Richard Bannister

The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is one of the largest contemporary art museums in the United States. It is set within an eclectic collection of twenty-six buildings, all but one of which were constructed for the Arnold Print Works, a textile manufacturer that operated from 1860-1942. Subsequently the Sprague Electric Company took over the site, and at peak employed over four thousand workers in the production of electrical components, both for consumer products and for government needs – not least the launch systems for the Gemini moon missions. After Sprague closed in 1985 the local authorities evaluated different ways to re-use the complex, leading to the opening of MASS MoCA in 1999.

Art (contemporary or otherwise) generally isn’t my thing, but even complete philistines like me can appreciate the variety of the museum campus. Two particular highlights for me were a VR exploration of the moon, a location I’m not expecting to travel to in the near future barring surprises, and the Boiler House, formerly used for heating but now a collection of rusted pipework that has been repurposed into an ambient sound exhibit entitled “All those vanished engines”. The site also includes a selection of restaurants and a craft brewery – Bright Ideas Brewing – with its own tasting facilities out front.

As interesting as the place is, it would not have crossed my radar were it not for Brake Run Helix, an installation created by EJ Hill incorporating freestanding sculptures, paintings, a performance stage, and most importantly of all, a rideable sculptural installation “inspired by the form and function of roller coasters”. One person per hour gets to become part of the art, and though that number is pretty small a quick review of coaster-count.com suggests that a fair few prominent enthusiasts have made their own pilgrimage.

Brava! (#3083) was supplied by Skyline Attractions. It doesn’t have a lift hill; rather, the single person car is raised to the boarding area on a mezzanine floor by means of a rather noisy electric winch. A docent (the word operator hardly applies here) then manually rolls the car forward to the Sword of Safety, a rudimentary but effective stopper that holds the car still for a passenger to board. The sword is removed, a gate is opened, and the car is given either a gentle or an aggressive push depending on the art’s expressed preferences.

The initial drop gives the car enough momentum to gently crest a hill, pleasantly but without airtime. The rest of the layout comprises a gently undulating 270 degree right turn, a sharper left turn, and the winch hill – though the car only has enough potential energy to make it about half way up before rolling back. On the first reverse journey it reaches roughly the midway of the course, with the distance on each subsequent oscillation shrinking as the potential energy is used up. The tracking is flawlessly smooth from start to end, resulting in a top quality family coaster/piece of art; every museum should have (at least) one.

Two years ago I had a spectacularly unsuccessful visit to Six Flags Darien Lake, driving six hours to find roughly a third of the park closed, including the coaster that had brought me there in the first place. I wouldn’t have bothered visiting this year but for the fact that it was more or less on the route I was planning to take anyway – and as such a quick hit and run stop wasn’t a big deal, especially since my Six Flags season pass would get me in at no charge.

Tantrum (#3084) is a “380” model Gerstlauer Eurofighter, the newest of three examples in operation as of this writing. The design made its debut as Iron Shark back in 2013, followed a year later by a clone at Parque del Café in Colombia. The Six Flags ride was supplied with three cars, and while only one of these was physically present today, the wait time was a very manageable fifteen minutes. Lap bar restraints resulted in a solid ride, if not a particularly memorable one given that top of lift to brakes lasted just twenty-five seconds.

With the credit out of the way I made my way across to Predator, a 1990 wooden coaster refitted over the last two seasons with sections of Titan Track, a new steel rail product from Great Coasters International. The wood portions were a mixed bag today; some sections were fine, while other areas had seen better years. The steel sections were flawlessly smooth in comparison, so much so that they didn’t feel even remotely like a wood coaster. My guess is that the entirety of Predator will be converted at some point over the next few years, and while the result will undoubtedly be a good ride I'm saddened at the loss of another traditional wood coaster.

I’d allowed an hour to cross the US-Canada border at Niagara Falls, given previous experiences at the Rainbow Bridge, but it was remarkably quick today taking less than five minutes from end to end. The only requirement on the US side was a $5 charge to leave the country (cheap at the price). The Canadian side required a two minute chat with a border guard, most of which was him commiserating over my planned “very boring” four hour drive to Detroit. The journey wasn’t one I particularly wanted to make, but returning my rental car there was almost $4,000 cheaper than leaving it in Canada – and even I’m willing to endure a boring drive for a thousand bucks an hour.

Parking in the immediate area of Niagara Falls is expensive on the Canadian side, especially for those planing a quick visit. The vast majority of the lots offer all-day pricing for around $25. There are a few hotels with complimentary parking but they are at least three times the price of those outside of the main tourist area. I decided on the Clifton Hill lot, and since I’d paid for the time anyway I decided to pop into the local Hard Rock Cafe. While not new to me, I was able to take much better pictures than I could with the camera that I had on my last visit in 2012.

House of Frankenstein is a walkthrough haunted house with a roller coaster on the roof. The two attractions are sold separately, but I decided on a whim to go with the combined package. The walkthrough was decent enough with actors in a few places and reasonable effects, though whether it was worth the price is open to debate. The one thing I found strange was that some scenes were activated by pressing big red buttons rather than via a motion sensor, removing the surprise element; I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.

Way back in July 2006 I saw the ride now known as Frank’n Coaster (#3085) at its previous home of Sports Plus. It was out of action, but I wrote in my trip report that it “looked like a lot of fun”. I can only put this down to the naïveté of youth. The Wisdom-built ride only makes left hand turns, and badly; the first few are not completely dreadful as they’re taken at a relatively low speed, but the two at the end of the ride are grim – especially as the heavy lap bar is perfectly placed to slam into riders’ rib cages. I’m sorry to report that we were given two laps of an abomination that I’m going to rechristen Frankenstein’s Monster; one circuit (if not zero) would have been ample.