HATFIELD, Pa. — Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters, Inc. has been a mainstay in the amusement industry for more than a century. The company’s products are now an integral part of the landscape and the public’s collective consciousness. This year, PTCI introduced two new products during IAAPA Expo 2015.

PTCI’s first new offering addresses the need for a way to adequately and safely restrain park guests living with certain physical handicaps. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) made a number of advances to ensure that certain amusement rides were accessible to guests with a variety of physical limitations. The majority of these included signage and access ramps.

On the 25th anniversary of the ADA, PTCI is introducing its Amusement Transfer Accessibility Device for the physically-disabled. This unique new apparatus allows guests to board a roller coaster train under their own power and ensures they remain secured and upright as the ride goes through its paces.
PTCI Owner and President/CEO Thomas D. Rebbie explains to AT the reasoning and process for creating this ADA-compliant device. “We were approached by Indiana’s Holiday World and asked if we could develop something to assist physically disabled guests who wanted to ride a wooden roller coaster. We’re now pleased to present this new device. Holiday World has used it with success on all three of its wooden coasters that feature PTCI trains.”

Rebbie added that the device is currently configured for PTCI cars but can be modified to work on other manufacturers’ trains as well as those on steel roller coasters.
PTCI’s next new product – the PTCI-360º – is an attractive single-seat train that is an updated, 21st century version of the articulated rolling stock once widely used on wooden coasters of the Golden Age.

The PTCI-360º features a four-wheeled pilot car with a divided body that can lead up to 11 single two-passenger coaches. The train offers all the safety features expected from PTCI with the added bonus of being ultra-flexible. The PTCI-360º can operate on virtually any wooden coaster track configuration including those with complete 360-degree inversions.

“For several years now we’ve been asked by numerous parks if we could develop a single-seat car that would run on their wooden coaster track,” said Rebbie. “And after 18 months of research and rigourous testing, we’re happy to report that this new 12-car train performed well beyond our expectations – including flawlessly negotiating a complete 360-degree barrel roll.

“We felt it could only benefit our company to offer a train that could operate on any wooden roller coaster track,” added Rebbie. “And the PTCI-360º is that train.”

For more information including technical details on the new ADA device and the PTCI 360º, contact PTCI at (215) 799-2155.

• «Previous Post
• Next Post »

---