The Alpine Sleighs, Page 2

Derek Rochelle

A Sleighs crew posing for their annual yearbook photo in the “Alpie Room”. Note the cave paintings on the wall in the background. (From the Roy Turner collection.)

In preparation for this article I interviewed 3 former Sleighs crew members from the ride’s years in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Tom Shelton was crew foreman and worked the ride during its first two years of operation in 1968 and 1969. Roy Turner worked as lead foreman on the ride in 1977 and was ride supervisor after that for a while. And Larry Harvey worked as foreman in late summer and fall of 1982 and the ride’s last season in 1983. Tom is now a data analyst and he still lives in Houston. Roy is a software engineer for an animation studio, and he and his wife Romie (with whom he worked on the Sleigh Ride) live in Los Angeles. And Larry is an electrical engineer living in the Houston area with his family.

Tom Shelton wearing his Lederhosen uniform standing beside the Sleighs station building in the late ‘60s. (from the Tom Shelton collection.)	Roy Turner and his wife Romie standing where they met as teens...working on The Alpine Sleighs. This photo was taken during Astroworld’s final weekend. (From the Roy Turner collection.)
The ’77 Sleighs crew posing for their annual yearbook photo atop the echo return tunnel. (The woman standing second from the left is Romie Turner, Roy’s wife.) (From the Roy Turner collection.)	Larry Harvey at work. (early 80s) (From the Larry Harvey collection.)

Tom recalls helping the engineers get the ride tweaked before it opened to the public 3 weeks late.

“The Alpine Sleigh Ride construction was not completed by opening day. During the first three weeks of park operations, we assisted the engineers in testing the new ride. We were instructed to tie a rope around one of the sleighs. After taking the sleigh to the entrance of the strobe tunnel, we would slowly lower the sleigh down into the opening. The engineer would lie on the track in front of the sleigh to visually inspect the relay switch to see if proper contact was being made. This was very dangerous. Our Austrian Klagenfurt shoes were not designed for descending into concrete caves while restraining alpine sleighs.

“After three weeks of testing, the Sleigh Ride finally opened to the public. The first day was a disaster. The weight was not distributed evenly in the sleighs. They were bouncing over the relay switches. This resulted in all of the emergency brakes closing, thus shutting down the ride. It took a considerable amount of time to release each sleigh from its brake and restart the ride. I felt very sorry for the people that waited in line the first few weeks. We timed the wait on one Saturday evening. It took 2 hours and 53 minutes to go through the line. Occasionally this line would snake half way around the park.”

Tom had the privilege of getting to wear the abominable snowman costume. He recalls some great stories of his crew taking turns being the snowman.

A very rare photo of the abominable snowman character scaring guests inside what would later become the “Alpie Room”. (photo courtesy sixflagshouston.com.)

“Each of the ride operators took turns playing the snowman. We would usually stand anywhere in the Cold Room between the avalanche scene and the end of the snow machine. The snowman suit was very heavy. The head piece hung down over the body of the snowman suit. One thing that we dare not do was fall down. You could not get up without assistance. [My crew member Bill] was playing the snowman for the first time. I was standing in the Cold Room watching his performance to make sure that Bill was okay with the process. I noticed that he was getting too close to the people in the sleighs. Bill was trying to scare every person that came through the Cold Room. He became very aggressive with his acting. He would jump on the sleigh as it passed by while screaming loudly. One of the young passengers was frightened so badly that he grabbed the front of the head piece of the snowman suit as Bill jumped down from the sleigh. This resulted in Bill being dragged down the track while the young passenger firmly held his grip. I managed to pull Bill from the track just as the next sleigh was passing. It is amazing how fear affects different people. We were scared to death. However, we sat there and died laughing about the incident for the next five minutes.

“The snowman had one advantage. The riders could not see very well when the sleigh came up out of the strobe tunnel. The snowman could not be spotted easily at first. We started hiding and then running and jumping on the sleigh, scaring many people. In many cases, all they could see was some big hairy thing jumping on the sleigh and hovering over them. You could hear the people laughing and shouting about the experience all the way down the track. The snowman suit had big hairy gloves. We would hide just out of view of the people. As the sleigh came by, we would stick the hairy glove just far enough out to touch a person's neck. This really produced some great stories. As one sleigh went by, a lady stated ‘Oh, something touched my neck.’ She brought her shoulder up and flinched. This pulled the hairy glove off of my hand. The lady screamed horribly as the sleigh went down the track with the hairy hand lodged between her shoulders and face. This was a classic!

