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Most Wooden coasters below 100ft tall can deliver great rides, the trains, track and structure does not take a beating as much as mega-size ones, so it could be better for a park to install 2 smaller woodies than 1 big one. Most Mega woodies ( over 150ft high) have been re-profiled over the years which could make them costly to run. Texas Giant: High lateral forces on the original turnaround have been reduced, different trains and a trim brake down the 1st drop. Mean Streak: 1st drop reworked twice, a trim added to the 1st drop and 1,400ft of track replaced in 1995. Rattler: Helix changed, the 1st drop reduced, the bottom of that drop raised by 42ft and the 2nd hill lowered by 19 feet. Colossus: re-profiled and different trains make the ride nothing compared to when it was new. Hercules: 1st drop re-profiled. trains with different wheel arrangements, altered lapbars and trims added to 1st drop. Beast: Final helix re-profiled and trims added. SOB: Loop removed and the world's noisiest lift-hill Only "Le Monstre" at La Ronde in Montreal is running without changes to it's original design. The comeback of smaller wooden coasters means more rides out there for all of us . Are taller woodies better..? Your views...!!

What are the condition of Blue Streak and the "Turtle Chase".. Is there going to be a re-paint soon or send the trains round the track to keep them oil'd..

http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/urbanite/blog/2008/08/astroland_owner_kind_of_resign.html Astroland’s co-owner says she is coming to grips with the realization that her storied Coney Island amusement park may close for good next month. Carol Hill Albert said yesterday the only way Astroland will reopen in 2009 is if Thor Equities, which owns the property, offers a one-year lease extension by the end of next week. If no agreement is reached by then, Albert said she would begin putting the park’s rides up for sale. Albert said she spoke with Thor officials last week and was told “they really were not in a position right now to make a decision, that they would try to get back to me soon, but there were no guarantees.” Much like a year ago, when Thor gave Astroland an 11th-hour, one-year lease extension, Albert had been holding out hope this summer that the amusement park could return in 2009. But when asked yesterday if she was resigned to the fact that this could be the 46-year-old park’s final season, Albert responded, “I kind of am. I’m getting there.” “It’s really very difficult for us to keep trying to run a business on a year-to-year basis,” said Albert, who co-owns the park with her husband, Jerome Albert. “People have their lives to plan, so we really cannot wait forever.” Astroland employs 370 people during the summer, 90 of whom work year-round. The park will close for the season Sept. 7. Its lease expires Jan. 31. In a prepared statement, Thor spokesman Stefan Friedman said “Astroland is signed until January, 2009,” adding that the developer is focused on sponsoring events in Coney Island this summer. Astroland’s signature ride, the Cyclone roller coaster, is a protected city landmark and will continue to operate next year. The Alberts sold their 3.1-acre waterfront property to Thor in November 2006 for $30 million. Thor planned a $1.5 billion redevelopment for 10 acres between West 10th and West 15th streets, which would have included a new amusement park, a water theme park, hotels and other offerings. However, in an effort to protect Coney Island as an amusement district, the Bloomberg administration has since announced a plan to acquire nine acres, including much of the Astroland property, from landowners and designate it parkland. Bloomberg then hopes to attract a single operator to develop a city-owned amusement park. The earliest the city expects to break ground on the project is next fall. The project is undergoing an environmental impact review, and the formal rezoning approval process will begin before the end of the year, said Lynn Kelly, president of the Coney Island Development Corp., which is charged by City Hall to protect the amusement district. Kelly said the loss of Astroland would underscore the need for Coney Island to be rezoned. “This is a real call to action for everyone to pay attention because what happens is the more vacant property that ends up in Coney Island, the more opportunity it is for any landowner in the future to say to a future administration, ‘Hey, this zoning doesn’t work. I have lots of vacant property. I want to do luxury condominiums and a giant mall,’ ” Kelly said. “And you know what? They might get it. That’s why it’s so important to get the zoning done now.”

I heard this: The Hoosier Hurricane has only been running one train lately following an incident that took the other train out of service. According to our source no effort is currently being made to repair it and even worse, the plan may be to just use it for spare parts for the one remaining train for the rest of the season. If this is true, get used to the longer lines. ----------------------------------------------------- Seems daft that a Park should cut a ride's capacity in 1/2 to save money or use the other train as spares, repair the coaster train and have 2 trains running.

