Frankie Allen was a former Lakeside employee and had some contacts still, so we actually had Dell Curry, Al Young, and others working some shifts. Dell and Al were great dudes and great employees. Then there was Dave Herbster. Funny guy. I should have never shown him how to open the bars manually (came in handy in humid days when the solenoid that popped that operated the bar lock got stuck). It's a two man operation - upper brake slows the coaster into the station. The operator unloads the cars and lets it down to the lower brakeman, who stops the coaster and lets riders on. The lower brakeman is also the failsafe if the upper brakeman should not stop the coaster properly (called "streaking" the coaster). So Dave lets the coaster down, we load it. I give the safety spiel, we check the bars, and walk over to let the coaster off the brake. I look up and I see this long arm holding a red had reach out - it was Dave in the last car handing me his hat! At that point, the coaster was on its way to the chain that pulled up the big hill that gives all its energy to complete the journey. I set the lower brake low and sprinted to the upper brake and prayed nothing funny happened so I could stop it. In comes the cars just on schedule and a routine stop, but that was about two minutes of real fear for me.