Tag: Rotor

Luna Park Sydney

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Theme Park:Luna Park (since 2004)
Luna Park (2000 - 2001)
Luna Park (1995)
Luna Park (1983 - 1988)
Harbourside Amusement Park (1982)
Luna Park (1935 - 1979)
Address:1 Olympic Dr
Milsons Point NSW 2061
https://www.lunaparksydney.com/
Operated by: Luna Park Sydney Pty Ltd

Luna Park Sydney right next to the iconic harbour bridge is one of the most traditional amusement parks worldwide. Opened in 1935, the park hosts a large selection of family-friendy rides, as well as a bunch of very unique roller coasters. 

 
 
 

Highlights of the Theme Park

 



Coney Island • Fun House

 

Coney Island

Old fashioned fun

 


Rotor

 

Rotor

The sticky wall ride

 


Wild Mouse • Hopkins & Pearce Wooden Wild Mouse

 

Wild Mouse

An insane coaster

 


Luna Park Sydney

Testing the Sky Dragster at Skyline Park

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Preface

It has been a while since I last visited Bad Wörishofen and its local amusement park. Back then I did a small internship at Gerstlauer Amusement Rides in nearby Münsterhausen and stayed with a friend for a while. Since then, Skyline Park has almost doubled in size and some interesting rides have come and gone.

Skyline Park

As Skyline Park is one of the few theme parks where a ride on the Funtime Slingshot is included in the admission price, I started my day in this area of the park. However, due to strong winds, the Sky Shot was not open on the day of my visit.

The nearby Caripro Gyroflyer Sky Rider also had some problems during its test run and had to be towed back to the station. The unique suspended spinning coaster did not operate at all for the remainder of my visit.

Sky Spin

With the queue for the Bob Racing bobkart track barely moving, we set off for the Sky Spin spinning coaster. I rode this Maurer SC2000 twice on my only visit to the Oktoberfest in Munich. Back then the ride was known as Cyber Space and was operated by the Kaiser family. Between 2003 and 2012 the ride was known as Whirlwind at Camelot Theme Park in England. After the park closed, the ride moved to Skyline Park in 2013 and has been entertaining riders ever since. Unfortunately, the ride has become quite jerky over time, which is a bit of a surprise when you compare it to other rides of its kind.

Sky Dragster

Passing the Schwarzkopf Wild Cat Nostalgische Achterbahn, which I was not allowed to ride as a single rider (probably because of the Covid-19 rules), we now come to another coaster made by Maurer. Skyline Park has a good relationship with the Munich-based manufacturer, so you can find two of their prototypes at the park. The first one was the SkyWheel and the second one is the Spike Coaster Sky Dragster.

The Sky Dragster is currently the only Spike Coaster in operation. Its design is a cross between a classic steeplechase coaster and a powered coaster, although the rider’s position is quite close to the track. The cars are powered directly by a cogwheel running on a rack mounted on the side of the track. Because of this configuration, there is no rollback, so the track can be twisted into all sorts of crazy manoeuvres – it is even possible to accelerate the car along a vertical section of track, which is otherwise quite difficult to achieve on conventional track designs. Just like a Wiegand bobkart track, the rider can control the speed of the car and a control system adjusts the distance between the cars as needed. In addition, everything is monitored by the system, which on the one hand provides a remarkably high level of safety, but on the other hand has caused a lot of problems in the coaster’s early seasons.

On the day of my visit, the coaster was running smoothly. The track at Skyline Park has a long straight out of the station before entering a horseshoe turn. This is immediately followed by a 360° right turn. Two double-up hills follow immediately after. On the other side of the track you enter a strangely banked uphill spiral. After a descent back to station level, you run through a very tight s-bend before reaching the station. A second round follows.

I really like the acceleration of the Spike Coaster. The system is much less sluggish compared to conventional powered coasters. The only thing I did not like too much was the slow speed of most of the elements on the Sky Dragster. I know this is done to limit the forces on the rider, but it is kind of funny to allow a system to have a high degree of flexibility in track design when you have to regulate it massively to do so. However, if your design is mostly straight, then this system is fine. So I am not surprised that the Spike Coaster is most likely to be found exclusively on cruise ships like the Carnaval Mardi Gras. For a theme park, the low capacity of the ride is not justifiable at all, unless you are Mirabilandia and want to make some extra money with your fast pass system.

Sky Circle and Wildwasser 3

In the same corner as the Sky Dragster is the Zamperla Turbo Force Sky Circle and the large transportable log flume Wildwasser 3 by Mack Rides. This is the park owner’s second transportable log flume to make its way to Skyline Park. The first one was the Pirateninsel, which has now found a new home at the Eiffelpark in Rhineland-Palatinate. Wildwasser 3 was the largest log flume to be found at a German amusement park and as a result has three drops, the first of which is backwards.

