Corkscrew crash

Does anyone remember when and what happened to Corkscrew? I remember there being an accident sometime ago.

I believe what you are talking about happened in 1998 or 1999. The chain snapped with the train towards the bottom of the lift. I don't think anyone was hurt, maybe a couple of riders sitting in the front got a few bumps from the chain hitting them. Wasn't anything horrible. As far as I know thats the only accident its had.

I don't know that they were hit by the chain, but they got really oily.

For some reason I seem to recall there was an instance in the 80's where it, or some Arrow looper somewhere, actually got stuck in the loop beyond all probability when an axle broke, dragging it to a stop mid-inversion.

I think it was Orient Express at Worlds of Fun back in the early 80's (meaning when the coaster got stuck in mid-loop).

I'm pretty sure it was one of the Demon Arrows.

Yes, I remember the coaster that was stuck upside down was the Demon at Great America near Chicago. Corkscrew was never stuck upside down.

Yes, the coaster that hung up in the loop was the Demon at Six Flags Great America. I never saw a definitive description of what happened, but my best guess is that the train dropped its back axle off of the roll pivot shaft. That caused the back of the train to drop between the track ties and become a gigantic anti-rollback. The train lost a lot of energy to the bouncing last car, and jammed up in the loop. As a result of that incident, a safety bracket was added to the last axle on all of the Arrow loopers. Somewhere I have "before" and "after" photos of that last axle, photos actually taken on Kings Island's Vortex.

Another coaster that hung up in a loop was a Schwarzkopf shuttle loop; there is a way that on a slow launch, the counterweight mechanism that normally holds the pusher plate up out of the way will actually drop the plate down so that it can hit the track ties in the loop and allow the train to jam.

Finally, one other was a Vekoma Boomerang on which the hoisting cable on Lift #1 broke. This caused the train to cruise down the first lift with the catch-car still attached. The hook mechanism on the catch car can't roll relative to the back of the train, so when the train started into the twist at the top of the boomerang, the catch car jammed up in the track and kept the train from proceeding while its weight kept it from going back.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Since we are discussing ride accidents I have a question. On the website rideaccidents.com , it states that on Saturday May 28, 1994 a 14 year old boy died after riding a roller coaster at an amusement park in Sandusky, OH. That's all it says. Obviously, this makes it sound like it was at CP but I don't remember anything like that happening. Does anyone know what particular incident the website is refering to or where it happened?? I'm just curious. Thanks.

He had a pre-existing medical condition, I think it was a burst brain aneurysm.

There was an incident with the Corkscrew back in 1981. Two cars seperated from each other after coming out of the loop. Sparks flew and lots of welding had to take place to get it back up and running. Several people hurt. A day or two later, people in the park were wearing T-shirts saying I survived the Corkscrew with the date of the accident on it.

Lazer Loop at Kennywood got stuck mid-loop as well when I was young, if memory serves.

SoEffenBored said:
Lazer Loop at Kennywood got stuck mid-loop as well when I was young, if memory serves.

The breaks on Laser Loop went out its final season and went back and forth something like 10 times. (between loop and rear spike)

I was at CP when this accident took place. My two brothers were on the corkscrew when it happened. The car actually seperated. Right before the first loop, the car broke and seperated. The two people in front of my brothers went through the loop and my brothers stopped. It was pretty scarry. I had a broken leg at the time and was not able to ride.

There are chains connecting each car on Arrow loopers in addition to the couplings. I don't think that the train actually broke into two separate pieces so much as the coupling came apart... and I think that your brothers were telling you a tall tale about being on Corkscrew when the accident happened. But then again I've been on Top Thrill Dragster all three times it has been stuck on top with riders... ;)

southpuddle,

snickerdoodle was the second person to mention the train separating some 28 years ago. I think that is plenty of time for CP to react and take a safety precaution of adding chains. Therfore by the time youi worked the coaster 27 years later, it had connecting chains in addition to the standard connections.

Apparently Snickerdoodle witnessed the incident as well, unless they are pulling our chains *pun intended*

I was in line when the corkscrew chain incident happened in 98. I still can't figure that one out...

My dad tells a story of a wheel coming off of the Arrow looper at Opryland USA while he was visiting there in the mid-80's.

We zoom in on a room lit only by the dim light from a fireplace. An old man sits motionless in his chair near the fire...his eyes staring blankly off into the distance as he puffs on his cigar. The wide-eyed children circled around him are silent as they wait for Grandpa Whitmore to speak...

Suddenly...his eyes start to squint as he begins to weave the tale...

"June....1985", his trembling voice recalls,"...on a night just like this..."

The children gasp, clenching each other's hands as their grandfather holds an odd-looking black wheel in his hand...turning it back and forth reflecting the light from the fire into their eyes...

"They called her the Wabash Cannonball...and that was night she lost control..."

I worked at CP on the Western Cruise in 1981 and witnessed the incident on Corkscrew. I was backing up one of the Western Cruise boats at night to park near the Frontier Lift station and heard a loud sound near Corkscrew. I saw a number of sparks and watched as the front car of the white train skidded to the bottom of the first loop while the remainder of the train did not make the loop and ended up valleying. Guests in the front car had a variety of injuries and Corkscrew was closed for a few days for repairs. I also recall the quick clean-up by CP a few hours after the incident as a news helicopter attempted to report on the incident.

Interesting to stumble upon this old thread. I had mentioned this accident somewhere on here years ago and was met with, shall we say, "pointed skepticism."
In fact, the 1981 incident occurred exactly as Admiral Jeff described.
You can find an article blaming the accident on a bad weld in the August 27, 1981 issue of the Toledo Blade.

What ever happened to the blue train on the corkscrew? I was there today and there was a bin for it and it's not on tracks