Lincoln Park

This might interest some of you....

Lately I've been losing interest in coasters, but gaining interest in abandoned buildings/places. On a whim the other night me and my friend decided to check out what's left of Lincoln Park in Westport MA. I had all the wrong stuff camera wise, and it was dark by the time we got there so we didn't get to see everything, but it was fun none the less. We returned yesterday, better equipped gear wise, and with the help of some nice lighting (the sun) were able to fully explore the place. There isn't much left, mainly some burnt out buildings and what's left of the 1946 NAD coaster Comet, which has had 3 major sections collapse since 2005 and I'd say now has about 50% of the structure remaining.

Here are some pics from both trips:


























First trip set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/boulderdas ... 399926634/

Second trip set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/boulderdas ... 804547061/

[Coasterkidmwm]

Nice pictures! Didn't know that park existed ever.

I suggest you avoid buildings.

The element in that second picture looks pretty intense. I don't see Gravity Group pulling that one anytime soon

Cool pics though. Thanks for sharing.

Wow, those are fantastic! For some reason I love pictures of old abandoned coasters. They're so...eerie. Thanks for sharing!

Nice pictures, thanks for sharing. I was always astonished by wrecked coasters, virtually being a good example is The Spectre of Stone Mountain(I guess that was its name),and also the real one like this here. I guess I'm going to use one as wallpaper.

[TheArchitect]

very nice Freddie, thanks for sharing.

I always have wanted to go up to Medina and check out what is left of Chippewa Lake park up here, get some shots of the Big dipper like this. Unfortunately, it was readied for demolition in 2008, so I don't even know if any of it is still standing. Being that is only about 25-30 minutes from here, one of these days I may have to go and check it out anyways.

[gouldy]

Bit of WD40 and a lick of paint on that Woodie and it'd be fine.

Besides the collapsed lifthill, collapsed first turnaround, hill that kinda fell over, and station roof that now sits on the station platform, i'd say it's in exceptionally good condition.

It actually looked like a pretty fun ride; kinda Coney Cyclone-ish:




The story goes that at some point in the mid 80s, someone was ejected from the ride (supposedly a park employee who was standing and possibly switching seats/cars during the ride) which put the park into pretty serious financial trouble; that plus gaining a reputation for the crowds it would draw from nearby New Bedford and Fall River (both are pretty rough cities) put the park under in 1987 or 88. On the last day it was open, Comet derailed and they left the car on the tracks for some time after (Todd Long's photo on rcdb only shows 3 of the 4 cars, and maybe the chassis of the 4th, I can't really tell; I know that Little Americka did get all 4 cars for their restoration project thing).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spinnerpub/3277050236

This was actually the second derail...There was another more serious one in the 60s:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spinnerpub ... 3395102606

Interesting layout, interesting pics. Thanks for sharing!

Very cool pics. Nice job!

Thanks for that Freddie. I remember that coaster from an old VHS tape st my parent's bought me years ago. Anyone else lucky enough to have owned the Roller Coaster Weekend tapes? If not, it was an amateur video filmed and edited by Roy Brashears, one of the founding members of ACE. I wish there was a DVD release because it featured some of the most famous coasters spanning over 50 years, including Mountain Flyer, lincoln park comet(pictured above, Scream Machine at hunts pier, NJ, flyer comet at LP. The video featured great POV and Off-ride footage, but, I digress, Thanks again Freddie for reminding us that just because a coaster is no longer in operation, doesn't mean it no longer matters.

Mountain Flyer looked like an awesome ride. I've read that due to some miscalculation, the ride ended up too long for it's plot of land, so what they did was basically just make each bent 2' closer together, while keeping the hills the same height, which made them really steep. The turnaround looked awesome as well, which I've read had to be rebuilt every year as it had pretty much no banking and ran with the heavy 3 bench NAD Century Flyers. Just a cool ride all around.

For ultra-nerds out there, notice that Comet's Century Flyers are actually two bench. These are the only two bench NAD trains I know of in existence. This was also the first or one of the first rides ever to use pinch brakes rather than skids. These brakes are still in use on Camden's Big Dipper, which are the only ones I know of still in operation. According to the picture I linked in my above post, these were the cause of the last derail on Comet, though I don't know if that's true or not. They did allow the brakerun to be much shorter and didn't require a roof than had they used traditional skids.

Apparently it's getting torn down some time this month, so if you're in the area and have any interest go check it out now. I'm going to try to make at least one more trip, probably next week some time.

i would love to see a no limits recreation of the comet n mountain flyer..
i really do wish someone would step in and hire either g.g or gci n have them re design and re build classic coasters for new parks but with new stuff like 90 degree turns and such

No. If you're going to rebuild them, don't take away what makes them fun. 90s are by far the dumbest wood coaster element of anything I've been on, too.

One last trip before it's torn down; they have pretty much completely cleared the lot, so it's now a construction site with a coaster on it rather than a fun abandoned amusement park



The entire right side was under 2' of water, so it was a little difficult to navigate:
















highly accurate replica of Grand Central Station:

that would make a great wallpaper

[TheArchitect]

hey freddie can i have the fifth one down in full size? my email is in my profile. Thank you. Excellent pics, nice work with the positioning of the sun.

Really nice pictures. Like a lot of other people here, I find photos of old coasters interesting. Thanks for sharing!

^ Agree with previous post, it's amazing how nature just takes over when we are out of the picture.

[TheArchitect]

Well i personally love derelict/abandoned stuff, and also rollercoasters, so this is heaven to me. Would've made an epic hang-out.