Aurel Vaszin

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Aurel “Dutch” Vaszin (1885–1979) was a carpenter, engineer and roller coaster designer who led National Amusement Devices (NAD) and helped build some of the era’s biggest coasters.

Vaszin was born in Romania in April 1885 and moved to the United States in 1904. He had limited schooling and trained as a cabinet maker. In 1913 he worked as a craftsman at an amusement park in New Haven, Connecticut. He did projects for Lakeside Amusement Park in Dayton, Ohio, and planned to start his own business there.

From 1919 to 1920 he opened the Dayton Fun House in Dayton. It later became National Amusement Devices, a company that made trains and other gear for more than 400 amusement parks. Vaszin also started the Forest Park Zoological Gardens near Dayton, but it closed in 1935 during the Great Depression.

As the Dayton Fun House grew, NAD began making miniature trains and other equipment for other parks. After World War II the company was renamed National Amusement Devices and brought in designer John Miller. They began designing full roller coasters for other parks, including large international projects such as a mile-long ravine coaster in a Guatemalan national park and the “Russian Mountain” in Mexico City’s Chapultepec Park.

The “Russian Mountain,” also known as La Montaña Rusa, was billed in 1964 as the world’s largest roller coaster at 110 feet high and 5,000 feet long. By 2008 it was the oldest NAD coaster still operating in Mexico. Vaszin also designed NAD’s popular miniature trains, notably the “Century Flyer,” used in about 100 parks. The Century Flyer in Conway, Arkansas, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2012 because it is one of the few NAD trains still in operation.

Vaszin retired in 1973. NAD was sold and renamed International Amusement Devices, and he remained an advisor until his death on May 15, 1979. He was survived by two sisters in Romania. In 1980 his papers were donated to Wright State University Archives by his friend Eva Berry.