Allgäuflieger

Close to Wildwasser 3 is the world’s largest Star Flyer. The chain swing Allgäuflieger offers a wide view of open fields, the mountains and of course Skyline Park just below. Due to strong winds I had to cancel the ride.

High Fly

One ride that I voluntarily skipped was the large inverting pendulum ride High Fly by SBF Visa, as I had already been punctured by their restraints the day before on the Papageienflug at Tatzmania Löffingen and did not want to risk it again. The High Fly is currently the largest inverting pendulum ride in Germany, but this record could easily be broken if a park is interested.

Sky Rafting

The next ride on our way through the park is Sky Rafting, formerly known as Wild ‘n Wet. The transportable water ride by ART Engineering starts with a vertical lift. Once at the top, a long slide section begins. Due to the curvy layout, the boats start to rotate strongly. A short drop at the end of the slide comes as a bit of a surprise as no one in the boat knows who is going to get wet.

Kids Spin

Not quite as unpredictable, but still a bit spiky, is the small spinning coaster Kids Spin. The small coaster from SBF Visa has the well known 3 loop layout, where the right leading curves always lead into a left leading curve. Due to the constant change of curvature, the cars can get into a good spin. After several loops the train comes to a halt in the station and the cars have to be turned back into position manually before you can exit the ride.

Geisterschlange

Passing the big SkyWheel coaster, we take a look at the Geisterschlange ghost train. The old ride from showman Lehmann has found its retirement home at Skyline Park. The ride is simply a beauty of a ghost train and it is nice to see it being preserved for the future in an amusement park like Skyline Park.

Zero Gravity

As the weather during my visit got worse and worse and heavy rain started to fall around lunch, let us now have a look into the only indoor attraction at Skyline Park. The hall opposite of the cute Baustellenfahrt once offered a motion simulator. It is now home to the Rotor Zero Gravity by SBF Visa. The Italian company gave the famous ride concept a new life by introducing translucent walls to the ride, where traditional rides feature a wooden barrel. To further increase the friction, the walls are also angled and feature a rather rough surface. The ride could therefore run slightly slower, but it does not. For minutes you are now pressed onto the wall, which becomes more and more exhausting over time. The light show is a plus, nevertheless, I was quite happy when the ride finally came to a stop.

Pictures Skyline Park

Closing Words

It was nice to return to Skyline Park after so many years. Unfortunately, due to the weather and the Covid-19 guidelines, I was not able to try every attraction I wanted to. However, I was very happy to have tried the new Sky Dragster coaster and to have spent some time on some of the classic rides before moving on earlier than expected.

 

What is your opinion about the novelties of Skyline Park and the Sky Dragster? Just write them in the comment field below the report or in our social media channels:

 

          

Skyline Park

Wild Mouse Galore

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Luna Park Milsons Point is probably the theme park with the most breathtaking view of all. Located right next to the world-famous Harbour Bridge and within sight of the Sydney Opera House, the classic Tivoli amusement park offers some of the best entertainment in Australia.

History of the Luna Park Sydney

Interestingly, the history of the theme park begins in Adelaide. From 1930 to 1934, there was the Luna Park Glenelg. Due to political decisions in South Australia that made the operation of the park no longer profitable, the Philipps Brothers looked for a new location in Sydney. At the same time, the use of the former Dorman Long site for people’s amusements was put out to tender. The Phillips Brothers won the tender and moved the rides to the new site at Milsons Point shortly afterwards. One year later, Luna Park was opened.

In the 1950s, David Atkins and Ted Hopkins, among others, took over the park from the Philipps Brothers. In 1969, when Hopkins retired, the lease was taken over by the World Trade Centre Pty Ltd. As a first measure, the consortium closed many of the old rides and replaced them with new American thrill rides. A new operations schedule, a new slogan and even a mascot were introduced to make the park more popular – even though the lease expired in 1975. Although Luna Park was allowed to continue operating, its continued existence was not assured. After two incidents in 1979, the New South Wales government put the park out to tender again.

Australian Amusements Associates won the tender in September 1980 and took over management of the site in early June 1981. Luna Park continued to operate as Harbourside Amusement Park between 1982 and 1988. After two independent engineers determined that several rides in the park needed to be shut down for renovations and repairs, the park was closed on 10 April. In November, the lease was transferred to Luna Park Investments Pty Ltd – and the chaos took its course. After several applications to replace most or all of Luna Park with appartment blocks and hotels, and with no apparent interest in the amusement park, the New South Wales government gave the company an ultimatum to open Luna Park by 1 June 1990. Shortly after, rides were moved, repainted and renamed to give the appearance of preparing the site for operation. The directors kept making excuses to get a postponement, but shortly after the ultimatum, the lease was terminated and the Luna Park Reserve Trust was formed. Shortly afterwards, the National Heritage Trust added several buildings on the site to its list of protected structures.