Some nice pictures of Oakwood. I'm glad to hear "Fobia" was working again and gave a great ride. Did you take your seatbelt off and just have the "lapbar" to get some mad As in my report on the 2/8/8 "Fobia's" lift hill motor decided to give up and it was down all weekend I was there. I'll be going back to ride it in Sept. "Speed" is a great coaster, good layout but it is rough near the loop, gives your brain cells a good pounding before the 4.5g Helix. Treetops Coaster is great fun, at 10am we got a roll-back into the station off the lift-hill, the tyres were not dry enough, riding it at night was excellent, no lights and thick forest makes a great setting for a coaster. Can't understand why people want to spoil the fun for other people at the Park by saying things about the coasters. 3 hours down-time, I hope you went on "Plane Crazy" and the "Waterfall" to pass the time. I use "Paint Shop Pro" to downsize my pic's to 800 x 600 res.

http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=101935 This is joy. Plummeting 70 feet on two thin steel tracks, momentarily weightless as the Phoenix roller coaster makes its sharp descent. The wooden ride moves and gives as the coaster rattles along at 50 mph. The Phoenix is a rare and special breed, especially to the coaster connoisseurs who consider wooden coasters a superior ride. For two minutes the ride shakes, rattles and whips riders through bumps and turns. The shrieks are from delighted riders in the back of the coaster. The smell of greased pine wood, the clicketyclack of the coaster being pulled to the top of the lift hill, and the cars swaying like a willow tree in a summer storm all help build the anticipation. There's the sanguine view from the top of the hill, visible for only a breath before the coaster suddenly lurches wildly downhill. Nature and physics take over as riders scream into the wind. This is joy. Just ask Jacoby Mahone. The 6-year-old Elizabethtown boy couldn't put into words why he was dancing with excitement seconds after he rode the Phoenix at Knoebels Amusement Resort, an old-school amusement park in this Columbia County community. "Oh, that was awesome," he said, and then put his fingers to his head, searching for the words to describe why. Or ask B. Derek Shaw, who's ridden more roller coasters than he could ever count, yet still gets a special charge every time he rides a wooden one. "It is the thrill of the ride, the sense of dangling over the edge, but still in control," said Shaw, 52. There's a mystique about wooden roller coasters, one that just isn't duplicated on modern steel rides, coaster fans say. For wood coaster enthusiasts, Pennsylvania is a good place to be. There are 16 wooden coasters in the Keystone State and seven within a two-hour drive of Berks County. There are three at Hersheypark and two at Knoebels. Dutch Wonderland and Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom both feature one. And while a coaster connoisseur will ride anything once, they swear by the wooden kind. "Wood is just the real classic roller coaster," Shaw said, a few minutes after riding the Comet, a 1940s-era coaster at Hersheypark. "They are magnificent rides." Shaw of York has ridden the Comet more than a thousands times and knows every bump and turn in this granddaddy of rides. The Comet never lets down, Shaw said, clapping as the coaster came into the station. Over at the Lightning Racer, a dueling coaster at Hersheypark, Aaron Hostetter and Scott Anthony, two twentysomethings from York, were riding over and over again, racing down the exit ramp just to get right back on. The duo was part of a York church group at the park for the day. "There's just something about them," Anthony said. "You feel the clicketyclack." "There's something to be said about the old-school style," Hostetter said, anxious for another go around on the coaster. Nothing seems to bring out that feeling of joy quiet like a wooden coaster, said Tim Ober, rides director at Dutch Wonderland. Back in 1992, when Dutch Wonderland was planning to install a coaster, there was debate over wood and steel, Ober said. Wood won out, favored because of the mystique associated with it, he said. "We wanted that sound in our park," Ober said, while standing next to Kingdom Coaster as a train began its ascent up the lift hill. "It brings you back to a simpler time," he said.

