Canada's Wonderland's Philadelphia Toboggan Company Carousel

Quite the title for a posting isn't it. It's almost daunting. I just felt like I should have all my ducks in a row, or horses in a circle perhaps, getting the name right and in full.

I’m not actually sure when I made the discovery that another of the important carousel manufacturers had a carousel that was quite close to me and where I live. I should have thought about it earlier, I suppose, but I just didn’t make the connection. The amusing thing about my lapse is that it is in an area where the bus company I now work for runs some of the transit routes. It might have been because of its very proximity that I didn’t think about checking it out. Such is life and the vagaries of my thought.

I do remember that after visiting the Herschell Carrousel Museum I was a little bit at a loss wondering which carousel I might visit next and when. I was thinking I might have to wait now until next year to take up the quest again, I mean it was starting to come to what I thought of as the end of the season for amusement parks and fall fairs around here. 

I had also learned a bit late that there was another carousel not too far away that I could have made a day trip to. This one happened to be manufactured by Spillman Engineering (one of the group of companies once associated with Allan Herschell) and is in Guelph, Ontario. The problem is that the carousel closed for the season on September 3^rd. As I said, maybe next year.

I did a bit more reading and research on the Internet. I learned that there was another important manufacturer of carousels called the Philadelphia Toboggan Company (no fooling) and one of their carousels (a 1928 classic wood carousel) was situated in Canada’s Wonderland, a large amusement park just north of Toronto in Vaughn, Ontario. Go figure.

My landlady and good friend Sandra actually suggested that maybe I should get in touch with the park and see if they would let me in to photograph their carousel. A couple of days later I sent off an email to Canada’s Wonderland and made the request. And another couple of days after that I received an answer from the Public Relations & Special Events Area Manager, a person named Matthew Clarke, who said that he would be pleased to allow me to photograph their carousel, in fact he would let me into the park early before it opened so that I could do it.

Is that cool or what?

It took a few weeks for us to synchronize our schedules and find a day we had in common. I had recently gotten a new position at work and for the first few months my schedule was erratic, involving mostly afternoon and late evening work. That had finally stabilized to some degree and I thought I could now try to book a meeting. Mr. Clarke was busy with things happening at the park; first a movie shoot and then a long weekend full of other events that required his attention. We communicated back and forth (I admit that I was starting to think that this shoot wouldn’t happen) until we agreed on a time and a place to meet.

It was fortunate that I had a week left of vacation coming up (I try to book off the week of my birthday if I can) and so in the middle of September, on the second day of my vacation, I got my chance to come to the park.

The weather cooperated. It had rained a bit for the preceding couple of days but that Sunday was clear although it started out a bit cool. It looked like I wouldn’t have to worry much about available gloom although some of the slanting rays of the intense morning light might add pools of washed out colour to my pictures. Still, that was part of the scene and part of the setting. You can’t get more natural than that.

I met Matt at the employee entrance to the park and he personally conducted me to the carousel. He was very pleasant to speak with and we shared some information about the ride itself and talked about the park as we made our way to it. I owe him a great deal of thanks.

I had, of course, done a bit of reading up on it so I knew that this carousel was numbered PTC#84. I also knew that some of the horses on this carousel had been carved by the same person who worked on animals of the Centreville carousel of Toronto Island that I had photographed earlier in the summer, G. A. Dentzel. I guess this is another example of things that come around in circles.

And once again I was given free rein to photograph both outside and on the platform.

And I got to ride it too.

Someone had asked me why I didn’t get my picture taken on the carousel in North Tonawanda. It just hadn’t occurred to me. Here though I asked Matt if he would take a picture of me on the carousel and he kindly consented.

And the horse said, 'Who's the big kid with the beard?

Just a little bit of information here, the horses that were produced by and for the Philadelphia Toboggan Company were known for their more natural rendition.

And there are 4 rows of wooden horses, 42 jumpers, 24 standing, and there are 2 chariots, the horses of which were by Dentzel.

The lead horse has the PTC logo on it, as does one of the chariots.

Again I love the artistry involved in the creation of these rides. I know that they may seem passé to many people now (and Matt and I touched on that subject as we talked) who are looking for the thrill and excitement of the coasters and other rides, things that go faster and higher and spin you around.

Parting shot

Me, I like the prancing ponies.

The Herschell Carrousel Museum

My brother Ralph holding up the building

I took over 300 shots that day, many of the photographs turned out very well and, as is always the case, some did not. I was working with the ‘available gloom’ (a term I may have mentioned in a previous posting). I do this for a couple of reasons, the first one being that they did not allow flash in the museum display area (which was okay by me). The second reason is that sans flash is the way I like to photograph carousels and horses. Flash reflects too much light off the painted surfaces of the horses (and other animals) and it can be distracting and changes the nature of the photographs. So I don’t use flash if I can, but it often makes hand holding the camera in some of the dimmer interiors a bit of a dicey proposition. Expecting shots to be both in focus and without blur from my own involuntary movement becomes an added element.

Thanks to the digital revolution I don’t have to put in a new roll of film every few minutes and I can shoot a lot, which I like to do.

I know, get on with the story. Sheesh, give me a minute.

So we arrived at this bright red building and spent a while photographing us in front of it. For the first time I noticed that it appeared that one of the words on the signage, carrousel, had an extra ‘r’ in it. Inside the building I saw a third version of the word spelled carousselles. I haven’t yet traced back the reason for the other two versions of the spelling. 

