Are there any pictures of the old Blue Streak loading station?

I’ve the heard the Blue Streak used to have two separate buildings, one for unloading passengers and one for loading passengers. They combined them around 1994 to make room for Raptor. Is this true? Does anybody have any photographic evidence of this?

That is not true, the building itself is the same. What it did have was separate load and unload. The unload was where it is now and then the train would roll up to where you can now see a long stretch of track and the transfer track in the building. Load and unload were on the same side of the train. The queue was inside the building and the entrance was through the center of the structure. The line would extend out of the building and go all the way to the main midway. Later, additional queue was added to the exterior or the building and wrapped around the first turn around outside the station.
I have no photos but I’m sure some exist.

Looking through what I can find, if I understand what you're describing the transfer track would have to go under the old loading platform? So it would have been a raised platform that loaded where the transfer track also is?

If anyone can provide photos of that I would love to see them. Thank you.

This will give you a good idea of how it operated with a separate load/unload. It might also shock some of you who never lived through the time of no air-gates.

Interesting, thank you!

Not only are no air gates intriguing but seeing the train dispatch without the front row having fully been buckled is certainly something intriguing.

If I'm seeing that picture right though, I don't see any sign of the transfer track, was that a later addition?

ah yes the airgate revolution. I remember it was a novelty on some of the newer coasters as they came out, then slowly they started to appear everywhere.

And if you think about it, subways and trains everywhere still don't have gates. Sometimes there are accidents (it murders), but relative to the millions of rides given daily, it's insanely small.

Some of the coasters at Kennywood don't have gates when we visited this year. It was like a throwback to the CP of my youth being trusted to stand in the safe spot.

Not sure if Blue Streak always had seatbelts but at one point, they were optional. We never fastened them and no one required you to do so.

I think I remember the spiel saying something like, "Please buckle your seatbelts" for younger guests, or something similar.

What I clearly remember is the buzz bars and the operators actually "running" alongside the train as it began to dispatch out of the station, still checking the lap bars and still buzzing to get them to lock as the train rolled. And, of course, the huge brake levers.

Talk about lost capacity and throughput. Today's operations are really, really painful to watch. Safer? Maybe. Maybe not. But painful to watch.

Did they let people under 48" ride Blue Streak at some point? I remember the first time I rode it, I was close to the required height. My older brothers were coaching me to stand on my toes when the ride op looked at my height and flattening my feet back down when the ride op looked at my feet. My dad said we would just ride the rocket ride nearby if I wasn't tall enough. Kid 2-3 trains ahead of me was a good 2" under the required height but they let him ride anyway. So I figured I was fine (I was).

I definitely remember the buzz bars and the large brake levers. And the bell that rung in the station when the train hit the turnaround. Always will be one of my favorite coasters.

There were no seat belts. Sit down, push up pull back on the lap bar and go.
Hell, when Blue Streak was built cars didn’t even have seat belts.

Back in the day there were no seat belts. When I took my nephew on his first roller coaster, the Bluestreak, he was about six at the time, the look on his face at the first air-time hill was priceless. To this day he talks about how he went flying out of his seat and I had to grab him to save him. Bring the buzz-bar back so others can experience that thrill.

First time I rode was in 1965 when I was 7. They moved you fast up to the loading area. You jumped into the train as fast as possible. Once the train was loaded, it would take off from the station. Many times the buzzbar was not even down! That was scary when I was really young. Seatbelts weren't added until about 2 years before they changed to the current trains. This was around 1992. My wife and I rode it 24 times in one hour that year! It was just us and employees at the end of the day riding. We would leave the station and the employees would be yelling "Seat belts off". Miss those days!

99er said:

This will give you a good idea of how it operated with a separate load/unload. It might also shock some of you who never lived through the time of no air-gates.

Thank you, brings back fond memories.

The queue is adequate the way it is now. I always enjoy that ride.