Behind the Scenes Tour of Knoebels' Haunted Mansion and Flying Turns Roller Coaster

hey you all carpetbagger here coming to you live from the north more specifically ellisburg pennsylvania and even more specifically than that i am at kenobl's one of my favorite amusement parks i always have to mention kenobl's free parking free entrance and the tickets are very very inexpensive i i don't talk about price a lot but i'm just always floored by how affordable knobles is and what what a quality theme park it is but today very excited always excited to be here at knoebels always excited to to experience this theme park but actually got a little invitation to take a behind the scenes peak today so hope you guys will follow [Music] me [Music] here just a little bit early before the rides have been fired up so here we are for our sneak peek behind the scenes at kenobl's haunted mansion this is an absolute beautiful old school dark ride all right so heading in you're the caretaker of the haunted mansion oh wow it's different with the lights on very different with the lights on there's lots of additional artwork and lots of additional scenery that you only catch glimpses of as you're rolling through the ride after you've been on the ride a few times you tend to look around at different features and there is more and more and more detail to be revealed as you study the rocks yeah because when you go through the actual ride all the stuff is flashing by very very quickly a lot comes out so you have to so we ride a couple times try to get a good view so let's take a look at this we got the uh guy here with the axe the organ player over here we got fireplace with the frankenstein-like creature this girl we call ruth bruce ruth was here waiting for her husband from me years ago oh wow look at that oh look at that there's actually a it's working at kenobl staff uh it all started we believe with that little idol over there part of the storyline that you can read in the queue line while you're waiting aboard the ride tells of the uh treasure that our mansion owner ishmael heppel was not supposed to seek well he saw the treasure and brought it back with him and of course as you're riding through here tonight you can see the spirits hovering over the evil cursed treasure and the story unfolds from there the curse is just it's deep within the walls of the building we you know we've got an astrologer a wizard of sorts here working all of his magic to try to undo that treasure uh he's going through every book that he can think of and more that is a portrait the likeness of ishmael heppel uh you can see even the portraits have been cursed and as you round the bend the spirit of ish is still trapped within the walls you can see him through the painting and breaking out of the wall trying to make his way out of this building oh look at that see the fangs there for a true behind the scenes look if we look at the back of the wizard you can see that the the beauty and what makes this such a neat traditional dark ride there's a motor that turns this plate and as this plate turns it literally uses the unusual shape of the plate oh wow to move the wooden dowels that make up his arms and another dowel has a linkage to adele that his head sits on so that is what provides all the motion see here oh wow all these books and magazines on the shelf back here oh he's been reading windows 98 for dummies yeah there's the best assortment of things there's also some history here years ago we had a big cabinet here that had all of the sound systems that provided the noises you hear as you travel through the ride and back in the day they were highly specialized technical tapes oh wow wow it was just played in a loop kind of like an eight-track cassette which we have some of those as well so these are the originals for those played on the ride we had cassette version we had these looping tapes so we had eight track tapes so through the years it's it's progressed to now it's digitally reproduced but it's the exact same soundtrack we've copied over from media to media for the current time so when was this first opened uh 1973 1973 you'll you'll see that from the many thousands and thousands of cars that come through here eventually the floor wears a little bit so we're we're using an epoxy treatment to knit the surface fibers of the plywood back together originally back in 1973 they had purchased a few ready-made props and then built the rest but they wanted consistency throughout so even the ready-made props were integrated into home built-in fixtures so the grandfather clock is something that we built the mechanism was purchased from a company called funny fright and they were they were known as a go-to company for fright props uh it's a very simple switch that's underneath that lever the car drives on the lever the switch is triggered and then one of our favorite guest gags is the snake in the clock in the funny fried catalog the snake in the clock is uh is gag number 111 so it's a small nod to funny fright i made the time on the clock 111. the the giant pipe organ is made out of cardboard tubes but the organ is actually not really an organ the pedalboard is just insinuated through lots of small sticks it is a real keyboard from oregon but the carcass is actually an old piece of bedroom furniture it's a dresser oh wow that was uh cobbled together to look like an organ but in in the dark with little glimpses of frightful images your mind pieces together the rest of it so it's amazing at how much your mind your imagination will roll just look at that guy as pete combined here he's sort of shaking and shivering in his head bouncing around and really it's very simple there's a motor that spins in a circle with an odd shaped wheel and as the wheel moves it makes our character bounce and jiggle and carry on as though he was actually up here playing the york also is that kind of like a bobble head on him yes there's just a spring under him it'll travel on down the track a little bit there's some other traditional funny fright manufactured props that we have a switch a start switch and an end switch still here this particular portrait at one time was something that's still in use in broadway what they had at one time was they had a piece of