A Tumble Bug is an amusement park ride with a circular track.
The ride has a central axis and a circular track. The track has changes in elevation in it, and the cars, each attached by a rod to a central pivot attachment point and connected together, are propelled around the track via motors between the cars. Power is carried to the motors via slip ring brushes at the center and cables. Each car body is free to rotate around an axis perpendicular to the track (vertical if the track height is the same as the central pivot attachment point) so the riders experience motion that is rotational as well as vertical. The ride travels in both directions around the track.
Only two full-sized Tumble Bugs remain operating today in the United States—one at Kennywood in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, and one at Conneaut Lake Park in Conneaut Lake, PA. All full-size instances were made by Traver Engineering. The ride also exists in a kiddie form. The size of the full-size Tumble Bug is 100 feet in diameter. The full-size has 6 cars, while the kiddie version has 3 to 4 cars. There are more kiddie versions operating today than there are full-sized.
Read more about Tumble Bug: List of Parks That Have A Tumble Bug
Famous quotes containing the word tumble:
“The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armour against fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings:
Sceptre and crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.”
—James Shirley (1596–1666)