From 1991 to 1995, the park received a major refurbishment, which led to the installation of the Big Dipper roller coaster by Arrow Dynamics. Due to noise complaints from the new ride, the park had to reduce the operating hours of the ride, which led to a decline in visitor numbers and eventually to the closure of the park in 1996. In June 1997, the New South Wales Government presented four development proposals to the public. In February 1998, the NSW Department of Public Works and Services called for proposals for the redevelopment of Luna Park. Metro Edgley Group won the tender. Their proposal called for most of the rides to remain, but requested that the Big Dipper be replaced with a multi-purpose concert hall and asked that the Crystal Palace be redeveloped as an events centre. During the long decision-making and approval process, Luna Park was allowed to operate in late 2000, early 2001 during the Olympic Games and the summer season.

The redevelopment and restoration of Luna Park was carried out over 14 months. Since 2004, the amusement park has been continuously operating again.

Tour of the Luna Park Sydney

Rotor

If you enter the amusement park through the iconic entrance portal with its smiling face, you will immediately find one of the amusement park’s smash attractions to your right: a Rotor. The ride, patented by W. Ernst Hoffmeister, makes its passengers stick to the wooden wall just by the centrifugal force of the rotating cylinder and the friction between the passenger and the wall. A delightful fun ride, but one that can easily lead to dizziness.

Volare, Tango Train, Ferris Wheel and the Hair Raiser

The Volare wave swinger and the Tango Train musik express are less wild. The beautiful and quite new musik express offers two ride programmes: Mild and Wild. The wilder ride is especially recommended, as it takes place both forwards and backwards.

Directly opposite, you can enjoy the view on the Ferris Wheel or take a ride on the Hair Raiser. The small free-fall tower from Larson & ARM Rides is a real challenge due to its design, because thanks to the panels mounted above the passenger, you never know when you will reach the top of the tower and when you will fall straight down. The very short braking distance also makes for a very intense drop experience.

Dodgem City and Tumble Bug

Above the Dodgem City bumper car was once the station of the Big Dipper roller coaster and in the future the entrance to the New Big Dipper roller coaster – a single rail coaster by Intamin. At the time of my visit, nothing was known about this and so I only enjoyed a ride on the HUSS Troika Tumble Bug, which has since left the park.

Wild Mouse

On the other side of Main Street is the entrance to the Wild Mouse wooden roller coaster. Unfortunately, the wooden Wild Mouse belongs to a dying species and since the removal of the Wild Mouse from Blackpool Pleasure Beach in England, you can only experience this type of roller coaster here or in Indonesia. Yet wooden Wild Mice are one thing above all: bloody good roller coasters!

The ride on the Wild Mouse begins after a right turn with the ascent of the lift hill. Once at the top, we race through a series of tight hairpin bends before whizzing down a level in a wide curve. After two long straights, we then approach the first big shot and are immediately lifted off the seat. After coming back into contact with the seat in the valley, we immediately go over another hill accompanied by finest airtime. After a climb, we now cross the entrance area of the roller coaster, slightly pressed into the side wall of the car. After a crisp S-curve, we plunge to the ground once more. Here, too, we experience airtime par excellence. After a final hill and two fast straights, we approach the exit area of the ride.

The Wild Mouse is a blast of a roller coaster and I hope it stays at Luna Park for a long time. It is certainly one of the best wooden roller coasters in the world, making it one of the top sights in Sydney for any roller coaster fan.

Coney Island

Another sight for every theme park fan is the large Fun House Coney Island, which offers a variety of attractions. In addition to classic cake-walk elements, you will also find a devil’s wheel, a mirror maze, a variety of very steep slides and an extremely remarkable collection of old pinball machines.

Spider and the Moon Ranger

Directly behind the Fun House is a larger outdoor area, which, however, is less charming and offers a few rides. The Break Dance Spider and the Moon Ranger were located here. The latter was one of the reasons why I really wanted to visit Luna Park Sydney, because a HUSS Ranger is a fun machine that has unfortunately become very rare. Now the area has been redesigned and will soon have two new roller coasters: Little Nipper and Boomerang. There will also be a collection of new family rides from Zamperla, as well as the large Sledgehammer flat ride.

Pictures Luna Park Sydney

Conclusion Luna Park Sydney

I really enjoyed Luna Park Sydney. Unfortunately, I only had about 2 ½ hours in the park, but I loved every minute of it. The charm of the old amusement park, the breathtaking location and the extremely good selection of attractions characterise Luna Park like hardly any other park in Australia..

 

What is your opinion about Luna Park Sydney?  Just write them in the comment field below the report or visit our social media channels:

 

          

Click here for the next report of the Hell Yeah, Schabelteah! Tour

Hell Yeah, Schnabelteah Day 9 and 10 / Luna Park Sydney