Finally Solved the Mystery of Cat & Mouse
Graeme 
Posted: |
About 20 years ago, I was at school having a conversation with my friend. He said he'd been to Felixstowe and seen a roller coaster called "Cat & Mouse". I always wondered what this ride was actually like, but by the time I eventually managed to get to Felixstowe, there was no sign of it. As sad as it sounds, I've always wondered what it was! Fast forward to 2005... I was browsing an internet forum when I saw someone say The Rat Ride at Lightwater Valley used to be at Felixstowe! Lightwater installed it in 1987, which would tie-in with my friend seeing it circa 1986. Could it really be that Manning's once had a Schwarzkopf Wildcat? Well, they used to have a woodie before that, so why not? It seems uncanny that the ride still has "rat" cars. Did it used to have "cat" ones as well? |
at 8/7/05 3:35:12 AM
> About 20 years ago, I was at school having a conversation
> with my friend. He said he'd been to Felixstowe and seen a
> roller coaster called "Cat & Mouse". I always
> wondered what this ride was actually like, but by the time
> I eventually managed to get to Felixstowe, there was no
> sign of it.
> As sad as it sounds, I've always wondered what it was!
> Fast forward to 2005... I was browsing an internet forum
> when I saw someone say The Rat Ride at Lightwater Valley
> used to be at Felixstowe! Lightwater installed it in 1987,
> which would tie-in with my friend seeing it circa 1986.
> Could it really be that Manning's once had a Schwarzkopf
> Wildcat? Well, they used to have a woodie before that, so
> why not? It seems uncanny that the ride still has
> "rat" cars. Did it used to have "cat"
> ones as well?
In ye oldene dayes I think most wild mouse rides were referred to as Cat and Mouse. I remember going to Blakkers as a lad and my Auntie Patsy (the world's ugliest woman)saying she wanted to go on the Cat and Mouse. I have even heard the spinning reverchon mice called "Waltzer Cat and Mouse" by people of a certain dotage. I think it is epochal rather than aesthetic. I've never seen a cat car on a mouse ride. But think that it would be great to have duelling wild mice rides, one themed as a cat.
at 8/7/05 9:56:47 AM
> I remember going to Blakkers
> as a lad and my Auntie Patsy (the world's ugliest
> woman)
Oh dear, I roared at that. And quite possibly frightened off the cat that was in the garden, ironically!
You have furthered my understanding of the situation, thank you!
The mystery now is what the ride was actually called, and what cars it had. It might have been named after its model-name, "Wildcat". My guess is it had unthemed cars, and Lightwater Valley turned them into rats.
By the way, you could have one called "Cat & Mouse": all the cars would be mice, but there could be a giant, animatronic cat in the middle taking swipes at you as you nipped in and out of mouseholes and beside bits of cheese!
Believe it or not, I did a mobiuse tracked wooden wild mouse on RCT1 back in the dark ages and called it the cat n mouse (but due to the lack of cat cars, the first 6 cars were 1 colour and the other 6 were another...what thats got to do with anything I have no idea)
But I just thought I'd mention it!
Nice ideas for themed cat and mouse coasters!
How about combining both ideas (how big will this coaster be!) and having a racer, (for capacity reasons)
with 1 side cats and the other mice, like you said, cats trying to attack the mouse, but could mice not run away from the cats on the other side?
You've got me thinking here!!!
Ash
at 8/25/05 2:27:01 PM
I went on a mouse ride at Felixstowe around 1980 odd. Now that makes me 10 at the time but i certainly don't remember it being as slow as The Rat. I remember it as scary and have a hazy recollection that a few years later it was shut down due to a crash on the ride (possibly fatal?) But hey, when you're 10 yrs old, the definition of scary is quite different to what scares me now.
at 8/25/05 4:43:26 PM
> I went on a mouse ride at Felixstowe around 1980 odd.
Wow, you actually went on it! It's one of my most revered coasters in a way, probably because I'd heard about it but could never find it. It made it almost mythical to me.
at 8/27/05 4:21:27 AM
Yup, and I remember the car going onto two wheels (or tilting)on the sharp bends. It scared me a lot!!
at 8/30/05 11:30:56 AM
> Yup, and I remember the car going onto two wheels (or
> tilting)on the sharp bends. It scared me a lot!!
Is this the same wild mouse that used to be at Brean Leisure park (around 1994) and before that was on the sea front in Weymouth? I believe it was owned by a coaster enthuisiast who had problems finding a home for it
i can't really remember much about it so it may have had cat themed cars, my mother and brother rode it a brean while i opted for a car track ride, it looked absolutely terrifying
at 8/30/05 5:48:50 PM
>> Yup, and I remember the car going onto two wheels (or
>> tilting)on the sharp bends. It scared me a lot!!
> Is this the same wild mouse that used to be at Brean
> Leisure park (around 1994) and before that was on the sea
> front in Weymouth? I believe it was owned by a coaster
> enthuisiast who had problems finding a home for it
So, it must have been a genuine wild mouse, not a Schwarzopf WildCat. That's the only thing that would tilt on the corners, and a wooden one at that!
Interestingly, this wouldn't have been the first wooden coaster at Felixstowe: they had a side-friction decades ago. Two woodies at Clacton, two at Felixstowe...how barren my neck of the woods is nowadays! :(
And to think I had solved the mystery...! ;)
at 12/18/05 3:59:22 PM
Some pictures have popped up that let us finally solve this mystery!
The ride was indeed the Schwarzkopf and was called "Wild Cat". My friend telling me it was called Cat & Mouse, well, I'll put that down to Fraser's explanation.
Decades ago, there was also a side-friction woodie, also in these pictures.
The only mystery left is whether Felixstowe ever had a wooden wild mouse (the one that britcitchris rode). Well, we'll have to let that be a mystery...!
