PTC Factory

The Philadelphia Toboggan Company/Coasters (PTC) are the oldest makers of wooden coaster trains in the world and as we were close to them on the trip, the organisers thought it would be a good place to stop for a non-park surprise.

Originally they made rides as well as trains. Thunderhawk at Dorney was made by them and there would be others later on in the trip. Nowadays they focus on building new trains and refurbishing existing ones. It is fair to say they are kept busy.

Well, it would appear that it is not just trains for wooden coasters that they deal with, this one is for a steel train. No idea why it had been thrown out though.

The manager of PTC, Tom Rebbie gave us a welcome and introductory speech. To keep myself entertained whilst this was going on I thought I'd continuall flick Jeff's ear until he turned around to have a go, at which point I'd take his picture. All quite juvenile admittedly.

They had laid out some of their trains for us to crawl over, this one from a ride we would be doing towards the end of the trip.

I'm not sure I'd be looking forward to riding any of these anytime soon. These were actually some of their older trains that they had also put out on display.

I joined the club for the socialising and travelling aspects not necessarily to know the ins and outs of coasters, so this wasn't really my ideal place to be. To pass the time therefore I thought I'd see how many "dog" references I could find around the PTC factory. Here we have a "safety dog" and a "chain dog", whatever they are. That's two already!

Can I count "scooby-doo"? Well its my little game, so yes I can. That's three.

Aha! Here's four! A "husky" ladder.

and that was it for my little dog game as I couldn't find anymore. I spent the rest of the time sat outside the factory with some others reading an ACE magazine that had been kindly given to us. In the evening we ended up at a bar nearby where the PTC people laid on some food and drinks for us, most appreciated!

Oh, and it was on the way to the bar that I managed to walk into a sign, in full view of everyone. One of my moments of stupidity on the trip that fortunately no-one took a picture of.

Like I said earlier this wasn't my scene but I didn't have a problem with going as I knew other people would be interested in this and the club aims to please everyone, not me. If we'd have had the choice of staying at Dorney I would have done so but it did give me a chance to rest my feet and chill for a bit. I can say that I have visited PTC but it's not a place I'd personally hurry back to (geez, that makes me seem so ungrateful!)

Time to enter west for Knoebels