tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151799760990306051.post6598912780475789462..comments2023-06-04T04:11:05.291-07:00Comments on Santa Cruz Trains: Curiosities: Skee-Roll at the BoardwalkDerek Whaleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17715926686413316877noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151799760990306051.post-25791888275132821542017-02-11T12:39:59.623-08:002017-02-11T12:39:59.623-08:00Additionally, the Pirate's Den Arcade was not ...Additionally, the Pirate's Den Arcade was not the first formal box gaming console arcade. The Main Arcade at the end of the colonnade in the Coconut Bowl building (the old Plunge building) was the first. <br /><br />Also, the Shooting Gallery was open longer than you have listed. Ed Whiting closed that sometime after 1982. My father still has one of the original bunny targets given to him by Ed Whiting. My father worked at the Boardwalk for quite a long time.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07914790502661499941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151799760990306051.post-41168608642619342012016-09-02T22:13:27.431-07:002016-09-02T22:13:27.431-07:00It seems unlikely that seawater would have been fe...It seems unlikely that seawater would have been fed into the boilers. Boilers experienced enough problems accumulating scale deposits from our hard water domestic supply. The seawater for the plunge must have been heated some other way using steam from the boiler, or waste steam from the Corliss Engine. Haven't spent a lot of time on those details.<br /><br />I have never seen any mention of a powerhouse at Natural Bridges.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15999483115869076908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151799760990306051.post-33328965419001294782016-09-02T21:18:49.364-07:002016-09-02T21:18:49.364-07:00Very interesting. I was informed by Ted Whiting th...Very interesting. I was informed by Ted Whiting that the building was used as essentially the pump and warming house for the Miller-Leibbrandt Plunge, which was built in 1893. However, a few of his other statements did not line up 100% with the historical record. I rather suspect that the building may not date from 1893, when the Plunge was built, but possibly to 1903, when the Electric Pier was extended into the bay. The pier was built as a conduit for the water, and said conduit would have required a stronger pump than had existed before. Following what Ted said, the water would have been pumped into the two holding tanks to the east of the building, and then channeled through a boiler before heading to the Baths, the steam laundry, and the Plunge. There are still concrete slabs in the building today where two large tanks once sat. The only documentation I have for this, unfortunately, is the two Sanborn maps above, the second of which showing the room as simply storage as of 1917. If you click on the first map, however, a larger version appears that you may be able to read (it is the highest resolution available to me). It shows a dynamo near the western side, flanked by two engines, with two tanks near the middle beside a large device that I assume is a boiler owing to the fuel oil stored beside it. Something else is on the eastern wall but I cannot make out the text.<br /><br />Just rereading what you wrote, I believe Swanton's actual powerhouse was not on the Boardwalk site but rather north of the city limits near where Natural Bridges is today (that was one all Swanton's land). It has been a long time since I last read about it, however, so I could be mistaken.Derek Whaleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17715926686413316877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2151799760990306051.post-1529542508732687322016-09-02T20:18:59.210-07:002016-09-02T20:18:59.210-07:00I believe the building you refer to as the "p...I believe the building you refer to as the "pump building", and elsewhere as the "pump house" originally was the powerhouse of the Co-Operative Electric Co. I don't known what a "dynamo turbine engine" that you refer to. The powerhouse had 2 Babcock and Wilcox boilers that supplied steam for a 300 HP Hamilton-Corliss steam engine which, in turn, ran a 180 KW Westinghouse 3-phase alternator. Electric power was sold to customers in the city, as well as to the Casino. I have no information that there was ever a turbine (either a water turbine or a steam turbine) in the powerhouse. If there is a reference to such, I would be ecstatic to see it.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15999483115869076908noreply@blogger.com