CGM

I was given a matchstick modelling kit years ago. It's meant to be for building a matchstick tram but as you can imagine, I never even opened the box. Now it seems I have finally found a good use for those matchsticks and I have begun construction on a woodie known as Timber Typhoon. The coaster is based on RCCA designs which are terrible coasters but they are probably the easiest style to mimick. The layout is basically a giant figure of eight finishing with an oval. The track will be made using flexible N scale model railway track and the train should be a made up of modified wagons. Of course this means that there are no upstops so airtime hills are pretty much out of the question. As for laterals, I have some ideas for track modifications which should encourage the trains to stay on the track. Weather or not the coaster will actually work I have no idea, but I think that the height plan should ensure that it would actually get round the track. Anyway, first construction update. I apologise for the poor quality of these images. With the "foundations" down, vertical construction can begin The layout can be clearly seen here

Yes, there's one on the fair circuit

Yes, I did, they said so on the tour. If you anyone is planning on going to Tivoli, I highly recommend that you make time to see the rest of Copenhagen since it is such a beautiful city particuarly at Christmas and there is lots to do there

After Christmas, we decided to go for a short two day holiday to Copenhagen. We did Tivoli on the first day and sightseeing on the second. Overall, I was very impressed by the park. It was probably the most beautiful park I have ever been to particuarly the lights at night and it was very well themed. Since it was a Christmas opening, most of the rides didn't open until 2:00pm but Dæmonen was open as well as many smaller attractions. although the park seemed busy, most of the rides were pretty much walk-on apart from Rutschebanen which had about a 10 minute queue. I was very impressed by Dæmonen I had heard that it was forceless and boring so I went on not expecting much. But this ride is seriously awesome! It may not have huge amounts of forces like the older B&Ms but this doesn't matter as the way the twisted layout throws you around makes up for it. Plus it has a brilliant drop and good airtime coming into the brakes. I ended up riding Dæmonen 6 times, 5 times in the front row. Rutschebanen was another coaster that suprised me. Considering it's age and the fact that it had a brakeman, I thought that it would trundle round the course never picking up much speed. But I was very wrong. I'm not sure if the brakeman was actually doing anything apart from stopping the train at the station because it certainly didn't feel like it. I really enjoyed it and ended up riding it twice in the front row. However there was something that got me about this ride. In the station there are no airgates which is understandable for a ride this age. The train loads and unloads in seperate stations so it enters the station with the lapbars open. As the train was rolling in, I saw a boy about half way down the platform jump into the front seat as the train was rolling past. And the ride operator just smiled at him! If this was at Flamingoland, he would have surely of been thrown out for yobbishness. Anyway, Later on in the day the park becomes even more beautiful as the lights come on. My pictures don't really do it justace. You have to be there to experience it properly but just about everything in the park that can have lights on it has lights on it. The fireworks were also very impressive. The display was quite short but they had deffinately put a lot into it. they used more "big" fireworks than most parks do and it was well paced. So overall I had a reallly good time at Tivoli. Here are some pictures: This is the finale. It's pretty big They were done from the top of a building Their firework display was one of the best I've seen The palace is pretty awesome at night Did I mention that this place has lights? Yes Dollywood, here they also have a blue tree More lights The pagoda that contains a chinese restaurant all lit up with lights Some of the park with the lights on This is the wierd dark ride in the structure of Rutschebanen. It is set in a mine, it has a dragon and it has grinning mole people. We were all very disturbed. Just look what it did to that girl! No, that is not an orange tree, it's just covered in lights Starflyer is one messed up ride A shot from the Starwheel There's the brakeman Those drops look pretty average from here but on the ride they feel much bigger Rutschebanen is one of those scenic railways with a brakeman More great theming Yay for Gnomeland! They had a little gnome ski resort These figures actually move! Are you getting this Tussauds? For Christmas, they had a huge indoor snow scene with lots of gnomey things This is the big gate entrance They also have an Oriental palace with a crazy spinny lantern drop ride in front of it Tivoli had a palace with a huge snowglobe in front of it Time for spot the enthusiast again This is just like a mini Dragon Kahn. It even has a Great wall of China The theming around Dæmonen is really good Twistyness Forget trash cans. How many lanterns? I liked the helixy stuff that Dæmonen does People complain about the length of this coaster but I thought that it was just right Let's play spot the enthusiast Ooh! I'm in this one The coaster fits into the park really well Dæmonen was deffinately the highlight of the trip We were suprised to find Dæmonen open This powered coster must be one of the longest in the world. Plus they give you 4 laps! The funhouse was actually pretty good. It had many slides of death, spinning barrels and moving floors that can send you into orbit if you decide to jump on them like I did They also had a funhouse inside the structure of Rutschebanen. Along with about 30 stalls and shops and a water dark ride. I still can't quite work out how this is possible The view upon entrance. Those shops on the left are actually built into Rutschebanen's structure Most people went in the big gate entrance, we snuck in the side way Approaching the park The view from the front of our Hotel Apparently, this building is called The Toaster We did a canal tour As you can see, the whole city was decked out for Christmas They had royal guards here as well On day two, we did some sight seeing So, a great day at Tivoli Gardens Everyone loves spiral staircase shots A very low bridge. Every time one of these came up, everyone outside had to duck The Little Mermaid And I finish with the big Tivoli building This was like Denmark's Times Square SharkTums made an appearance

