Thank you for posting this video. My dad is the fire chief being interviewed by Gabe Pressman. Dad passed in 2012, and it was really nice to hear his voice again. Thank you again
That was a brutal blow to Coney Island, it was an epic ride. The first banking drop, those tight banking turns, beautiful airtime loaded hills .... it was way ahead of its time. That underground run from the station towards the chain lift hill was also an epic concept for its time. And all the business it had built into it on street level, smart way to generate extra income for the owner too. If there was ever one to find the blueprints for and rebuild it was this one, the TORNADO.
I rode this coaster in June of 77 (I was 10 years old) when my brothers and our friend Matt cut the last day of school to go to Coney Island. Rode the Cyclone, the Tornado, and the Thunderbolt. WIthin a few months the Tornado would be gone, a few years later, the Thunderbolt as well. Glad I got to ride it though.
I remember this fire. Arsonists were torching swaths of Coney Island in the 70's. My favorite ride was the Bobsled, right near the Tornado. RIP Coney Island of my youth 😢
It died such an untimely, tragic death. It was my favorite coaster. Always wound up a little bruised after with those turns, but what fun! And surprise drops! What could anyone have against it or hate it so much they wanted to torch it?
There were three separate fires that winter on the TORNADO!! It wasn't the operators! They planned on rebuilding and reopening up to the third one. I used to call the operator at a hardware store in Coney or Brooklyn. So sad!
I worked at this park in winter and spring of 1979, 2:49 mark for a man named Joe. I was 15 and would meet Bobby and Jean Noell and start working for Bobby at Thunderbolt Park Coney Island.
@@robertnussberger6449 Well, I lived a few miles from there in the Borough of Queens. The shortest way was the J line to Eastern Parkway Broadway Junction take A train to Franklin Avenue, get off and up the wooden staircase for the Franklin Avenue shuttle and take the D train to Coney Island. By the way half of the old 1888 vintage el train station was still there and had wooden roofs and platforms before demolition and modernized in the 1990s!
