. A green coach was on the mainline next to the enginehouse and a red one had drifted down to the low spot just before the curve into the station. There was no falsefront town or car shed, so the propane tank dominated the barren scene. The enginehouse was a bare pole barn with two walls and roof, no ends, and freezing cold. It had a ballast floor, no ceiling, no tools, no jacks. A portable gasoline air compressor sat outside to create a draft for firing up. #19 sat cold in the stall where the jacks now are, and it was a mess. The test run had been done with muddy water. I crawled all over it, telling Al what everything was, and he was impressed. It would be two more months before #12 and more coaches would arrive. I would be the first seasonal hire for the railroad, and maybe for the whole park (excepting kids coming from old Coney), at $1.10/hour. We actually got paid more than other seasonal employees because we maintained our own ride. In March, Lew, Kenny, Lew’s grandson Randy, and myself would chase each other around the track on Saturdays to shakedown the equipment. On my first day, the feedwater hoses were frozen full of ice and Lew put me out in the bitter wind, roasting the hoses over the exhaust of the gasoline air compressor. I would forget to put the spout up on the frozen watertower (we had to quit early for lack of water), so we ripped it off as we pulled out and maintenance had to fix it. I would also back #19 into the wrong stall, and I think it has been there ever since. But Lew Brown was a forgiving boss and liked my work ethic, so he moved me to the righthand seatbox in only a month and I became their first young engineer. I spent two amazing summers being paid for something I would have gladly done for free. It is all so vivid in my memory that I can’t believe it will soon be fifty years ago.

WOF supposedly started with six coaches, then five, now four. It will be interesting to see if the other coaches mysteriously re-appear when Levi comes on line. On another website, Levi is getting a new crown sheet and all new stays around the wagontop.

Looking back over the email, it appears that Keith bought the Davvy in 1981 and sold it to Norred in 1990 who traded it to WED in 1996. BTW, for Google Earth fans, the Davenport loco plant still stands. It is now Howard Steel at 2343 Rockingham in Davenport, IA.