Me.

Anyway we came, we saw, we went inside. I don't know what the Latin translation for that would be.

The hallway where we entered

The Gift Shop

We entered the hallway between buildings and went first into the souvenir shop (the ticket booth hadn’t opened yet) where I paid our admission fees (very reasonable) and received our tokens for the ride. I asked the question of whether Herschell worked for Parker to the woman running the gift shop. I was told that he did not (and they should know, right?); the horses were purchased by the Parker Company to be put onto some of their carousels.

Then we took our brochures and started to explore the site and the cluster of interconnected buildings.

We first entered the display room (formerly the paint room) where horses and other animals spanning a number of years and a number of different styles were set up. I think all of these are works of art in their own right. Some were fairly plain, others had considerable ornate detail.

Most of the displays were of the wooden creations although an exception was one very pretty horse on display at one end of the room that was made from fiberglass (the mould sitting close by).

Next to it, beside the door and looking out the window, was a wooden horse that I became quite enchanted with. If you look at it you will see that it has quite an elongated head. In fact the Herschell Company became known for the production of these types of horses so my joke about the bartender saying ‘why the long face?’ is not so out of place after all.

Ads and information about different aspects of carousels, the animals, the history adorned the walls. I admit to not reading all the stuff. I was too focused (ha ha) on my camera and what it was seeing. I’d like, in the not too distant future, to go back and actually read all the info, take all the tours, and watch all the demo videos.

And as I mentioned there were not just horses, there were other animals on display.

We went through the door at the other end of the display room into the workshop area. As you entered, almost straight ahead, was an exhibition area showing the machines and process for making music rolls, and examples of Wurlitzer band organs and a barrel organ from the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Company with a pegged barrel on display. There was actually a major connection between the Herschell Armitage Company and the Wurlitzer Company. Those interested in the details of both the band-organs and barrel-organs I’ll leave you to ferret out the details. Here’s a hint though, it has something to do with a guy named Eugene de Kleist.

North Tonawanda barrel organ

Pinned barrel roll in foreground, machines for manufacturing music rolls in the background.

To the right of this was the woodcarver display area. The machinery here was all belt driven and must have been incredibly noisy in it’s day. There were tools and patterns and segments of half completed horses on display. It would have been cool to wander in the space to get a closer look.

Backtracking our way through the display area again I asked Ralph to take this photo of me talking to the large headed horse through the window.

Then out to the main hallway, down the hall, and into the ‘play room’ (actually the old machine shop of the factory) with its 1950’s kiddie carousel.

This was the place where I had the most difficulty getting good shots. It was fairly dark in here and the fencing around the ride itself prevented me from getting as close as I’d have liked to the ride so that I could focus more on some of the horses there. Still it was very pretty.

Back out, down the hall again, and through another hallway with a couple of exhibits of other rides and attractions that were built by the company in a later incarnation.

Hanging from the rafters was one such ‘ride’ that I was particularly drawn to and what I think of as the rocket swing. Very Buck Rogers.

I shot it from a couple of different angles and had to shoot it from the inside of the ticket booth (in the above shot to the right) to get the perspective I wanted. I intended to send a copy of it to my friend Sid who is a big Sci Fi buff. Well, actually I thought I’d like to play around with the shot a bit before I sent it to him. Okay, let me show you.

Sid in space

The hallway led to the eighteen-sided roundhouse, formerly the assembly and testing site of the rides, and now the home of the quite impressive 1916 #1 Special carrousel. According to the brochure, ‘that was one of the first three made at and shipped out of this factory’. And then it came back home, full circle.

The lead horse

Wow. The factory was worth the trip all on its own, but here was the icing on the cake.

I'm sorry, sometimes the horses look quite mad.

My brother and I got a chance to ride it and to photograph extensively, and again, partly because it wasn’t very busy that day, we got to wander into the centre and see the wheels and gearing (that is normally hidden from public view in the centre of most carousels), and, of course, check out the band organ, another vintage Wurlitzer.

After a while, still grinning from the experience, we went out the door at the other end of the roundhouse and into the loading dock where the shipping department was located.

This is where I took the shot of the carousel horse graveyard. I always look for the odd.

The carousel horse graveyard

Then back through much of the complex taking other pictures, other variations.

And I frequented the gift shop for a couple of souvenirs: a cup and a painted cutout of the actual frontage of the building. My brother purchased one of those punched out wooden carousel kits for me, which was nice of him. It provided hours of muffled mumbled profanity in its assembling and gluing.

Oh, I meant to mention that while I was in the main ‘hallway’ the gentleman who had run the carousel (and allowed Ralph and I to keep our wooden tokens as souvenirs) asked me if I had gotten enough photographs. I answered, and in a way it’s true, never enough. You always see new things, new vantage points, new photographic opportunities coming and going. The shot of the horse looking out of the window, one I’m particularly fond of, is one I took as we were gearing up to leave.

But hey, maybe I can talk my brother into going back again, and then maybe we could head out for pastures new, or in this case ‘carousels new’.

I started this piece by saying that things, carousels included, seem to come around. I also started discussing the carousel that I had photographed (and had later tried to paint) in Springband Park in London, Ontario. Well, and here’s a kicker for you, the Alan Herschell Carrousel Factory, acquired their ‘Number One Special Three Abreast portable carousel’ from London, yes in Ontario. This was probably the same carousel that I had seen all those years ago. And we met again.

It's a small world but you wouldn't want to do it's laundry.