Okay now that we have explored the Badlands on Stagecoach and Train excursions, now is the time to explore some other transportation methods that could be found in Frontier Village.
Old 99 was a small train ride where the little kids could become the engineers of their own steam engine train. There were no cars following the engines, just the little cartoon looking steam engines. They would go around at a very slow speed around a small circuit of track. If I remember there was a small bell that you could pull the rope and make it go clang, clang, clang as you went around engineering your train around.
Near Old 99 was the Antique Autos ride. These small cars would travel around on a small circuit concrete roadway. These were electric powered by bus bar and were fun to drive. They had steering wheels that did absolutely nothing. The course it took was very twisty and as the park aged it was lushly landscaped.
The Spirit of Kitty Hawk was one of the later rides added to the park. It was little airplane themed vehicles. They had a large rudder type of wing in front of the vehicle and you could grab the handle in the wing and let the wind direct your ride journey. Each of these airplane themed vehicles was attached to spokes radiating from a central spinning hub by way of chains in front of and behind each vehicle up to the spokes above. This was one of my favorite rides because it generated quite a cool breeze on a summer day.
The Round-up was a carnival ride where you stand up in half round pods. A chain across the pod would be the only thing to hold you in. These pods were placed around the perimeter of a large flat disk. As the ride began to spin you would be stuck against the wall of your pod. The disk would then start to go up on an angle and soon you would be doing some gravity defying rotations. The outside of this ride had large longhorn cattle horns on it and it was totally Frontier Village.
The Antique Autos weren't the automobile ride in the park there was also Duster's Turnpike. This ride also one of the last rides to be added to the park was located right near the entrance log stockade fort and on the fort side of the creek. Duster's Turnpike was a higher tech larger gasoline powered car ride. The vehicles were kept onto the track by way of a metal bar that ran down the center but the steering wheels actually turned the wheels. This is much like the car rides you see in other parks that survive today. Duster's Turnpike also had a much larger layout than the Antique Autos ride. Dusters Turnpike had overpasses and underpasses and just wasn't a flat layout. I really liked this ride.
Part 1 http://activerain.com/blogsview/717285/Frontier-Village-Part-1
Part 2 http://activerain.com/blogsview/718430/Frontier-Village-Part-2
Part 3 http://activerain.com/blogsview/718484/Frontier-Village-Part-3
Part 4 http://activerain.com/blogsview/721314/Frontier-Village-Memories-Part
Part 5 http://activerain.com/blogsview/721431/Frontier-Village-Memories-Part
Part 6 http://activerain.com/blogsview/723682/Frontier-Village-Memories-Part
Part 7 http://activerain.com/blogsview/732184/Frontier-Village-Part-7
Part 8
