Amusement Park Choo-Choos
As I've mentioned before, whenever I see a locomotive pass by, I point, jump up and down, and yell, "Choo-choo! "CHOO-CHOO!". It's adorable. Today's "Anything Goes Saturday" post features two amusement park trains.
Let's start with three pictures from 1981. "1981?? That was something like two years ago!". I don't know how to break it to you, but 1981 was over 40 years ago. I checked the math on my Texas Instruments Nixie tube calculator! The pictures were taken at California's Great America in Santa Clara, California. That park was built by the Marriott Corporation, but it is now owned by Cedar Fair.
Here we see the Great America Scenic Railway (there is another Great American Scenic Railway at Marriott's Great America - later Six Flags Great America - in Gurnee, Illinois). The Great America Scenic Railway trains were supplied to Marriott’s Great America by the Custom Fabricators company of Johnson City, Tennessee. Each park had two trains: one red and one blue. The Great America Scenic Railway had stations in Hometown Square and County Fair.
The train’s routes circled (the) park, providing a relaxing sightseeing tour. The GREAT AMERICA Scenic Railway also served guests as an easy means of transportation between the front and back of the park. During typical operation, guests could remain on board for as long as they liked.
The Santa Clara Great America Scenic Railway was removed after the 1999 season. The Hometown Square station was demolished. The Fairgrounds Junction station was converted into a queue house for the Psycho Mouse roller coaster.
Here's a nice vintage postcard.
This next slide was hand-labeled "Toonerville Trolley 1957" - which doesn't make a lot of sense, but OK. "Toonerville Folks" was a popular newspaper comic strip by Fontaine Fox (great name!), running from 1908 to 1955. Central to the strip was the rickety little trolley called the "Toonerville Trolley that met all the trains", driven in a frenzy by the grizzly old Skipper to meet each commuter train as it arrived in town. But this train doesn't seem to have any connection to Toonerville.
But I digress! This little locomotive has "H & CR RR" painted on the tender, but I could not figure out what those letter stood for (well, I got the "RR" part!), or where this cute little train operated. Since I have the smartest hu-man readers, I would not be surprised if one of you solves this mystery!
I hope you have enjoyed today's amusement park trains.
12 comments:
When these images were taken it was still known as Marriott's Great America. It didn't become California' Great America until much later.
The disappointment with the trains is that the "steam" locomotives were actually electric with fake chugging audio. Not the real thing.
And now this theme park will meet the same fate as Opryland, USA and AstroWorld when it closes permanently within the decade.
That Great America train looks great and all, but I would really like to see the Pictorium: "World's Largest Cinema Experience". I hope something really good is playing there with spectacular cinematography. Maybe Beavis and Butt-head cartoons! (Fingers crossed!) I really do like the train. I see they have one of those cotton candy makers attached to the engine.
Wow, seems like couldn't demolish that train and its stations fast enough! Gotta make more room for more roller coasters and queues! I guess TRE isn't limited to Disneyland.
I'm no help with the location of the H & CR RR. I wonder what that pile of logs is for? Maybe they're future lamp posts like we see lining the RR, only they haven't had their bark peeled off yet.
Choo-choo! CHOO-CHOO! You're right, it IS adorable! Thanks, Major.
Nice train pics today, Major! It's sad that Cedar Fair has chosen to close down Great America. But then it's also sad that whoever owned it in 1999, chose to remove the park's railroad. They ruin everything, don't they?
Now I feel like mixing up a big batch of Choo-Choo Cherry Funny Face punch.
On the seercond shot, the red car at the end kinda looks like the Toonerville Trolley.
TRE is rampant...but perhaps some thing TRE is "Progress"...perspective...in any case: let's take out a train to put in a psycho mouse? huh? I'm not sure you can refer to anything anymore as "psycho"...perhaps mice. I'm not sure if Mickey qualifies for psycho...he was quite the straight lace kind of mouse. I think there are other cartoon mice that make the cut though. I'm not sure if I would name a psycho ride after a little critter like a mouse...perhaps a hyena or something more typically "psycho". Santa Clara: home to the Winchester Mystery house: which despite it 's touristic qualities: I really like. All the stories and stuff are pretty much kind of bunk...but it's interesting all the same. I used to drive past it regularly when I worked down there. The giant size ranch has been downsized considerably since the 1920's...and now Santa Clara is basically a giant shopping destination of the South Bay area. Interestingly: shortly after Mrs. Winchesters death: 9 months later...the house became a tourist attraction, and is still owned by the heirs of the family that bought the house when it was in poor shape and had no value: except for the land underneath. A Disney ex-pat ran the place for quite a while in the 70's-90's, and popularized all of the myths: which in turn brought the people. Another story is that the house inspired Walt to build another Haunted Mansion down south: "looks fine on the outside, and creepy on the inside"...not sure what to believe, but architecturally: although it is a crazy quilt of styles: I like it. I never went to the Great America Place while down there: and there was another place on the Peninsula: Marine World/Africa USA...which became Oracle and housing, and when I moved to the Peninsula the real estate agent listings referred to houses in that part of town: "Marine World". The Peninsula also home to "Arrow Development" not too far away. I wonder if Marine World also offered a Psycho Mouse? In Gilroy, CA: also not too far away: is Gilroy Gardens: home of the twiling garlic bulb and artichoke. Or perhaps you want to ride in a worm inside of an apple? Check it out: the rides are kind of cute: I'm sorry I missed this place while living up there: it looks right up my alley. I wouldn't have minded a nice train ride around the Great America place either. Thanks Major for the morning rabbit hole.