“We were instructed to be ‘friendly abominable snowmen’. That lasted about a week. You could usually scare most people one time. After that, the younger passengers wanted a piece of the snowman. You name it, they threw it at the snowman. They would tear off pine tree limbs to attack the snowman. Every type of food product would end up on the snowman suit. We confiscated syringes filled with vodka to ‘stick’ the snowman. The suit had to be dry-cleaned every night. This cost was $700 per day. We started equating ‘playing the abominable snowman’ to a tour of duty on the Russian front.”

Once the ride opened to the public it remained plagued with problems. Tom tells about a couple of scary incidents.

“The Sleigh Ride had brakes installed throughout the system. If a sleigh stopped for any reason, the brake system would close and stop the next sleigh. This only worked if the brake was dry. If it rained, the sleigh would slide right through the brake.

“One day as I was playing the snowman, a sleigh came up out of the strobe tunnel and blew a fuse at the avalanche scene. The sleigh contained a lady and her two children. She kept looking back to see if the next sleigh was coming. I stepped out and starting assuring her that the brake system would catch the next sleigh at the top of the strobe tunnel and that there was nothing to worry about. Just as soon as the look of relief came to her eyes, I heard the strobe tunnel sound signaling a sleigh coming. It was raining outside and the next sleigh went right through the brake. The Ackerman air conditioning man just pulled me out of the way before the next sleigh slammed into the sleigh with the lady and her two children. Fortunately, no one was hurt in this incident.

“Anyone familiar with the sleigh ride knows there is a dip when you come out of the mountain just before entering the station. It started raining one day. I’ll bet it hadn’t rained 10 minutes when we looked at the mountain and saw that the dip had filled up with water. The next sleigh came right out of the mountain and plunged into the 5 foot deep water. We scrambled to get the occupants of the submerged sleigh to safety.”

Larry tells about that last season the ride was open during the fall of 1983.

“During the month of October of that year, we were given the go ahead to create a divisional ‘Halloween’ area and the rides folks decided to convert Alpine Sleighs to Alpine Slays.

“We decorated the mountain with all sorts of typical stuff and, as I recall, we even went over the line with a few items. We had Spanish moss on everything, red lamp dip on the station lights, dry ice in the mountain and much more. Since it was to be the last of the mountain, we wasted no time in debating about cutting holes in the outer shell where needed. We even built a large cross, painted it black and hung it over the entrance to the first tunnel after the low bridge.”

Transforming “The Alpine Sleighs” into “The Alpine Slays” during the ride’s final October in 1983. (From the Larry Harvey collection.)

Transforming “The Alpine Sleighs” into “The Alpine Slays” during the ride’s final October in 1983. (From the Larry Harvey collection.)

I asked Tom, Roy and Larry a series of questions about their experiences working on the Sleighs crews.

DR: What was your typical day on the job like? How did you “open” the ride each day? Were there any special things that had to be done at the end of the day?

Tom: “We started the day by turning on all control switches. We then walked the track to make sure it was clear. Not much to opening. Closing the ride was simple also. Nothing really to tell.”

Early ‘80s. A Sleighs crewmember sweeps overnight debris from around the track in the “forest” portion of the ride. (From the Larry Harvey collection.)

Roy: “Well we had the normal duties like any ride crew did: sweeping the station and queue house and other general clean up duties. We'd send a couple of crew members out with the cooler to get ice and water.

“Depending on the need we'd get someone to sweep the track. The area from the station to the high bridge had a tendency to collect pine needles and leaves. We'd also walk the track and see if there was anything else which needed cleaning. It wasn't too uncommon to find that someone had lost a stuffed animal and that it had become torn and scattered the Styrofoam bead stuffing that the cheap plush prizes were filled with. One clean up job which most rides did not have was the maintenance of the waterfall and lagoon. The intake for the waterfall pump was located in the big 'rock' located between the track and lagoon just after the sleighs made the 180 turn out of the station and headed towards the mountain. There was a grate covering the intake to prevent leaves and other trash from being sucked up into the pump. This often got clogged up with leaves. We'd have to go in there and scoop these leaves off the grate (they were held there by the suction from the pump). We often had to do this on an almost hourly basis in the fall. This was the point at which we would also add the blue dye to the water if it needed it (the dye had an algaecide which also helped prevent algae from growing in the water). We kept a gallon jug of the dye in the rock, but a little bit went a long way. A half an ounce to an ounce were all that you needed. We'd also wipe down the sleigh bodies and seats.

“Then we'd check with the ride mechanic to see how many sets we had available for operation. Based on what the projected attendance was and what level of crew staffing we might add or remove sets.

