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The thing is a fiberglass carousel with horses that are shot out of a mold like a mass produced copy don't have the character, heart, soul and individuality that a hand carved wooden carousel horse does.



The Grand Ole Carousel was hand carved by the artisans at the Philadelphia Toboggan Company.  It was PTC's 35th carousel and opened in 1915 at Cleveland Ohio's Luna Park.  After that park closed in 1930 it moved across town to the legendary Puritas Springs Park for the next twenty-eight years.  When Puritas Springs Park closed (sadly loosing the legendary Cyclone terrain coaster) the carousel moved to Indian Lake Park in Ohio where it ran until 1971 when it left Ohio and moved to Missouri.



Since the carousel was restored in 1971 and moved to Six Flags St. Louis I don't think the sixty eight horses (58 jumpers and 10 standing) and two chariots have seen a drop of paint.  It just thrills me to think of how amazing this is going to look when all of the horses, chariots and the rest of the Grand Ole Carousel get the love this ride so deservedly needs.

My hopes are that the park has a media day to reopen the heart and soul of the park and I'm invited.  It'd be great to ride a reborn PTC #35 over and over again.



This was Bond's first visit to Six Flags St. Louis since Supergirl was added so he joined Travis for a ride.



His impression was that it was good but not quite as great as the Highland Fling that it replaced.  As he put it:

"The Fling was a Schwarzkopf design and you can't get any better than that".
 


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Copyright 1999 - 2020

Paul B. Drabek