Prompted by this question,
What is this carnival attraction called?:
I’m thinking of a ride I was on in the mid-1970s. Passengers sit inside small barrels (big enough for three or four kids sitting inside, on a circular bench). The barrels are attached to spokes around a central motor, and spun around - but then released, one after another to roll through a tangential alleyway just a bit wider than each of the barrels.
That seems very unusual. I don’t know that I’ve heard of any ride where the cars are “released” in any way. Spinning rides always have fixed attachments, and roller coaster cars are fixed to the track.
How did the attachment mechanism work? Top, bottom, or side? And how did they roll out the alleyway–was there a track of some kind?
There are many barrels-on-spokes rides, along with variants (on a rotating platform instead of spokes, or the barrels are some kind of animal). But nothing I’ve heard of where they’re released.
I think I know what the OP is asking about. Like, instead of a roller coaster car that sits still (relative to the motion of the train), instead it spins?
There are definitely roller coasters where each car can rotate (there’s a pivot between the part with the wheels and the part people sit in). In fact I just saw an example at the CA State Fair… NASCAR Racing, or something like that. Definitely racing themed. But there was no portion of the ride where multiple cars were attached to a multi-spoke device.
Like the OP, I have seen a spinning-then-released ride, but unlike OP, it didn’t contain only 3-4 people. It had like 10 people or more. It was around the size and shape of a “river rapids” ride, with 10 or so people in a circle, except it was attached to a spinning contraption that spun them around faster and faster in a circle, and then released them into a hallway that was only slightly bigger than the vehicle. They bounced against the wall and then vanished out of my sight. I’m assuming they stopped naturally a bit after that. The first time I saw it in action I was quite surprised for a half a second, but then realized that it was intentional after they went through a clearly pre-created passageway.
EDIT: I guess it’s possible that the containers only contained 3-4 people since I only saw it once in the mid 90s, or that it was a different variant on the ride from the OP.
I’m glad someone else remembers something like what I do.
In answer to the other questions, I think the point of connection was at the bottom of each barrel but I could easily be wrong. What I remember most is hearing each barrel being released and anxiously waiting for my barell’s turn.
Did the barrels not have windows or something? Seems like you wouldn’t need to hear the barrels being released if you can just see everyone else. Was it semi-random or were the barrels released in order somehow?
No windows, as I recall (45 years later!) or I was too overwhelmed by the centrifugal effects to look. There was probably specific order of release to keep the device close to balanced but I only experienced it from the inside, so I don’t know
Lack of windows seems very puke-inducing (even on top of the usual you get from spinny rides).
How did the cars get back on the spinning portion? I’m imagining a track with two parts: a circle and then a more oval part, with maybe half the circle shared with the oval (and inside it). The cars spin up, then some clamp releases and they slide down the oval, going straight for a while but coming to a stop on the far end. The riders exit and new riders get in. Once all the cars and the spinning part are stopped, the cars with new riders finish the loop and are directed back to the spinning portion, locking in place one by one. Once all cars are in place, it spins up again and the cycle repeats.
Something like that, or am I misimagining?
I think the passengers were let out and then the barrels when through a short alley back to the loading/attaching area
Rolling Thunder was a new roller coaster at Six Flags north of Chicago when I was a kid in the 90s. It didn’t have a track/rail for a few sections and rolled thunderfully untethered in a big slide. These links call it a bobsled type.
Edit: this one is not a mobile carnival or fair amusement ride, of course.
This one has good overhead photos of the trough and dates it 1989-1995.
That’s pretty neat. Hadn’t heard of that type of coaster. A bobsled section is still pretty constrained, but still, it’s very unusual to have a transition like that.
I haven’t seen this modern incarnation, but from the pictures and descriptions it sounds like the Virginia Reel, ride dating back to 1908. There used to be one at Revere Beach in Massachusetts , which was replaced by a more elaborate version
https://www.historicnewengland.org/explore/collections-access/gusn/330274
I hadn’t remembered it was almost all trough, a dry slide.
Beside it being unpopular among my tween peers, my only memory of riding the ride is the violence of the stabilizing centering wedge that gets the car back on track at the end of the sled part. It had to straighten out a big lateral wobble and knocked my knees together.
I’ve got vertigo from the “egg shaped” bit yet this does not sound like the “ride” my wife and I rode on on Yelagin Island in St. Petersburg.
Looking Death fearlessly in the eye is the mark of a good ride. Almost dying is a bit less attractive.
In this thing, the two of us were side-by-side in an egg-shaped craft, and the whole lot of them (about eight) would spin and almost intersect with the others. They also flipped vertically, so once it really got going you were rotating, spinning, flipping and testing the veracity of your “seat belt” while you were practically coming out of your pants and would certainly be run over if you left the craft.
I have seen the thing they tested Apollo astronauts in. Yet they were tightly in and the worst they’d do is pass out / puke.
I held onto my belt and my wife for dear life as this was Russia, not NASA. She got sick and had vertigo for a few days after. I was okay after some vodka. And a day or so later, one of their crane thingies got stuck for 19 hours.
Five stars. Highly recommend.