Trip Report: Tuscora Park
New Philadelphia, Ohio - 08/20/2005

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"This looks like a Friendly place!"

I last visited Tuscora Park on my way home from my first visit to Idlewild. At the time, it was a late Sunday afternoon, and I had no idea what to expect apart from some odd little kiddie coaster. What I found was a beautiful little city park the likes of which I wish I had in my home town. That was a bunch of years ago. This time I have a different way of looking at parks, and I wanted to see it again. So I took the 60-some mile detour to New Philadelphia. The park is not difficult to find, but you have to look for it. From the exact center of town, it's about three blocks to the North, between Broadway and 2nd.

I parked the car in the shadow of the Woody Hayes Quaker Stadium, next to the gate leading to Quaker Field. With all these Quakers around, I presume New Philadelphia is a pretty Friendly place.

The park was crowded, with a bunch of get-togethers and cookouts going on. I walked around the end of the pond and got some photos from the back of the kiddie coaster. I didn't ride it this time, although adults are permitted. The ride is a Bradley & Kaye junior coaster, a lot like an Allan Herschell Big Dipper, but with a Fiberglas train and a more elaborate wheel system...oh, and a less elaborate station braking system. In the station, a pair of wooden rails simply squeeze against the sides of the train when the operator pulls the brake lever. The ride appears to be nearly identical to the kiddie coaster at Six Flags St. Louis.

The coaster is surrounded by a miniature train ride which appears to be a Miniature Train Co. train similar to the one at Kiddieland in Chicago. which is squeezed in between the pond and the coaster, and between the coaster and the municipal pool. I peeked into the train station and noticed the bumper sticker attached to the far wall: #1 Fighting Quakers. Something about that just doesn't seem right...!

Next to the train station there is an interesting grouping of three kiddie rides. One is an Allan Herschell Sky Fighters. Another is a Hampton car ride. The third is a swinging-tub kiddie biplane ride that looks home-built. The interesting thing about the grouping is that the three rides were arranged around a spacious operator's pavilion. On this particular day, there were two operators working the rides (two at a time) but the configuration makes it possible for one operator to manage all three rides without having to rotate between stations. It also means, quite frankly, a nicer work environment than is normally possible on a kiddie ride.

Next door is the park's showpiece, a beautiful carousel with a working band organ. It's not a particularly noteworthy ride, yet another Allan Herschell carousel which the city bought half a century ago. But it is a beautiful piece, and it is most probably the ride that made the rest of the amusements in this park possible.

Across from the kiddie rides are the park's other two mechanical rides, an unusual swing ride that looks a bit like a Watkins Swinger but has a totally different look to it, and an incredibly rare C. W. Parker Ferris wheel. The Wheel was not in operation when I visited, although it didn't have any obvious mechanical defects; probably just short of staff or customers. Finally, Tuscora Park also features a performance ampitheater, and like any good metropolitan park, some playground equipment. Particularly notable here is the old-school Merry-Go-Round with a 3-foot drop from the edge to the woodchips.

Tuscora Park remains just the sort of park that ought to be a part of any city or small town. The rides are not spectacular, but that isn't the idea. Instead, it's just a nice place to bring the family and perhaps take advantage of the $0.50 rides. I don't know what kind of foresight led the City of New Philadelphia to create this park, but I wish more places had that kind of vision.

I only stayed a half hour or so, then, on the advice of my computerized mapping program, I got back on US-250 and headed towards Idlewild. What a mistake that turned out to be! To get to New Philadelphia, I had taken IR-77 North to US-250 and then taken the US-250 business route into town. When I left town on US-250, I was cruising on 4-lane divided highway at 65 MPH. My mapping program claimed this was the fastest way to Idlewild: to take US-250 to Bridgeport, OH (right across the river from Wheeling, WV) and catch IR-70 there. But by the time I reached Uhrichsville, the road had become narrow and winding. That doesn't bother me. What did bother me was that the speed limit dropped to 40 MPH and never went back up again. That made for a long trip to Idlewild!

Next: Idlewild Park

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Next: Idlewild Park

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