“Finally it was time to do the ride safety check and get the ride running. First we'd get the ride operating normally. Since the station was not large enough to hold all the units, sets were normally stopped outside the station dispatch brake. Since this part of the ride was powered, the units were just dispatched and then turned off (via a switch on the back of the sleigh) the night before. To start the ride up we'd turn the ride on, the control system came up with all the blocks off. So we'd have to have someone walk the track backwards clearing each block. The blocks were cleared by a key switch next to each brake or block zone. Once this person was back in the station the ride was ready to run sets. We'd start the first one by turning the sleigh switch on. Count twenty seconds or so and then turn the next one on. Once all the sets outside the station had been turned on we would start moving the sets in the station via the normal ride controls on the drive panel. After three minutes or so we'd have all the sets running along the course. We'd let them run for several minutes, usually with a few operators riding in one to check out that all the triggered effects were working (echo tunnel, blast sound effect and lights, and Alpie music).

“Then we'd do a standard cascade stop safety check. We'd stop dispatching. The next set should come in and stop on the load brake. The next one should stop on the ready brake and so on. Since there were more blocks on the ride than ride units, once all the units were stopped we'd dispatch the set. It would continue and stop at the block before the last stopped set. We'd continue this process until we'd tested that all blocks would stop the sets as they should.

“By this time, we usually had 15 minutes or so until opening. We'd do some of the paperwork type things (set up for employee breaks, get the turnstile set up for taking count, and so on). Then 10 minutes or so before opening we'd restart the ride by clearing the blocks and restarting the sets. We'd leave it running for about 5 minutes so that it would be well worked in by opening time.”

Larry: “I have to say that choosing a ‘typical’ day is difficult at best. I’ll go through the standard operating procedures but please understand that most every day, there was something to pull you off course.

The innards of the mountain. Note the control boxes. (taken during the final week of Astroworld’s operation.) (From the Roy Turner collection.)

“As foreman, you always wanted to be the first to show up on the ride and begin getting your day in order. Since it was located between the back areas and the station, you would naturally walk up to the mountain from behind and make your way through it when you came in during the morning. The back side of the mountain had door access to the electrical room within the mountain and I would enter there. This is where the Main Control Center was located which housed the breakers for the larger electrical loads. These circuits would remain on but, if maintenance were doing something to the ride, you would know because you would see the breaker in the off position.

“This room also housed several smaller power panels and here is where you would flip on the 120 Volt circuits such as the Blast lights, the Alpie lighting, the flood lights in the tunnels and the like. The music was controlled in the sound room and so it would come on at or near opening.

“I always recall how musty the mountain smelled in the voids around the tunnels and such. This made the air seem to be extra fresh when you emerged on the other side. It was nice.

A photo of the snow machines on the second level of the mountain (taken during the final week of Astroworld’s operation.) (From the Roy Turner collection.)

“When I worked there, the snow machine had long since been abandoned as an operational unit but the room was simply known as the Cold Room. The doors that were once used to chill the room were locked open so no action was required in that area. You would indeed need to turn on the air handling units but that was about it. Not all of the breakers were located in the same area so you would traverse the mountain flipping on all the loads that required attention except for the water pumps that ran the waterfall. That you saved until just before opening. This would allow the crew to skim the lagoon and remove the pine needles that would fill the top of the water.

Photo of the waterfall pump (taken during the final week of Astroworld’s operation.) (From the Roy Turner collection.)

“Crew duties did include skimming the water, clearing the grate which was in front of the water return and sweeping the track. Someone would walk the track to make sure there was nothing which would interfere with the operation of the ride.

Sleighs crew cleaning out waterfall lagoon skimmer before opening the ride for the day (early 80s). (From the Larry Harvey collection.)

“In the morning, the sets would be parked along the station, the ‘U’ turn and through the track up to about the first bridge or as it was called, the ‘low bridge’. No sets were left inside the mountain overnight. The back side of the set had an on/off switch at about the height of the bumper. An operator would be instructed to turn on the set and with the ride energized; the first set would dispatch itself and begin its travels through the mountain.

Early ‘80s shot of the Sleighs from Astroworld’s Astroway skyride. Note that the Sleighs are not yet open for the day. The vehicles are parked along the uphill track in the “forest” portion of the ride. (From the Larry Harvey collection.)

“When it cleared the first brake after the first tunnel, the operator would switch on the second set and so on and so on. About the time the first set would reach the station, you would have but one set remaining and thus, the cycle began. This would all occur during the last 10 minutes before the park opened because you would want to keep the sets going nonstop and there was little desire to drive the ride without guests to ride on it.”

Larry Harvey at work. (early 80s) (From the Larry Harvey collection.)

Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Next

---

This article ©2006 Derek Rochelle
All photos ©copyright as noted, all used with permission.