Dear Ed,  In Spring 1997, the National Carousel Association's quarterly
magazine, Merry-Go-Roundup, featured an article on Philadelphia
Toboggan Company (as it was known then), now Philadelphia Toboggan
Coasters, Inc.

The author and contact then was Laura Grauer, Archivist, Philadelphia
Toboggan Coasters, Inc., 8th & Maple Streets, Landsdale, PA 19446.
Phone (215) 362-4700, fax (215) 368-9680.

In brief, PTC was founded by Henry B. Auchy in 1904.  In the earliest
years, the primary products were hand-carved wooden carousels and
toboggan slides (known today as roller coasters).

Over the next several decades, the company produced mill chutes, water
toboggans, fun houses, flat rides, arcade games, and misc. amusement
park buildings and structures.  Today it designs coaster cars, braking
systems for wood roller coaster structures, and queue-line and
queue-rail systems.

Between 1904 and 1930, PTC produced 75 original carousels, generally
three, four, or five figures abreast, some with menagerie figures and
some with only horses.  It also reworked several carousels by other
manufacturers.

According to Laura, PTC has operated continuously and still has a
sizable portion of its records, including sketches and blueprints,
photos, negatives, postcards, film/video footage, ledgers, journals,
minute books, advertising catalogs and brochures, correspondence, etc.

Some of the archives are accessible to writers, curators, historians
and researchers, some via an in-house computer database at the PTC
facility.

PTC appeals to anyone who may have any original PTC documents or images
to consider sharing them (donations or loans), copies also are welcome,
regardless of how trivial they may seem -- the company's intent is to
preserve the complete PTC historical record.

If you'd like a copy of this back issue, with photos, contact Terry
Blake, National Carousel Association (NCA), PO Box 4333, Evansville,
IN 47724-0333 , or call Terry at 812-428-3675.

Cyndy Hennig, National Carousel Association
Editor, Merry-Go-Roundup