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Ed Yeates ReportingThings may appear ghostly quiet at Lagoon these days, but while it's closed for the winter, there's more than just a gentle breeze blowing through the trees. Wait until you see what's happening underground, so to speak.
Locks on gates, melting snow from gutters, leaves peppering the midway, but things here are not as still as they look. Backstage, people you seldom see are greasing, repairing, tearing apart and rebuilding rides no longer hanging from their struts.
John Long: "Yeah, there's a real lot to do. It takes most of three months, all my time."
John Long has worked at Lagoon for 15 years, Robert Harvey for 30 years.
Rides are pulled indoors and torn apart. Bolts, bearings, axles are refurbished and cleaned. Non-destructive testing searches for hairline fractures in metal. Safety backups are checked and rebuilt.
These folks are more than mechanics. For example, on The Bat ride, there's a lot of innovation. Lagoon technicians have actually built portable green carts. They pull off all the parts. Everything is organized and inventoried for each ride.
Outside, Alan Tuckett and his crew are replacing 13-hundred feet of track and 200 feet of structure on the old wooden roller coaster.
Alan Tuckett: "Starting in January, it's 10 hours a day, five days a week. There's projects going everywhere."
In his 22 years at Lagoon, Tuckett has seen every single piece of wood replaced on the 1920's coaster.
Lagoon asleep? Not really! The city behind the city is wide awake. Winter is short and there's barely enough time.