I don't see why people were that exited about this ride in the first place. Most people seemed to be more interested in the fact that the track could cover such long spans without supports than the fact that the ride looks to be a low capacity, low thrill ride. Yes it may be tall, but it is essentially a very large mini suspended coaster. I can't really see how it will benefit Walibi Belgium at all. The capacity is terrible for such a large ride with only two 4 seat cars on the track. I can see this causing huge problems with queues. I can't remember whether this coaster will be pay per ride or not but I think that this would be the only way to avoid this kind of problem and this doesn't make people feel all that great about having to pay for the experience. Plus this ride is possibly the ugliest I have ever seen. I don't expect all coasters to look brilliant but they could have at least painted it. It completely ruins any atmosphere that used to surround the lake and it kills the theming. Plus it causes a huge eyesore for all surrounding residents. So in all, I think that Walibi could have spent their money on something much better

I have: White Knuckle Ride by Mark Wyatt Rollercoaster by David Bennett Rollercoaster by Robert Coker The American Rollercoaster by Scott Rutherford

Because the colours used match exactly the ones used on all of the other Superman rides. But I think that it's more to do with the fact that Six Flags can now say "Ride the new Superman *insert ending* at Six Flags over Texas" and sell it as a new ride. They obviously thought that there would be no point in repainting a ride if they can't make something out of it and I think that this would be a good move for any park. As for merchandising, they can just use the same name as another Six Flags Superman ride and use the same merchandise

Now that I see it with the colours, I think that it's pretty obvious that this is going to be a Superman themed ride. If it stays as Mr. Freeze I will be amazed. It seems a shame that even a slightly original theme is being substituted by Six Flags generic ride theme no.1 . I could also see Six Flags advertising this as if it's a new ride. But I have to say that it actually looks much better in this colour scheme than in pale blue which blended in with the sky. The ride needed a paint and it now has much more presence on the skyline

When I visited PGA, I liked the park very much. It had a pleasant atmosphere and lots of shade. It suffered from none of the traits listed above. However, that was back in 1999 so either my memory fails me or the park atmosphere has since been destroyed. Looking on RCDB I think that that's probably the case. It seems that rides have simply been thrown up, most of them clones at a rapid pace with no regard to the surroundings at all. But anyway, who knows, maybe Cedar Fair will improve the Paramount parks. In fact I'd say that cedar Fair have already started making the right moves in terms of selling and altering rides that are no longer up to the job. They may not be into theming but you can't reallly say that Paramount Parks are that well themed anyway. Dorney Park and Valleyfair! don't look to be too bad in terms of surroundings and it's hardly as if the parks will go through an instant transformation. So I'd say wait until Cedar Fair actually does do something to the parks before criticising them

The Pinfari mini Apple How many parks has Katapul at Hopi Hari in Brazil been to before reaching its current location and what are the names of the parks?

CAD programs are great but first you have to know how to design a coaster yourself and understand the forces involved to properly know what you're doing. I'm thinking of getting this book to try and get an idea of what's involved (Yes, I also cringe at the way it says "Exiting real life maths activities" How this is supposed to make you feel any better about buying it, I don't know)

I'm not overly sad to see Hypersonic leaving the park. It's really just a gimick coaster built to break records at the time but it has now been left behind by more modern and better coasters even at its own park. I can't really see it being replaced by a Stealth clone. Enthusiasts may be able to distinguish between the two coasters but to the average park goer, it's a short launched coaster with a talll vertical hill being replaced by a short launch coaster with a tall vertical hill. The park needs more coasters with a lifthill and coasters of decent length. So I say a B&M multilooper

I'm not saying that the properties of wood and steel are the same. I'm simply saying that if you put lighter trains on rough track, the chances are that you will be thrown around more

Surely lighter trains would only make the problem worse. Yes, they won't tear up the track as much but they will be thrown around even worse because of the already torn-up track. A good example of this is B&M trains verses Vekoma. B&Ms stay smooth for ages because they have nice heavy trains that don't get thrown around easily and they have a track system which can take the weight. However vekoma trains are very light in comparison and so they get thrown around all over the place and they run on a track system that ages badly and is easily warped. This would be what happened if you somehow ran a B&M train on vekoma track (which would probably buckle the track beyond regognition) and then you put the vekoma trains on it to make things 10 times worse. This is a kind of wierd explanation but you get the idea. This is really the lazy way out. The ride should be retracked with track that can take a beating or even better, just tear the thing down. No one likes it and with the loop gone, no one has a good reason to ride it

