verticalzero

CP should put magnetic brakes on Maggie for it's brake run. I'm glad no-one was hurt.

Get the "Blue Streak" and "Turtle Bug" open asap

Love it, it is more closer together than Thunderhead and the 1st GCI woody for Europe. Let's hope the lift-hill is super strong..

Glad ur all enjoying CP 17th coaster, did you really think CP will let everyone down and install a "duff" coaster. Night rides are amazing I can guess, going over the water and shooting out of the tunnel. Has the guy in the 1st row right hand side "passed Out"..?

matteocrepaldi: If u and your freinds did slap those stickers round CP, That is so dumb, I hope u get fined and have a restriction order on yoou all when visiting any US Parks.

BK is best, can't beat a double whopper and large meal. My fav which I can't have in the UK is: "Wendy"s Triple Burger mmmm so lovely.

Do wooden coaster really need to have a "Handrail" either side of the track, the "Blue Streak" at Conneaut Lake Park runs with only the right hand side handrail. All of the modern coasters have 2 Handrails. Is this down to the designer to choose 1 or 2 Handrails..?

$2.25 is not bad considering they have to be imported from England. A "Flake" costs 50p here, I'm a "Double Decker" fan.

If you won a very large sum of money (talking Millions) on your Lottery or Bingo how would you spend it...? Would you: A) Talk to your fav park and provide some cash so they can buy a sig coaster or flat ride...? B) Buy ur fav coaster and move it to your local Park if they agreed. C) Buy a Park and pay off it's debits (like CLP), get all the rides back to their former glory or as-new status and add new ones each year..? D) Pay off all of your friends n family debits, buy em cars, tv's and take them on a Worldwide holiday. E) Ask a coaster company to re-build ur fav defunct coaster at a Park. e.g. Wildcat at Idora Park, The Bat at Kings Island or the Crystal Beach Cyclone.? F) Hord all of your money and be a tight person and spend it on yourself. -------------------------------------------------- I would sort myself out 1st, friends n family then do A and B, if any money left C as well.

I love the Wii, play Tennis and bowling when I get home from work, helps me unwind. I have downloaded some of the old games and created about 20 Mii's.

I don't judge rides on their performance or what type of status it has/had in the past. I ride them damm thing and enjoy the few mins of it might produce. Take most of the English coasters for example, they all have mediocre designs and layouts, I ride them but don't rate them, we are so far behind your coaster designs in the USA. The best coaster in the UK is "Megafobia", the best in England is the "Wild Mouse". Nemesis is ok and so is "Air", but not that good. I find Nemesis's brother at Thorpe Park a better ride. Depending on how well off / rich Cypress Gardens are after their troubles: it could of bought Americana's Screechin' Eagle (if it was for sale but too far rotted to save) or done a "blue-print" copy of the Idora "Wildcat" (which most coaster lovers want to happen someday). The park decided to buy a middle of the range classic "woodie", anyone who rides the "Starliner" will enjoy their few moments getting on the hills. Here's to many happy operational years for the "Starliner" at it's new home. If I visit the region while on hols, I'll be riding not complaining. If your a coaster "purist" you either ride it or you don't.

If it's a new coaster the middle is best for me, if I know the coaster it's the front or back. e.g. Never been on Balder, so middle seats for a couple of go's then hit the front and back seats.

To be given "closure" news for the park which you love working at is the worst thing to happen to someone, esp for the Ops like "Ken". I hope they can all find employment quickly My dream job would be to operate a "woodie" coaster with a manual brake, but as I live in the UK, that is not possible. To see the joy and happiness of the coaster riders when they return to the station would be a great feeling. ---------------------------------------------------- I have never been to this park and experienced the wonders of the "Blue Streak", I’ve heard it can sometimes spark, I may never will if a buyer is not found soon. The Classic Rides like the "Tumble Bug / Turtle" (how many are left), Devil's Den and "Blue Streak", should be saved and moved to another park, I hope this happens in the near future. I hope the "Blue Streak" does not become like the "Comet" at Lincoln Park, left for years to rot till it collapses. It does not deserve a painful slow death. This would be a terrible loss to the local's and the coaster lovers if this lovely old lady of 1938 met a steel ball. I hope someone can come forward and buy the park, put it back to it's former glory and send the NAD trains along their course of the "Blue Streak". Come on you very highly paid people, shell out a few million dollars and save this lovely coaster which needs some TLC and to hear people scream down the 1st drop into the woods below. Very Sad.