scrim that had a painting on yeah and a light behind it and light in front of it as you approached it the light in front showed you what was painted on the screen as you approach the switch would turn off the front light turn on the back light and you would see that there's really a monster back there but over time you know the scrim just didn't hold up as well as we'd hoped so now we actually have a little pneumatic piston that uh pulls down on the lower part of mouth and reveals that there's actually a monster behind this painting after all we have the monster that comes out of the oven everybody's favorite there they love the monster which by the way this eye that everyone sees is actually a football oh yeah when they made this monster back in the 70s they needed an eyeball and the artist who created it it was david knoble uh went to one of our our game stands and asked them for one of their football prizes so that he could make an eyeball and we when i redid this monster with the current version uh i actually removed the eyeball very carefully built the whole prop around that original eyeball this is still the original eye that's so cool look at the again if you were a frequent rider of the ride you see new details each time yeah there were so many to look at and that was sort of the plan was to continue to add more so that uh you may start to anticipate a few of the little starts yeah surprises we have but the fun is still in discovering new details each time absolutely we had a birthday cake and a a modern gas oven look at this well you know this this mansion was bought in 1973 with all the money being spent on the expeditions so uh all he had left was a little bit for used appliances so does this have like uh like the drinks and then the drops go down very traditional uh blacklight prop and this is a funny fried piece there's a motor at the bottom that moves that pulley and there are painted droplets on it so under the black light the bottle fluoresces the droplets fluoresce and you don't see the hardware in there so what it appears to be is a skeleton drinking and you see the drops going right down in it and we've added some whimsy to the whole thing we've got a stopped up sink we've got some help trying to unplug the sink and clean up the mess and uh i i'm a personal fan of horror movies and classic old films one of my favorite uh young frankenstein yeah so in a nod to the marty feldman scenes i put a market feldman on the sink prior to being a skull room it was actually a room full of optic illusions it is currently what we call our upside camera but in the traditional nod to the past we kept some of the skulls they're still in here hanging and glowing oh okay the glass mirrors are there in the wall painted over with black latex paint that can be removed but the idea of this is is what makes classic dark rides fun it's a very traditional redirect your attention is all drawn to the far wall that's where the detail is and you sort of ignore the dark wall on the opposite side yeah but that's when things happen there are small little details i mean these guys are over here playing a game of checkers and uh sitting in the game room and and he's decided that he's hungry okay so he's been snacking she's cheating he thought they were some sort of snack or cookie with a cream everybody needs a place to care for the cars and create new horror so we've got a shop it's disheveled it's messy but it's very functional uh everything is piled in here from new props that are sort of being worked on to the wall of history as i call it oh wow which is i'll move this on the way so that's the original sign right there the shop sounds uh this is the original sign i never got the story on that but i was told that perhaps at one time uh or one of our previous artists was was given the directive hey our haunted house needs a sign and so it was called a haunted house but truly all its life has been cannibals haunted mansion so we made a new sun a few years ago that reads it looks identical but it says canola's haunted mansion so the ride was called the haunted mansion but the sign said the haunted house correct that's confused and after that's that the original oven that was the monster oven monster uh and there's that the snake to snake from the clock there that was the second snake from the clock okay i got the bat up there yes we had a flying bat in the attic so put them on the table turn them sideways i featured a hand that was scaled appropriately and uh now we have something in this room that startles you see the darts being thrown here this poor skeletons got him lodged all throughout his body act just like a roller coaster it's an anti-roll back device in fact here we've taken you to the attic you know which warning you of what you may be entering into and the attic is pretty much like anybody else's bag it's full of creepy spiders hidden in the corner all the things that we don't use roller skates typewriters old radios dress forms outdated furniture a number of the things in this pile actually came from dick canola's personal attic he had an old calendar up there he tells the story that this radio this little tube radio was his but he had a very difficult time getting any stations on it any story behind this figure right here yes this figure as well as the one hidden under this mask are part of an old blue flag they're part of an old amusement park attraction oh wow it was a uh it was a a game of skill they had hats on them it was the attraction was called a cr walking charlie now walking charlie would have hats effects to this and they went around in a circle and came out they were behind something they came out with in view you were given a number of baseballs to throw at them to see if you can knock the hat off okay head off you want a prize we still have one of the original walking charlies and the other one we have mostly just the head portion but they were done in political characters of the day okay that were seen as someone that was disliked so you'd throw a throw up like be able to hit up yes the president the face of the baseball or whatever foreign foreign leaders of other countries that were not popular at the time things of that nature around the bend we near this has become what