Wow!- That is really well themed. The pictures on RCDB just don't do it justace. Plus any park with a tracky log flume is instantly cool in my books. Credit? I think so

I never said it would be good either. But yeah, Terra Mitica sounds like it was planned to be an absolute world class park. A B&M inverter with 9 inversions (that would have been the record when the park opened), a preshow for Laberynth of the Minotaur and Fire effects on Ulysees. You can tell that it was a major development from the theming but it's a shame that it was the rides that were cut back on. I would say that this is my second faviroute park after Alton Towers. I don't know why, probably because of the theming and that hardly anyone knows anything about it. I just love it!

I really don't understant Terra Mitica's management. This is the first time they've had this amount of money to spend in years and they spend it in about the worst way imaginable. Why are they buying a brand new Gyro Tower when they already have Flight of the Pheonix? The towers will look almost exactly the same, they will provide a very simular ride and it will surely leave FOTP with no queue. The fact that it spins on the way up really isn't enough to put the two rides apart. Secondly, I have an issue with the Intamin Ball Coaster. Terra Mitica needs good coasters and they've got money to spend. So it seems logical that they should get themselves a coaster that will put them on the map. An Intamin ball coaster is not the answer. Yes it may be new technology but it's low capacity, it's appearance is hardly that impressive with and it doesn't even look that exiting (think a screaming squirrel with the car hanging off the side). I must say that I am glad that they will be getting new trains for Magnus Colossus because it really is a rough ride and it wouldn't be that bad if it was smoother. However no matter how good Intamin trains are, they still havn't stopped Coaster Express from being rough. I think that this park is awesomme and I want it to do well but they seem to be throwing their money away this year

The way it works is that there is a cylinder full of nitrogen gas which the oil is pumped into compressing the nitrogen. When the valve is opened, the oil is pushed out of the cylinder at high speed by the high pressure nitrogen. The oil rushes through the hydraulic motor which pulls the cable which launches the train. Yes, your school taught you correctly, it is possible to compress liquid but it takes many atmospheres of pressure for it to happen. It can only really happen at the bottom of deep oceans and we don't have the technology yet to recreate this on the surface

I think he means the B&M flyer/hyper style restraints which sort of use sliding pins to hold them in place. So no, B&M floorless coasters don't

I'm pretty sure that the FL woodie was confirmed to be a Vekoma for 2007 but it was moved back a year. As for the AT woodie, I think that they will go with Intamin because of Rita and Stealth, because Wardley likes Intamin woodies and it was going to be the coaster system used for the cross valley woodie, because Intamin is Europe based and is closer to home and because Intamin woodies have better capacity than GCI. Of course the other possibility is that it could be a Gravity Group woodie but I doubt this because they don't plan to enter the European market just yet

Things are actually looking pretty good here in the UK in terms of woodies for the next few years. We have the Alton Towers woodie in the pipeline (likely to be an Intamin) and a Vekoma woodie for Flamingoland both planned for 2008. I can see a few other UK parks getting woodies in the near future as well. Plus, as stated above we do have BPPB which has the highest count of woodies in the world and Megaphobia, so we don't do too badly

No, it is the same sign, look at it more closely, count the number of swirls and the look at the shape of them and the text. Don't be fooled by the dots or wood grain effects, they're just painted on. If you look at just the shape, you can see that they're exactly the same. Either that or there's some creepy guy who likes to copy signs. (And yes, I do realise that I am incredibly sad for looking at signs in such detail)

You may or may not know that there is a new kiddie coaster being built at Cherry Valley Golf and Games. The sign can be seen here: http://www.rcdb.com/ig3482.htm?picture=4 Whilst browsing RCDB I noticed that it is the exact same sign as used on Paramount's Great America's Tidal Wave/Greased Lightnin' but with a different paint job. http://www.rcdb.com/ig75.htm?picture=15 For some reason I found this quite funny. That a sign for such an awesome Schwarzkopf coaster in a major park can end up being used for a kiddie ride at some Crazy Golf course. And that Cherry Valley has been the ultimate cheap skate and simply bought one of PGA's old signs. So don't be suprised if you see any rides named Stealth or Whizzer being added soon

Well technically Pleasure Island in Cleethorpes (UK) is my closest park at around 20 minutes away. But I've never been there so I really consider Alton Towers my home park since it is the closest park that I visit regularly

It was actuallly one of the oldest flumes in existance. It was an Arrow flume dating back to the 60s