None of the above. www.dogpile.com does it for me

That's our English law for you Everyone has to be 100% sure they want to ride a coaster or water ride, cos if you panic at the top of the 1st drop and undo the seatbelt or the ohr comes loose for some reason, there is not much anyone can do. Before the train sets off on it's journey, I double check the ohr and seatbelt's / look for any wear, fry or rips. If there is any I tell an ops, get out and wait for another seat. Very sad indeed for the family involved, but if the problem was not the park's fault, they should not get prosecuted.

None on that list. "Wild Mouse" beats any coaster at BPB, it's insane and the best, needs to be higher and longer.

You've taken some great photo's, what's the "S" 1st drop like on Renegade..? Wild Thing looks cool and are there any special effects in it's tunnel..?

I rode it in 2000 and it was so "smooth", i'm sure it is just as good today as 7 years ago and it is a B&M

Mantis is king of "Stand-Ups". King Cobra is 2nd followed by "Shockwave".

Lovely Pic's esp the water splash, not a coaster for me as I hate falling vertical, I'll rather ride the "Beast" or "Thunderhead" all day / night than this.

I agree, it was a good investment for CG to buy and rebuild the "Starliner". The classic wooden coaster was the first of its kind in Florida when it was built in 1963 at Panama City Beach's Miracle Strip Amusement Park. If it had not been built at that time, Florida could of been waiting for many years for their 1st woodie. So the coaster needed to be saved and thankful it was. After you have ridden: El Toro, Balder and all of the top woodies around the world, you can't compare the "Starliner" to them as it's in a "Classic" class of it's own. What "Woodie" coaster did you want CG to buy Robb...? Time to save WG "Cyclone" and the "Blue Streak" at CLP.

Nice photo's of the construction, some parts of the structure were so large, BPB used part of the airport to put together the supports. I don't mind riding the PMBO but the layout is wrong, it needed hills which it does not have and the fin brake brefore the helix is quite severe it makes the train nearly stop. Best Bits are: 1st Drop and the tunnel before the brakes. 1 ride at night is enough for me for "Pepsi Max" "Grand Nash", "BD", "Rollercoaster", "Wild Mouse" and "Ghost Train gets my votes to ride more often.

Sorry, just re-posted on the other topic page. Thanks for the advice.