we've known for many years as our optic room and we've got a simple little 3d spiraling tunnel effect and this is blacklight paint enhanced so as you come through here you see all of the different skulls that are in here and it adds a lot of depth and illusion just as you sort of get your bearings on that you turn and go through an actual tunnel and this tunnel basically taking us from the attic downhill downhill downhill deep deep deep in the basement oh boy since you've been here this has changed this has changed you recall we had a little bit narrower jail cell in here and we had three three creatures that were interred in here three victims of the curse well they trapped a little a little bit larger creature who is now in here until we could find a cure for curse and uh we we've moved one of the characters he's now been given the assignment of being the jailer i see he's trying to keep this yes creature here locked up you'll see he's using a skeleton oh skeleton skeleton i'll check him out uh antique haunted car ride in the fall may recognize this a year or so ago he was in the antique car ride jumping out and and scaring our guests there but we couldn't let him get away so in the fall when he tried to run away and we grabbed him quick and put him in the prison here so this is where he now is wait a minute i'm trying to think of a road that he used to jump out at the yeah since you've ridden it one of the one of the one of the turns in the end he was on the right-hand side and come sliding out on a track had you we had a big ogre as you recall that lived on the other part of this dungeon here and uh again that ogre broke free from his chains and shackles so they had to put him subterranean and put a heavier grate over top of him so he's he's now living under oh yeah and uh he's down there i i don't know that you know he still managed to break through the flooring and i guess he's after this uh i don't i don't know if that's bait or food or if that's a lesson but what could happen but there's a mad scientist i'm convinced that that comes here often we never see him i think he's afraid to spend too much time in here and get afflicted by the curse themselves but uh this spring we came back and and he'd been working on some of the some of the guests here this was one of our former guests that was in the jail cell oh yeah and uh he is now undergoing some electric shock therapy oh he's just bones exposed down there they got the voltage a little high and i i know that the uh i know that the scientist here has a twisted sense of humor he's still trying to find out you know how much cockroaches can truly take a cockroach has not not succumbed to any voltage whatsoever cockroach being been shocked there so easter you probably wouldn't notice that coming behind on the right little gems look at that guy right there the jailer used to be over here he was he was pulling at one of our guests trying to keep her from leaving and running up the stairs but something came along and shoot a giant hole through there we're not sure yet there's a cage on the wall with nothing in it and we're not exactly sure what's going on but i kind of think like maybe that's what would happen there but uh so the jailer went around the corner he's got a new job the girls disappeared we're not sure where she got to but the uh the scientist over the winter months uh he went to work he took these other guys that were in the cell and he thought well maybe i've got a cure he was consulting with the wizard out there in some of the science books and he thought well maybe we can do a steam treatment here and and cook the curves out of them so it's going to boil away and uh i'm not sure what sort of infusion is going on here but uh iv there this character is uh this character is getting a new treatment as well they were originally just mostly upper body props so we had to embellish the rest and create additional appendages and such and something to look for i'll give away a little secret to you some year in the future working on getting getting him kicking yeah he's got a big smile on his face yeah he's bringing over and wants to say something i'm not sure if the words that are going to come out as the story goes we've broken free from dungeon and made our way into the outer parts of the of the mansion property we're in the cemetery and here in the cemetery we found that well a lot of the classic monsters have come from this place or lived nearby it's dracula frankenstein this is again some classification houdini or earlier and he sits here and watches over everyone hopefully everyone makes it out this particular gag is an original funny fried crop in the catalog it's referred to as spooky but uh spooky has changed over the years it was a little bit different face a lot of the original funny fried props did not survive the torment of time i noticed this you have the monster grave and the adam's grave the two uh monster family sitcoms right there yeah and behind you and a little nod to you know one of the world's greatest themers uh bill tracy oh yeah everyone's most dreaded if you've ridden the red before you really don't favor this part because you know it's coming but you don't know when the long hallway the gust of wind in your face you know you're traveling down a road outside of the cemetery trying to find your way back into the haunted mansion and get out of this place permanently and in passing down the road there it is all of a sudden the truck the truck is it's a tissue paper of lies yeah this does look it looks much scarier on the right back in the 60s and 70s most refrigerators had a shelf made out of an aluminum grill this is a refrigerator it's a refrigerator you know just a couple of flood lights and uh a few bulbs on the top to insinuate the marker bulbs on a larger truck but really what as i mentioned earlier your mind puts together the rest of the pieces you only need to see little snippets in the dark and your mind builds the rest when you hear the sound and see the light configuration that's a truck i'm gonna get run over oh after you've broken your weight back into the atrium part of the haunted mansion you realize the atrium's sort of drawn over it it's also a victim that occurs so inside the atrium we have