The Carousel

I need some help. I am looking for pictures of the Illions carousel at the park. I have met a relative of the carousel maker who would love to see pictures. If you have any good pictures you can email them to me at dnldeck@netzero.net.

Thanks!

http://geaugaguide.com
http://geaugalake.coasterbuzz.com
http://www.geaugalaketoday.com

All three of those are good places for pictures of Geauga Lake, and GLT (the last one) might have some historical pictures of it.

Speaking of the Geauga Lake carousel...

I hope I am not the only one here who hopes that Cedar Fair will continue to cause that machine's band organ to be maintained in fantastic condition, and in fact perhaps even consider hiring the same contractor to do the organs at Cedar Point.....!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

That's the one thing I can't stand about the midway carousel at CP (can't say I've even been near the other one). I hate that it's not "real" music. When you go to other parks, it makes a big difference in the feel of the ride.

I love the fact that we still use the live organ at the park. The little old lady that sits in there all day is so nice and bakes the best cookies! ;) Actually the live organ can be a pain, it tells you when its time for a tune up, its starts to play really fast or slow, or really out of tune, sometimes it got so bad we had to shut the thing off until the company can get out to work on it.

Trust me Dave.. the organ from the carousel at CP is in NO condition to be rebuilt.

That's reall a shame. Up through the mid 1970's all four organs were kept in tip top condition by Don Stinson. Every winter they were sent in and completely gone through. They were strong performers, especially the one on the Frontiertown machine. Usually didn't have to do anything other than clean out the tracker bar screens (muffleheads).That all cahnged wiht the management change in the mid 1970's. The organ money was cut from the maintenance budget, and they were serviced only when they quit playing.

The Geauga Lake organ is a Stinson model 87 concert organ that sits behind the original Illions facade.

Right now, the going rate for band organ restoration is calculated two ways. It's either time and materials, or about $200 a key (if the organ is intact, and not butchered). The Midway organ is a Wurlitzer Style 153, with 54 keys. That would make a standard rebuild $10,800. The Kiddie Kingdom organ was originally a Wurlitzer 105, but was replaced by an organ built up from parts playing 165 rolls about 20 years ago. I would just replace that one with a new midi played Stinson.