Text from www.goerie.com Millcreek zoning group approves construction of new coaster Waldameer Park got a big boost Wednesday night when Millcreek Township's zoning board approved construction of the park's Ravine Flyer II roller coaster. The three-member board unanimously granted Waldameer owner Paul Nelson a variance to build the thrill ride on a bluff near Lake Erie, though the decision came with stringent conditions. The board said the granting of the variance hinges on Waldameer meeting a set of 17 requirements. The amusement park, among other things, must get a $15 million liability insurance policy for the ride, hold Millcreek harmless for any accidents related to the ride, plant a strip of pine trees to shield the ride from Waldameer's neighbors, and keep as many trees as possible along the coaster's path. "Whatever has to be done, has to be done," Nelson said after the Zoning Hearing Board announced its decision at the Millcreek Municipal Building. Nelson said he has dreamed of building the Ravine Flyer II since he was a boy, and he said he'll need three to four more years to erect the steel-and-wood coaster, which is designed to cross Peninsula Drive near the entrance to Presque Isle State Park. Nelson has estimated the ride will cost as much as $6 million. He said it will attract a flood of coaster enthusiasts and other new tourists to the 108-year-old Waldameer, the 11th-oldest continuously operated amusement park in the United States and 27th oldest in the world. The Ravine Flyer II is designed to resemble the original Ravine Flyer, which Waldameer dismantled more than 60 years ago and which has gained legendary status among coaster aficionados, according to the trade publication "Amusement Today." Wednesday's decision ends years of waiting for Nelson, who first announced plans for the Ravine Flyer II in the late 1990s. But the ruling does not remove the possibility of more delays. The Zoning Hearing Board granted the variance despite persistent opposition from Brian Candela, the owner of Sara Coyne Beachcomber Campground, which sits at the foot of the bluff where the coaster is designed to travel. Candela, who was not at Wednesday's meeting, has said he wants Waldameer to grow, but that the park should build the Ravine Flyer II using a design that Candela believes would be less disruptive to neighbors. Candela's lawyer for the zoning appeal, Edward Betza, attended Wednesday's meeting and said the decision disappointed him. He said he must review the ruling with Candela to decide whether to appeal to Erie County Common Pleas Court. The Zoning Hearing Board members who decided the case are Chairwoman Regina K. Smith and members Michael Martin and Robert E. Sidman. Smith read the lengthy decision, which she said the board reached after extensive deliberations during two executive sessions, or private meetings, on Monday and Tuesday with lawyer Thomas Kuhn, the board's special counsel for the Waldameer appeal. Smith said the board based its decision on four and a half hours of testimony that the members heard at a meeting on the appeal March 3. "This case has been a very difficult case for the board," Smith said. "We have truly anguished over the decision." She said the 17 conditions are meant to secure the safety of the Ravine Flyer II, preserve trees and other plants along the ride's course and protect the neighbors' peacefulness and enjoyment of their property while allowing Waldameer to use its property as the park desires. Several of the 17 conditions deal with ways Waldameer must alert motorists to the coaster or prevent them from being distracted by it. The board prohibited Waldameer from placing advertisements or other signs on the bridge that will carry the coaster across Peninsula Drive, and the board said Waldameer must place signs along Peninsula Drive that warn motorists of the coaster crossing overhead. An environmental issue was at the core of the board's ruling. The dispute was over whether Nelson, Waldameer's owner, should be allowed to build the coaster on a bluff that overlooks the base of Presque Isle State Park and, in the distance, Lake Erie. State law and a Millcreek ordinance define that bluff as hazardous and off-limits to construction. Township officials more than two years ago asked the state Department of Environmental Protection to issue a report that would better define bluff hazards on Lake Erie, including the spot where the coaster would go. The township hoped the report would help guide officials as they tried to decide whether to let Nelson