Grand Carousel

Name: Grand Carousel

Opened in*: 1926

Diameter: 80 feet

Height of Ride: 15’-3 3/4 ”

Number of Horses: 48 hand-carved horses, of those, 28 move up and down.

Number of Lead Horses: 3

Manufactured by: Philadelphia Toboggan Company #79

Band Organ: Wurlitzer Duplex Orchestral Military Band Organ Style #157 built in 1918.

Band Organ Information: Only twenty Wurlitzer #157 Organs were built, and only two or three, of which one is at PKI, remain on carousels.  The band organ was originally used on a carousel at Ocean Grove, New Jersey.  It was purchased in 1964 by Paul Eakins and completely restored.  It was then located on PTC #79 when it was moved from Coney Island to Kings Island.  It plays #165 Wurlitzer Rolls and features a double tracker system, so that there is continuous music.

Band Organ Dimensions: The organ stands nearly 8 1/2 feet tall, over 12 feet wide and nearly four feet deep.

Instruments on the Band Organ: Bass – 6 wood trombones; 6 stopped diapason pipes; 6 stopped octave diapason pipes.  Accompaniments – 10 stopped flute pipes; 10 open flute pipes; 10 open piccolo pipes; 10 open piccolo pipes.  Melody – 44 violin pipes; 22 octave pipes; 22 piccolo pipes; 22 open flute pipes; 22 stopped flute pipes; 16 bar bells.  Trumpets – 14 wood trumpets; 14 wood clarinets.  Traps – bass drum; snare drum; cymbal; triangle; double castanets; tympani.  Automatic stops – 1 for bells; 1 for swell and wood trombones. Draw stops – 1 for wood trombones; 1 for wood trumpets; 1 for violins; 1 for flutes; 1 for piccolos.

Hourly Capacity: 580 people per hour

Location: Coney Mall

Ridership: The ride has given 20,869,375 rides since 1972.  Its record year was 1973 with 865,690 riders.  (Numbers through the 2009 season).

Miscellaneous: The park owns at least three extra PTC horses which are rotated in every season after being refurbished.  Currently, the park is in the process of restoring all the horses so that they are once again made entirely of wood and getting rid of all the fiberglass patches that had been applied over the seasons.  The Carousel was renovated in 1969 at a cost of $50,000.  Incidentally, in the flood of 1937 some of the carousel horses floated down the Ohio River.  All the horses were recovered and one horse was recovered as far away as Paducah, Kentucky.

Photos