Avis Amusement Car is Still Ticking

While almost every company with a pavilion at the World's Fair, went with some sort of futuristic theme, or at least a modern theme, Avis decided to go the other route. One of the big draws at their pavilion was the antique car ride. You have probably seen similar cars at various amusement parks around the country.

The Avis cars were crafted by Arrow Development, the same company that created the first tubular steel coaster (Disneyland's Matterhorn) as well as many of the steel coasters in the U.S. during the coaster boom of the 70's and 80's.

As luck would have it, Avis retained one of the cars from the fair, and after a long life appearing at various promotional events, today the car is located in the lobby of the Avis world headquarters.

I want to especially thank Alice Pereria from Avis for making the car available for filming.

A Ride on a World's Fair Original

This past weekend, we headed to the Railroad Museum of Long Island. The museum, houses the original (and restored) G-16, or 16" gauge amusement train. The train made its debut as part of the Long Island Railroad pavilion at the fair. Don Fisher, the president of the museum explained the train ended up in a private park for Grumman, before making its way to the museum, where it was restored to its original livery in 2001.

Taking a ride in the train is truly taking a trip through history, and into one of the most authentic World's Fair experiences remaining. And if you're a train buff, I'd suggest a trip to the museum, preferably after the relocated Lionel visitor's center layout debuts at the museum in April of 2011.

We'll have a clip or two from our visit up in a bit.