go ahead with his plans. The state has yet to issue the report, so Nelson sought the variance from the Zoning Hearing Board. The board members agreed that the coaster was to be built on a bluff, though they granted the variance and attached the conditions. Smith said the board found that the bluff, while it meets the definition of a bluff under the law, is less a cliff and more of a "non-precipitous slope that could accommodate the proposed structure." The board also noted the DEP's lack of a ruling or involvement in the zoning hearing on the Ravine Flyer II. ------------------------------------------------- The art of a roller coaster starts with the cars. At Waldameer Park & Water World, where they've sunk the anchors for the Ravine Flyer II, that meant a call to the Philadelphia Toboggan Co. PTC built the Comet, the park's 1951 coaster. The company's steel-wheeled cars would have to manage the path of the 2,900-foot Ravine Flyer II, which will travel twice as far as the Comet in the same 90 seconds. "We base a lot of our drawings on what the cars can do," said Larry Bill, who designed the ride, which will bridge Peninsula Drive. "That as much as anything defines the scope of a wooden coaster." That and the owner. Paul Nelson has wanted this particular roller coaster since 1945. He was 11 then, and just starting at the park. "We used to have breakfast with the owners," Nelson said. "We would talk about the past and about the future of the park, and that always came up." It had to. Roller coasters are the skylines of amusement rides. They draw people to the park. Consider Santa Claus Land, a park in southern Indiana. They had 300,000 visitors in the summer of 1991. A name change and the opening of two coasters, including the 67-mph Voyage -- another Larry Bill design -- helped sell more than a million tickets in 2006. That was not lost on Nelson, who saw roughly 400,000 people last summer at Waldameer, which opens its 2007 season today. He has long wanted a classic big wooden track, a muscled-up homage to Waldameer's first bridge coaster, which opened in 1922. That Ravine Flyer operated until 1938, when a rider fell to his death. After that, the bridge came down. The station became the Lakeview Grove picnic pavilion. The new track starts just across from it, behind the Wipeout. It will climb 80 feet -- clack-clack, clack-clack, clack-clack -- crest with a few-seconds view of the lake and then barrel down the bluff and across Peninsula Drive. That feature all but stopped it. Nelson fought nearly 10 years for the zoning change the bridge required. He also squabbled with a condominium association and the owners of the Sara Coyne Campground. Now it's Larry Bill's problem. "We've gone over roads before," said the designer, a senior partner at the Ohio-based Gravity Group. "But not with this big a bridge." The steel arch will stretch 161 feet, reaching to an acre adjacent to the Tom Ridge Environmental Center. The coaster will open in 2008. The yellow-pine track will duck under four tunnels and reach a high speed of 57 mph. At the moment, though, the coaster is a foam-and-cardboard model in Nelson's office. It's a hillside stripped of trees. It's three dozen steel anchors, the engineers' equivalent of an iceberg: I-beam tripods, their bottoms hammered 63 feet into the ground. It's that and a $6 million invoice. "This park is like your wife," Nelson grumbled. "It knows if you've got a dime. And it wants it." Bill's team keeps tweaking the design. There are crossovers and bank angles and 10 spots of bunny-hop air time. "There's a lot of dishwashing to the job," he said. "No question about it. But it's exciting, creating something, making a ride out of nothing. And that's what we're doing with Waldameer. We're giving them back that signature attraction." He has a pretty good picture of it. "You're going to be up above the trees, looking out at the lake, and then you'll be diving over that hill. And that's when it will really get exciting." As a kid, Bill rode the coaster at Coney Island. Now, at 54, he mostly rides his own designs. The Ravine Flyer II is number 35. Even then, he said, he prefers to eye the exit line. "Just being there, watching people come off the ramp, laughing, having a good day. ... For me, that's a real nice time." ---------------------------------------------------- It's so nice to hear about a Park which gets it's sig ride back after all the years of planning and destroying the original coaster. I'm going to visit the park when I pass through onto Cedar Point next year.

