Northern Indiana Extravaganza
I was bored during a weekend in October and decided to check off a few kiddie credits in the greater Chicagoland area that I had failed to check off yet.
My first target for the day was Harvest Tyme Pumpkin Patch in Northwestern Indiana. This farm is home to a small collection of flat rides and a small Wisdom rides kiddie coaster that is essentially the bare minimum to be considered a credit. Now, normally this ride is restricted to children between 36 and 60 inches, however I had reached out the the farm on Facebook beforehand to get permission to get the credit. They graciously said yes, so if you plan on following in my footsteps, make sure to reach out before you ride.
I showed up at the park around noon, to a completely dead farm. I was expecting some crowds on a Sunday near Halloween, as they had many fall activities, however there was a nice lake effect misting that was making the experience quite awful. Everything was soaking wet, and it was in the mid 50s. This was a problem, as the coaster uses single drive tires to lift the train up the lift hill. The coaster was closed as I went over to the ride, however since I had driven 4 hours one way to get there, I figured I would ask the park on Facebook if the ride would open today. 5 minutes later I was on a phone call with the owner of the farm, who was incredibly nice. He told me that the ride needed it to be dry for it to make it around the circuit, however he still sent some employees to see if we would get lucky. Unfortunately, they tried to send the ride around, however the coaster would just slip on the lift and never make it more than half way up. I appreciated the effort, and also had another target 30 minutes north, so I told them that I would go pop up there and return to hopefully better weather.
After a fun 30 minute drive on county roads through cornfields, I ended up at my second target, Zao Island. This outdoor FEC had recently purchased a used SBF Spinner, and I was hoping to be able to ride it, as the website still listed the attraction and said nothing about it being closed. Unfortunately it turned out that the ride had been closed for the season and the website hadn’t been updated. 0/2 on the day, I was feeling dejected. However, there was still a chance for the pumpkin patch to open, therefore I headed back down south.
I arrived with a greeting at the ticket booth along the lines of “Trying again to get that credit?” It appears that word of my shenanigans had made the rounds of the employees and I was somewhat infamous. The rain hadn’t really let up, but with nothing better to do, I figured I would see what else the pumpkin patch had to offer.
They had a small petting zoo with quite vocal juvenile goats, an animatronic tractor, and multiple interactive exhibits. My favorite was a large piano that played the notes out of animatronic chickens. I also enjoyed some of their flat rides, including their swings, carousel, tilt-a-whirl, and barrels of fun spinning ride. I tried their impressive corn maze, but unfortunately the ground was far too muddy for my white Adidas shoes. They also weren’t running their hay ride for the same reason. Instead, I plopped down and waited, cold and wet, under a tent for the weather to hopefully let up.
Finally, the rain stopped, however the drive tires of the coaster were still soaked and it couldn’t make it around the course. In no time however there were no less than 5 employees working to get the coaster open. They were toweling down then leaf blowing the tires as best as they could, running the coaster around with man-powered boosts to get it fully around. Eventually, after another half hour, they invited me for my highly anticipated lap. With my added weight, the train still needed a push up the lift hill from the employees, but I made it around a few times, and got my credit.
People often make fun of credit whoring, but it’s experiences like these that make it worth it. I would have never explored this charming little farm in northern Indiana if it weren’t for this stupid little Miner Mike. Every employee I met went above and beyond to make my lap happen, and everyone was incredibly friendly. They didn’t have to do any of it in the slightest, but they did, and I really appreciated it. Thanks guys!
My last credit stop of the day was People’s Choice Family Fun Center, in Waukegan, Illinois. This FEC had installed a Chinese powered coaster, which looked to be fully assembled as of about a year ago, and I had been checking on it monthly after my shifts at SFGAm, which is about 10 minutes away. I had never seen the ride operate, however a week before some of my friends finally got a ride in so I figured I would try to get my lap. After showing up, I had come upon the same scene that I always had, with the three big rides locked up behind a padlock and a fence. I was immediately dejected, as I would have had a record of 1/3 on the day. I did notice that the ride lighting was on for some of the rides though so I figured I would ask another ride operator. Turns out I had just happened to have arrived right when the operator of the mechanical rides was on break, and the rides would open in 10 minutes. Great!
Once I had gotten my ticket from the front desk, I was greeted by the ride operators. They asked why I came alone to ride such a small ride, and I explained how I had tracked the construction and was excited to ride. I also explained that I was fascinated to ride the first known Chinese coaster in the US*, and one of the ride operators was impressed with how much I knew. Turns out that he was one of the co-owners of the complex, and let me poke around the ride. He let me take pictures of the panel, operating procedures for the ride, and even shut off the main power for the ride and walked me around the ride area!
(*Turns out it isn’t the first Chinese coaster in the US, there was one installed in San Antonio in 2015. The ride closed in 2018 though so that’s why I missed it in my research. Thanks for the correction Duane!)
The mechanical design of this ride is dirt simple. The train only has two pickups, meaning that it is either single-phase AC, or DC. Typical coasters run on 3 phase AC, usually 240V or 480V. I suspect that it is running at 60V DC, as the motors on each of the cars looked like they were heavy brushed motors. Also, there were addressable LEDs on the train that could run off of simple DC-DC converter, instead of an odd 60V AC to 5/12V DC.
Google translation of the Chinese text of the motors on the train
There was a single large friction brake, that contacted two fins on the train during the parking sequence. I found it fascinating that the caliper of the brake bent after every cycle. It was a large span and didn’t bend too much, so it’s fine, just definitely and unorthodox design. The electrical design was also quite simple, as the cabinet really only contained one electrical drive, an amplifier, and a small custom circuit board that seemed to be the brains of the ride. There were two proxies on the ride, which were small and cheap off the shelf units, and definitely not the standard green Pepperl-Fuchs I’m used to seeing on coaster. Overall the ride seemed decently well built, especially for the dirt cheap price, and it was a treat to be able to poke around the ride! You can see many of the pictures I took on the ride’s RCDB page.
The co-owner also had a few fascinating stories about getting the ride operational. They added a few things to the train including the guard on the train to stop people from exiting into the ride area, along with an extra latch to lock the restraints in the up position. He also talked about how ASTM had to come in and do a thorough inspection of all three of their rides, which were all from the same Chinese supplier. He seemed very passionate about the future and was incredibly nice to me, and I really appreciated his hospitality. He talked about some aspirational plans of hopefully adding a few more mechanical rides inside and possibly outside at their current location, which I for sure hope comes true. Thanks again!
Finally, I finished off my day with a lap of Great America. While the lines were far too long for my tastes, I had with me my dad’s old film camera and wanted to capture some pictures of the theming at dusk. It was also one of the last couple days that both Hangover and Revolution would run, so I knew I had to get one last picture of them. See the pictures I took in the gallery below!
