| Jazz Railway | |
|---|---|
| Rocky Glen Park | |
| Location | Rocky Glen Park |
| Coordinates | 41°21′12″N75°42′21″W / 41.353271°N 75.705919°W Coordinates: 41°21′12″N75°42′21″W / 41.353271°N 75.705919°W |
| Status | Removed |
| Opening date | 1925 |
| Closing date | 1927 |
| Cost | less than $20,000 |
| General statistics | |
| Type | Wood |
| Manufacturer | Traver Engineering |
| Designer | Harry G. Traver |
| Lift/launch system | Chain-lift |
| Height | 26 ft (7.9 m) |
| Length | 1,200 ft (370 m) |
| Duration | 1 minute 30 seconds |
| Trains | 3 cars. Riders are arranged 2 across in a single row for a total of 6 riders per train. |
Jazz Railway (sometimes Jazz Railroad) [1] was an early model line of wood roller coasters incorporating a steel-frame structure. These operated at various amusement parks and fairgrounds during the mid to late 1920s. [2] The coaster model is considered to be the first of the Wild Mouse style roller coaster. [1] [3]
While they ran on track constructed of laminated wood and steel—defining the coasters as wooden by modern standards [4] —Jazz Railways were marketed by the Traver Engineering Company as being all steel. The supporting structure of the track was indeed all-steel, and this was hailed as a new innovation in roller coaster design. Advantages of the prefabricated steel support structure included reduced cost, imperviousness to rot and fire, and a quicker set-up and take-down process—which would allow the coaster to be moved from location to location. [1] The name "Jazz Railway" itself was reported by Traver to be a way to distance the design from the wooden-framed roller coasters of the past. [3] [1]
Jazz Railways were important in its demonstration of (nearly) all-steel roller coaster construction. This presaged Traver's later Giant Cyclone Safety Coasters, which utilized the same building technique as Jazz Railway, but on a grander (and more frightening) scale. Jazz Railways were also important as a forerunner of the modern Wild Mouse coaster design. [3] [1]
Like modern Wild Mouse coasters, Jazz Railways were relatively compact in their design. The coasters had a footprint of 70 by 160 feet (21 by 49 m). Besides their steel frame structure, another innovation which connected Jazz Railways to the later Giant Cyclone Safety Coasters was its "jump" or "stunt" track (referred to in later Traver Cyclones as a "Jazz Track"). This consisted of rapidly undulating track that created a rapid shimmying motion. [1]
The first Jazz Railway was built at Rocky Glen Park near Moosic, Pennsylvania in 1925 [4] after being tested at Traver's factory. [1] Subsequent coasters were built at (or relocated to), the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Alabama State Fairgrounds, as well as parks in Bombay, Toronto, Detroit, and New Orleans. [2]
A roller coaster is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. People ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are often found in amusement parks and theme parks around the world. LaMarcus Adna Thompson obtained one of the first known patents for a roller coaster design in 1885, related to the Switchback Railway that opened a year earlier at Coney Island. The track in a coaster design does not necessarily have to be a complete circuit, as shuttle roller coasters demonstrate. Most roller coasters have multiple cars in which passengers sit and are restrained. Two or more cars hooked together are called a train. Some roller coasters, notably Wild Mouse roller coasters, run with single cars.
A wooden roller coaster is most often classified as a roller coaster with running rails made of flattened steel strips mounted on laminated wooden track. Occasionally, the support structure may be made out of a steel lattice or truss, but the ride remains classified as a wooden roller coaster due to the track design. The type of wood typically used in the construction of wooden coasters is Southern Yellow Pine, usually grown in the US and the rest of North America.
A roller coaster inversion is a roller coaster element in which the track turns riders upside-down and then returns them an upright position. Early forms of inversions, dating as far back as 1848 on the Centrifugal Railway in Paris, were vertical loops that were circular in nature. They produced massive g-force that was often dangerous to riders, and as a result, the element eventually became non-existent with the last rides to feature the looping inversions being dismantled during the Great Depression. In 1975, designers from Arrow Development created the corkscrew, reviving interest in the inversion during the modern age of steel roller coasters. Since then, the elements have evolved from simple corkscrews and vertical loops to more complex inversions such as Immelmann loops and cobra rolls. Featuring fourteen inversions, The Smiler at Alton Towers holds the world record for the number of inversions on a roller coaster.
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Known by a variety of names over its 101-year existence, Rocky Glen Park was a park near Moosic, Pennsylvania. Founded by Arthur Frothingham in 1886 as a picnic park, it was transformed into an amusement park by engineer and entrepreneur Frederick Ingersoll in 1904. The trolley park was a popular Pennsylvania attraction that featured rides, arcades, and restaurants – even as a "wild west" theme park in the 1970s – until its closure in 1987.
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