what appears to be a jungle uh you know there's a hippopotamus roaring at you as you come around the corner those bears i think our canary broke out of the cage and mutated into something from the curse what's that a bear in there there's there's an actual bear in there oh that's a yeah it's a real that's a real bear so through the jungle that we have there are many jungle creatures a little tiger and of course some exotic dragonflies buzzing around there's a monkey swinging from the tree there's even a snake the bulk of these props actually came from kennywood park these are from kennywood yes they had a mill race ride that was jungle themed so as you floated in the boats down in the rice does it see all the various aspects of a jungle something scary some not is it the one that they still have or they've re-themed it it's the the old mill yeah okay so these used to be an old mill like anyone that's oh that's really cool and our classic right there everybody's favorite the man who built he's amazing he pops up and yells and so what are you doing in the jungle here you're finally at the end of our cursed ride so now let's put all of that together and ride through the haunted mansion the skeletal hand points us this way skeleton there tells us to have our tickets ready [Music] all right let's get in don't touch the spooks [Music] ah oh look at that guy oh snake o'clock [Music] oh cake monster this guy's drinking [Music] oh upside down skeleton room [Music] we're gonna be jump scared i think oh big skeleton face [Music] oh oh gosh spiral of skulls there head through skull tunnel into the dungeon all in a monster oh [Laughter] the graveyard it's dark real dark oh jeez still gets me it's a big crazy me oh there the bear in there or the tiger jungle the chimp and there you go oh absolute absolute thing of beauty now here is flying turns this is a trackless roller coaster meaning that the cars there they start they start on a track but then it actually releases them from the track and they go into this this trough this spiral where they function like a bobsled going through these wooden troughs now i have good news and i have bad news let's start with the bad news first flying turns is not operating today i last time i was here they were doing some refurbishments they are complete with refurbishments it is ready to go but due to staffing issues they're not currently running the ride so that is the bad news the good news is because because they're not currently operating the ride they're gonna actually give me a tour of the roller coaster itself so actually do a little roller coaster walk through this would be a first time for this channel especially milled and okay and fit together like little like little puzzle pieces so you can see that this whole area is brand new so this ride did not reopen last season yeah i remember they were working on it last year when i was here yeah so to help so the the reason that it's not currently open is unfortunately staffing challenges yeah the ride is mechanically ready to go and we now just have to hire and train staff for it to get it open it takes it takes uh between seven and nine people to operate yeah this ride yeah so the cars would like bank up the side here once you are dropped into the trough everything that happens next is is pure science science and engineering you can almost see so this um is not part that was just redone you could almost see the path oh yeah on the ride now we're walking the opposite direction that the trains would go so yeah you can see oh yeah you can see the the path that the travel that the cars are taking oh wow and dick canola really wanted to rebuild it how the cart would spiral down there it provides a different experience well if you're in the very back seat you see the cars going up on the wall in front of you shows you what's can become right up there gives you right before it drops you into the trough after the main lift hill and the ride it gives you some uh yeah you can see the coaster cart would start there and then be emptied into this uh this trough and then just continue to spiral that downward motion see a really tight spiral as we go down you can see the pathway that uh the cars would take yeah they'd be like right alongside this wall that's that's crazy it's a security camera system on the ride you can see almost every curve every inch being monitored to make sure everything goes smoothly working here to put the flyer back together so thank you for joining me here today at knoebels as we take some behind the scene tours the haunted mansion absolute amazing attraction it's an attraction that was created with love in park and has been maintained with love for nearly 50 years people still enjoying the dark ride with their family 50 years after it opens as it continues to be maintained continues to be uh taking great care of and uh getting the right getting to walk through a role i've been disappointed i i'm not gonna be able to get to ride uh flying turns today but you know when god closes the door he opens the window and i got a chance to walk actually walk on the roller coaster uh but tomorrow i think we're gonna if you want to tune in this channel tomorrow i think i'll take you guys around we'll ride some more of the rides here in knoebels but uh until then if you want to check out some of the older videos on this channel i've been to the 48 continental united states filming amusement parks roadside attractions museums haunted houses another fun stuff in all of those 48 states uh if you'd like to support the channel consider donating to patreon three dollars or more we'll get you a postcard once a month also selling enamel pins in the etsy shop and uh all that you know just helps keep this train on the tracks this boat in the water and this derivable in the air all the information is in the description until next time my friends this one is in the bag

Channel: The Carpetbagger

Views: 71,938

Rating: 4.9569497 out of 5

Keywords: the, carpetbagger, knoebels, haunted mansion, flying turns, amusement park, elysburg, pa, pennsylvania, penn, dark ride, behind the scenes, roadside america, roadside attraction

Id: tU0RBmVdCf8

Length: 32min 41sec (1961 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 29 2021