Town Hall Reborn

XS NightClub said:

mgou58 said:

But you should reserve judgement until you, like everyone else on here, see the final result next spring.

Is it just critical judgement that should be reserved?

Or should fanfare and claims of awesomeness be reserved as well, until everyone sees the final result?

Sure if it suits you? But it seems to me more folks are excited for these changes than those who aren’t. The same comments (good or bad) can be found on Facebook and Twitter. Which isn’t to say people aren’t entitled to their opinions. But to jump to a negative conclusion based off a vague description and an artist rendering doesn’t seem fair. Give the park a chance.

Believe me I am an outspoken critic of many aspects of the park (food services and staffing come to mind) but I’m willing to have an open mind about change.

Now that this horse is dead let’s move on.

XS NightClub said:

Is it just critical judgement that should be reserved?

Or should fanfare and claims of awesomeness be reserved as well, until everyone sees the final result?

We're talking about improvements here, so I think it's fair to say that reserved optimism is more justified than harsh criticism until we see the final product. It's false equivalence to suggest the two points of view are equally valid.

Thanks for your input and insight, Rugrats, I was kind of disappointed seeing many of the items gone. I had enjoyed going through the Town Hall since I was a kid in the 70's with my father pointing out and explaining things, and we did the same with our kids. Engineers also enjoy looking at some of those old mechanical items, too. I will especially miss the clock. Interesting how the repairman died and no one could take his place to repair the old arcade games. It's too bad upkeep wasn't invested. Many parents take their kids to historical places to learn about the past and the Frontier Trail and Town gave us a little bit of that, too. The Town Hall did fit in with the Frontier Town theme as well as teaching and sharing with our children.

It will be interesting to see how the new Town Hall is displayed.

At least they are keeping the trains going and having trained engineers. For now.

Nostalgia is one thing I do tend to seek out, but let’s be honest, inside of a Cedar Point museum, wouldn’t you want to see history and artifacts of Cedar Point? Not old and dusty dried up bars of soap, and other pieces that do not pertain to the actual history of the park?

Rugrats2001 said:You know all of those non-working arcade games and devices sold in the museum auction? They are non-working because when the games service & repair employees retired, nobody had been trained to replace them and all memory of game repair was lost.

It's possible that there just aren't any spare parts around any more to fix those old games. I own a 1957 Zenith Prelude record player console, and while the guy I hired was restoring it he told me that many of the older model record players can't be restored any more because the parts to replace broken/missing/worn out elements just don't exist. Time and dwindling supply does that.

Some years ago I had an old house that had a gas furnace that was original to the house - built in 1927. When I had it inspected the guy said "It's in great shape, but if anything breaks on it you'll have to get the whole thing replaced - they don't make parts for it anymore!"

It would seem the parts aren't a problem for many other places to come across, there is a trending category of pub/tavern that caters to retro-arcade games in an adult bar atmosphere. These arcade-bars do have newer games and some that are retro-refurbs, but they are also filled with old classic styles video games.

It might be a nice idea for CP to relocate the arcade into a smaller location in the park as an arcade-bar. That would free up the massive arcade location and provide something new and trendy to a market that has changed with the generations.

I suspect the remaining full-time, year-round arcade maintenance person would be pretty upset that you all have "retired" them, especially considering their 20+ years at the park. Last season Arcade Maintenance had a crew of at least 3 that I met. So maybe all of the data in this regard has yet to be printed in the Sandusky Fishwrapper,... er.. Register.

1000 years of force said:
I suspect the remaining full-time, year-round arcade maintenance person would be pretty upset that you all have "retired" them, especially considering their 20+ years at the park. Last season Arcade Maintenance had a crew of at least 3 that I met. So maybe all of the data in this regard has yet to be printed in the Sandusky Fishwrapper,... er.. Register.

There is a serious difference between being trained to fix vintage mechanical and electro-mechanical games & devices like those sold from the Town Hall Museum and the pinball and Ski-ball machines sold from the main arcade, and the modern IC driven games currently in the arcade. It’s no big deal to pop in a replacement circuit board, Jimmy a coin return, or install a new, still manufactured motor in a coin-push game; its another story fabricating a broken bronze gear or pot-metal component in a pre-1970’s device.

In other words, today’s arcade maintenance folks know little to nothing about fixing the old machines. Not a slam against them; I don’t expect my local Ford dealer to be able to fix the mechanical brakes on a pre-WWII Model A Ford either.

Whatever happens, I really hope there's a photo oppertunity with an old tub from my favorite ride ever that CP had. I want to sit in it and take a picture and looks just like I did when I was little. you know how people do those "then/now" photos on facebook? I need that

you can get free versions of photo editing software and make your own photo ops, that way you'd avoid the insanely long wait times for the Sir-Rub-A-Dubs photo op.

Is that included with FunPix?

Yes. It'll even come in a little viewfinder.

Sir-rub-a-dub Tubs were soooo agonizingly slow, if they had a on-ride photo it could have been a short video.

There is an official CP POV on their youtube site. My son loved this ride and so did I.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-ix_UrSjUp0&list=PL4A974F53C3E5FDBF&index=37&t=0s

Thank you for posting that video, because now I actually know what the hell Sir Rub A Dubs Tubs was.

#MeToo

I think it would be cool if they showed old blueprints or early layout designs of Millennium Force, Steel Vengeance, Maverick, Magnum and etc before they went with what we see and know today. It would be neat to see and wonder wow how much different the park or this particular coaster would have looked!

1000 years of force said:

I suspect the remaining full-time, year-round arcade maintenance person would be pretty upset that you all have "retired" them, especially considering their 20+ years at the park. Last season Arcade Maintenance had a crew of at least 3 that I met. So maybe all of the data in this regard has yet to be printed in the Sandusky Fishwrapper,... er.. Register.

And the Register has a paywall...... And 6 customers....

DragsterD said:

I think it would be cool if they showed old blueprints or early layout designs of Millennium Force, Steel Vengeance, Maverick, Magnum and etc before they went with what we see and know today. It would be neat to see and wonder wow how much different the park or this particular coaster would have looked!

This would be a cool idea.

One thing I loved about working at GL was all the old concept art and blueprints for rides in the maintenance shop and the offices. Seeing what could've been but got cut due to budget. Or how things changed due to construction issues/budget.

Examples include the concept art for Serial Thriller (Vekoma SLC) had the ride interacting with features that made it look like a mining camp. It was really cool. Also, Dominator's original Gotham Themeing was awesome and the station was flipped around.

Anywho, seeing original blue prints or concept art would be cool.

WolfBobs-I know at the steel vengeance media rob decker talked about some of the earlier layout concept art designs that rmc had come up and ncluding what rob decker said one of them was interesting and said there one layout they had would have shot it out into the park! I sent a couple tweets to tony clark on twitter about this idea maybe someone could ask tony or jason about at winter chill out!