Our kids visited Great America a few times on church Sunday school outings, but Mrs G and I never went in. I’m not surprised it’s being closed. It’s been very popular, but located in the center of the most expensive real estate probably anywhere, it can’t survive.
I love those little trains, but I have no idea where they might be located. Hoping Steve D and Chuck can identify them.
Thanks for the trains today, Major.
JG
While I have fond memories of my one visit to Marriott’s Great America in 1976, I am ashamed to admit I have no recollection of riding the train. I will now go stand in the corner for an hour.
[60 minutes later…]
I am trying to figure out what the designers were thinking when they added those pier pilings to the top of the locomotive tender. If that were actually a wood-fired locomotive, it would take two firemen to load each log into the firebox, and I’m not convinced they would be able to close the firebox door, much less light them on fire.
Perhaps the last slide is of the “Hot & Cold Running RR,” although I have no idea where it might be. It also appears to be the source of the Great America Scenic Railway’s pier pilings.
K. Martinez, thanks for the correction re: Marriott’s Great America. I’m not surprised that the trains are not actual steam locos, though it is always disappointing when they’re not “real”. I’m sure you are right about the park not lasting the decade, I wonder about Magic Mountain as well.
JB, I wonder if that really WAS the “World’s Largest Cinema Experience”? Was 1981 pre-IMAX? Probably. Learning that this train is gone makes me appreciate these photos even more, I’m glad I have them. Like you, I can only assume that those logs would eventually be finished and turned into those rustic light poles.
TokyoMagic!, I guess it’s time for me to confess that I am the “they” who ruins everything! I make the decisions! Ha ha!
DBenson, that last car looks like a caboose to me, the Toonerville Trolley was pretty distinctive!
Bu, if using the word “psycho” is wrong, I don’t wanna be right. There was that infamous Mickey Mouse cartoon, “Runaway Brain”, in which Mickey becomes a scary monster… I quite like it, but I guess the moms in the world do not. My brother used to live in San Jose, and the one time I went up to visit him, I insisted on going to the Winchester Mystery House, which had fascinated me since I was a child. I was a bit surprised to find it nestled right next to an ordinary shopping center, and not on expansive and well-manicured grounds. I’m glad I went, though I was disappointed at how much of the house is off-limits due to earthquake damage. I remembered a particular story from childhood, and asked the guide about it, and she said that it was just “one of those stories”. Bummer! I have no idea how much of the lore of the Winchester house is true or not, but even without the lore, it is a pretty crazy house. It’s too bad some billionaire won’t donate a bunch of money that they would never miss to completely restore the place, but that’s not how the world works, sadly. One thing I am sad that I missed is “Frontier Village”, which closed only a year or so before my brother moved up there. I didn’t even know about it until after it was gone. Gilroy… if you were miles away you could sometimes smell the garlic plants. I would have been fun to go there for the garlic festival, yum.
JG, I feel like I blew my chance to visit Great America… at one time I had three siblings in the San Jose area, and remember seeing a sign along the freeway for Great America. I think it was the off-season and it was closed. Now I have one brother who still lives up there, but I mostly see him when he comes south. Yes, the pile of whole tree trunks is odd, I wonder if they disguised piles of electric batteries? It’s a detail that one normally doesn’t really think about - unless you are a GDB reader!
I agree with DBENSON: that caboose in the last image was indeed once a TOONERVILLE TROLLEY. A New York or New Jersey company once made them for amusement parks and I recognized the distinctive slant sides and centered windows - you can also see the low clerestory on the roof where the static prop electric contact poles once were. I don’t think the trolley ride sold well … it just didn’t accommodate many passengers. I’ve seen a Santa’s village type park ( not associated with the sky Forest-Dundee-Santa cruz villages) that had one operating maybe Inyo the early 60’s .a small park in Big Bear Lakes - closed up by the late 70’s had one that was none operational by then and used as a passenger shelter fir their zoo type train. Sorry for the sloppy response - the new blogger format makes it almost impossibly vie for me to see what I’m typing …
great pics, and a real puzzler on the second one. although, researching all the various Toonerville stuff is surfacing endless cool images online.
stll looking, but perhaps, a stretch, H&CR.RR could be "Highway and County Road Railroad" (?). as for where it is... ????
I rode the Scenic Railway the first season Great America opened in 1976. They must have had only one train because the wait seemed like forever. Once on board, the train moved very slowly. It's path around the barren perimeter of the park seemed to show more back areas than anything scenic. One location of interest mentioned in the spiel was the holding pond for the Yankee Harbor waterways / attractions. :\ But then by 1986, the park was really starting to look good, with the trees maturing and more interesting attractions added. The Paramount days of Great America were actually very nice with lush movie scores played thought the park. After Paramount, TRE started to settle in - original theming was ignored, attractions removed, and the park seriously altered. The original designers were the same that did Freedomland and Six Flags so they knew their craft.
I love the little engine for the Toonerville Trolley. Thanks Major!
I’m afraid I have nothin.’ Except that no
“Wood burner” ever would have used logs that long. Chuck is right, they would never fit in the firebox. They are on the tender to hide something on the tender deck.
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