No surprise, adult roller coaster enthusiast that I am, I have never been above teenage mellow drama. This tendency reached its apex (or nadir) in the 8th grade, when I spent an otherwise unproductive school year reading the entire SE Hinton canon. Ponyboy, the protagonist of her signature work, "The Outsiders," provides an apt analogy for the Skyliner. The Skyliner has not had an easy life. Its suffered neglect and dislocation. Just as Ponyboy was shunned as a Greaser by the socially advantaged Socs, the Skyliner is often berated and dismissed by those accustomed to a more refined roller coaster experience. Although innocent and sensitive by nature, the Skyliner can nonetheless lash out violently at those who trifle with it or refuse to show it the proper respect. Its the product of a time and place where you made your rep getting physical with people, and if they couldnt hack it, that was their problem, not yours. But Ponyboy and the Greasers discover that if you insist on confronting the world on your own terms, the world usually wins. Your honor and pride get you killed, and the ethic you fought for is demeaned as obsolete, a relic. Ponyboy was a Greaser with the heart of a poet, but he was never truly at home in either world. The Skyliner is the handwrought work of instinct and genius making its way in a world dominated by computer-modeled behemoths designed by dueling committees of engineers and lawyers. That world now threatens to overwhelm its elemental beauty and goodness. Stay gold, Skyliner, stay gold.
Translation: This is one of the last of a handful of truly old-school roller coasters in design and operation (at least it was as of 08/03). I first rode the Skyliner in 1987, after it was moved to Altoona, PA from Roseland Park in NY. John Allen, an acknowledged master of coaster design, is responsible for the Skyliners layout, and although it is not his very best work, it still delivers many of the hallmarks of the classic wooden roller coaster experience. First, the cars have no seat dividers, headrests, or seatbelts. You can squeeze as many people into a car as will fit; (skinny) moms and dad can ride with a kid. The only restraint is a single position lapbar that lets you experience the rides considerable laterals and negative Gs in all their unencumbered glory.
The Skyliner looks deceptively tame. Its not. You will experience serious ejector air on this ride. If youre sitting in the back seat, hold on. Although the ride is not particurlarly fast, the breaking on the Skyliner is (or at least used to be) nonexistent, so you hit the air-inducing elements at full steam, something almost unheard of for a wood coaster these days.
The operation of the ride is decidedly laissez faire. On one memorable occasion, I saw one of the lap bars of another car literally snap in half during boarding, and the ride op (who was maybe 15) simply had the person move to a different seat -- no big emergency, no stopping of the ride, no attorneys parachuting to the scene. On the flip side, the rides maintenance has been spotty, and Lakemont could take a lesson from Knoebels in this regard. I fear that if hasnt already been "modernized" (read: tamed) since I last rode it, its only a matter of time. Until then, its an indispensible link to an era to which well never return. For that, I give an eight.
Update: 9 July 2007
Im bumping my rating back up to a nine after several outstanding rides today featuring grab-the-lap-bar-for-dear-life airtime coming off the first drop in the back seat. When I complain that El Toro has no real airtime, this is exactly what Im talking about. Anyone who thinks that wooden roller roller coasters havent lost something with the nearly universal adoption of individually ratcheting lapbars, seatbelts, headrests, and seat dividers needs to experience this ride.
Props also to Lakemont for the excellent running condition of Skyl
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