Text from www.goerie.com Millcreek zoning group approves construction of new coaster Waldameer Park got a big boost Wednesday night when Millcreek Township's zoning board approved construction of the park's Ravine Flyer II roller coaster. The three-member board unanimously granted Waldameer owner Paul Nelson a variance to build the thrill ride on a bluff near Lake Erie, though the decision came with stringent conditions. The board said the granting of the variance hinges on Waldameer meeting a set of 17 requirements. The amusement park, among other things, must get a $15 million liability insurance policy for the ride, hold Millcreek harmless for any accidents related to the ride, plant a strip of pine trees to shield the ride from Waldameer's neighbors, and keep as many trees as possible along the coaster's path. "Whatever has to be done, has to be done," Nelson said after the Zoning Hearing Board announced its decision at the Millcreek Municipal Building. Nelson said he has dreamed of building the Ravine Flyer II since he was a boy, and he said he'll need three to four more years to erect the steel-and-wood coaster, which is designed to cross Peninsula Drive near the entrance to Presque Isle State Park. Nelson has estimated the ride will cost as much as $6 million. He said it will attract a flood of coaster enthusiasts and other new tourists to the 108-year-old Waldameer, the 11th-oldest continuously operated amusement park in the United States and 27th oldest in the world. The Ravine Flyer II is designed to resemble the original Ravine Flyer, which Waldameer dismantled more than 60 years ago and which has gained legendary status among coaster aficionados, according to the trade publication "Amusement Today." Wednesday's decision ends years of waiting for Nelson, who first announced plans for the Ravine Flyer II in the late 1990s. But the ruling does not remove the possibility of more delays. The Zoning Hearing Board granted the variance despite persistent opposition from Brian Candela, the owner of Sara Coyne Beachcomber Campground, which sits at the foot of the bluff where the coaster is designed to travel. Candela, who was not at Wednesday's meeting, has said he wants Waldameer to grow, but that the park should build the Ravine Flyer II using a design that Candela believes would be less disruptive to neighbors. Candela's lawyer for the zoning appeal, Edward Betza, attended Wednesday's meeting and said the decision disappointed him. He said he must review the ruling with Candela to decide whether to appeal to Erie County Common Pleas Court. The Zoning Hearing Board members who decided the case are Chairwoman Regina K. Smith and members Michael Martin and Robert E. Sidman. Smith read the lengthy decision, which she said the board reached after extensive deliberations during two executive sessions, or private meetings, on Monday and Tuesday with lawyer Thomas Kuhn, the board's special counsel for the Waldameer appeal. Smith said the board based its decision on four and a half hours of testimony that the members heard at a meeting on the appeal March 3. "This case has been a very difficult case for the board," Smith said. "We have truly anguished over the decision." She said the 17 conditions are meant to secure the safety of the Ravine Flyer II, preserve trees and other plants along the ride's course and protect the neighbors' peacefulness and enjoyment of their property while allowing Waldameer to use its property as the park desires. Several of the 17 conditions deal with ways Waldameer must alert motorists to the coaster or prevent them from being distracted by it. The board prohibited Waldameer from placing advertisements or other signs on the bridge that will carry the coaster across Peninsula Drive, and the board said Waldameer must place signs along Peninsula Drive that warn motorists of the coaster crossing overhead. An environmental issue was at the core of the board's ruling. The dispute was over whether Nelson, Waldameer's owner, should be allowed to build the coaster on a bluff that overlooks the base of Presque Isle State Park and, in the distance, Lake Erie. State law and a Millcreek ordinance define that bluff as hazardous and off-limits to construction. Township officials more than two years ago asked the state Department of Environmental Protection to issue a report that would better define bluff hazards on Lake Erie, including the spot where the coaster would go. The township hoped the report would help guide officials as they tried to decide whether to let Nelson go ahead with his plans. The state has yet to issue the report, so Nelson sought the variance from the Zoning Hearing Board. The board members agreed that the coaster was to be built on a bluff, though they granted the variance and attached the conditions. Smith said the board found that the bluff, while it meets the definition of a bluff under the law, is less a cliff and more of a "non-precipitous slope that could accommodate the proposed structure." The board also noted the DEP's lack of a ruling or involvement in the zoning hearing on the Ravine Flyer II. ------------------------------------------------- The art of a roller coaster starts with the cars. At Waldameer Park & Water World, where they've sunk the anchors for the Ravine Flyer II, that meant a call to the Philadelphia Toboggan Co. PTC built the Comet, the park's 1951 coaster. The company's steel-wheeled cars would have to manage the path of the 2,900-foot Ravine Flyer II, which will travel twice as far as the Comet in the same 90 seconds. "We base a lot of our drawings on what the cars can do," said Larry Bill, who designed the ride, which will bridge Peninsula Drive. "That as much as anything defines the scope of a wooden coaster." That and the owner. Paul Nelson has wanted this particular roller coaster since 1945. He was 11 then, and just starting at the park. "We used to have breakfast with the owners," Nelson said. "We would talk about the past and about the future of the park, and that always came up." It had to. Roller coasters are the skylines of amusement rides. They draw people to the park. Consider Santa Claus Land, a park in southern Indiana. They had 300,000 visitors in the summer of 1991. A name change and the opening of two coasters, including the 67-mph Voyage -- another Larry Bill design -- helped sell more than a million tickets in 2006. That was not lost on Nelson, who saw roughly 400,000 people last summer at Waldameer, which opens its 2007 season today. He has long wanted a classic big wooden track, a muscled-up homage to Waldameer's first bridge coaster, which opened in 1922. That Ravine Flyer operated until 1938, when a rider fell to his death. After that, the bridge came down. The station became the Lakeview Grove picnic pavilion. The new track starts just across from it, behind the Wipeout. It will climb 80 feet -- clack-clack, clack-clack, clack-clack -- crest with a few-seconds view of the lake and then barrel down the bluff and across Peninsula Drive. That feature all but stopped it. Nelson fought nearly 10 years for the zoning change the bridge required. He also squabbled with a condominium association and the owners of the Sara Coyne Campground. Now it's Larry Bill's problem. "We've gone over roads before," said the designer, a senior partner at the Ohio-based Gravity Group. "But not with this big a bridge." The steel arch will stretch 161 feet, reaching to an acre adjacent to the Tom Ridge Environmental Center. The coaster will open in 2008. The yellow-pine track will duck under four tunnels and reach a high speed of 57 mph. At the moment, though, the coaster is a foam-and-cardboard model in Nelson's office. It's a hillside stripped of trees. It's three dozen steel anchors, the engineers' equivalent of an iceberg: I-beam tripods, their bottoms hammered 63 feet into the ground. It's that and a $6 million invoice. "This park is like your wife," Nelson grumbled. "It knows if you've got a dime. And it wants it." Bill's team keeps tweaking the design. There are crossovers and bank angles and 10 spots of bunny-hop air time. "There's a lot of dishwashing to the job," he said. "No question about it. But it's exciting, creating something, making a ride out of nothing. And that's what we're doing with Waldameer. We're giving them back that signature attraction." He has a pretty good picture of it. "You're going to be up above the trees, looking out at the lake, and then you'll be diving over that hill. And that's when it will really get exciting." As a kid, Bill rode the coaster at Coney Island. Now, at 54, he mostly rides his own designs. The Ravine Flyer II is number 35. Even then, he said, he prefers to eye the exit line. "Just being there, watching people come off the ramp, laughing, having a good day. ... For me, that's a real nice time." ---------------------------------------------------- It's so nice to hear about a Park which gets it's sig ride back after all the years of planning and destroying the original coaster. I'm going to visit the park when I pass through onto Cedar Point next year.