Maybe Thorpe Park thought a dive loop is 2 extreme for the English public

Some workers at a Greene County restaurant are in hot water with the health department, after an employee took a bubble bath in a store sink. It happened at the Burger King on Orange Street in Xenia. A four-minute video posted on MySpace.com captured the employee, self-described as Mr. Unstable, bathing nude in a large stainless steel sink as several other employees and a store manager looked on. http://www.wdtn.com/global/story.asp?s=8825514

A recent video taken from a Plane which shows what is left of the park: http://www.wkyc.com/news/regional/akron_article.aspx?storyid=94444&catid=6 It's the end of the first week of August and the demolition of Geauga Lake amusement park is almost done. Cedar Fair, the company that owns Cedar Point and dozens of amusement parks across North America, closed the park in September 2007, then auctioned off the rides and equipment this summer on June 17-18. What's still standing? Basically, just the historic Big Dipper roller coaster, the Raging Wolf Bobs roller coaster, the Skyscraper observation tower and the main entrance building. Last week, large, orange-colored, spray-painted "X's" appeared on most of the remaining buildings and large demolition equipment has arrived at the park. The Americana Ferris wheel has been dismantled and moved to another park. The fate of the carousel is unknown but it, like the Americana, was not auctioned off. The Big Dipper and the Raging Wolf Bobs were sold June 17 to the same unnamed buyer for $5,000 and $2,500, respectively. Tom Woosnam, of Akron-based Apex Western Machinery Movers, made the successful bids on behalf of the unknown buyer. Woosnam said the Big Dipper, built by John A. Miller, erected in 1926, and one of the oldest roller coasters in existence, would be moved to an undisclosed location. It's still there at Geauga Lake and Woosnam has offered the Big Dipper to anyone who wants to buy it. Last month, one piece of the Raging Wolf Bobs' "extra" track was sold on eBay for $250. Also on June 17, the 1974 Itamin Skyscraper observation tower was sold for scrap for $12,500. Now its owner is offering it on eBay for $50,000. During the auction, Michigan-based Norton Auctioneers said the land needed to be cleared as soon as possible so all the rides were to be moved, removed or demolished. The 600-acre park land is being sold for re-development. It was divided into three parcels and the 11-acre parcel with the Geauga Lake Hotel on it is under contract by a non-profit group. The remaining acreage? About 110 acres on the west end of the park is under contract to an unnamed developer for retail development and the 440 other acres, between the 110 acres and the hotel, is under contract to an unnamed developer for a residential development. As of today (Friday), a contractor continued to remove the steel tracks from the Raging Wolf Bobs to sell for scrap. The Villain roller coaster is long gone.

I guess each park can operates their Flyers at different speeds, "Plane Crazy" at Oakwood (Wales) was going slightly slower than a Chair-o-plane. Do "Flyers" have different speed settings..? I could ask the Ops to turn up the power to increase the height and hopefully get enough speed to "Wrap" the cables or " Snap" them.. Can most "Flyers" touch the ground for a sec then carry on while it's spinning..?

Cable Snapping. It's the ultimate goal of the Flyer Addict. Skilfully manoeuvring your tub can cause slack in the supporting cables - due to the pilot moving faster or slower than the support structure. The result: the loud, sharp sound of metal cable hitting metal clasps on both the flyer tub and overhead structure. I'm after some advice on the technique on how to "snap the cables", i.e. when the flyer gets to the highest point do I aim the sail back to the straight position to slow down or turn it the other way etc. Any advice would be useful..

If you own / a fan of the PT Cruiser Don't forget to add loads of chrome to it Their full range of cars, I love theie "Burger" model http://www.candsrides.biz/Sezione.jsp?idSezione=7

BPB "Wild Mouse" return's to "life" and looking very lovely in it's new colours. It is running only around 1-2 seconds off its normal pace which is excellent really. Quick tip for mouse lovers , this years fastest car at the moment is "Trixie". She is flying Track shot Cow-mouse One of the mice looking great Running overhead Middle of the ride

Part 2 from the weekend's trip, in no order of rides etc This is what happens after repeat rides on "Speed", the park's custom Eurofighter coaster. Another time lapse pic Night-time ride on "Treetop Coaster" Looking ahead under the steel track Love you "Custom Coasters Inc", Bargin at £3 million pounds in 1996 Club members chatting next to Megafobia's 1st drop curve Waiting for the next train to pass Spare wood pile behind Megafobia Myself on "Plane Crazy" Beautiful Park Myself skimming across the water Kid size train ride with rabbits everywhere. Lift-hill hut, No smoke or fire damage after the lift-hill motor broke with great smoke effects Friday lunchtime. Headchopper Lookout behind you In-side supports for the lift hill My friend outsizing the headland Speed's loop at dusk Local seagull having a drink before Hydro boat comes round to the station Home for the weekend

The owners of Dreamland in Margate have been served with an urgent works notice insisting they erect a fence to protect the fire-damaged Grade II listed Scenic Railway until it is fully repaired. The notice was served on the Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company by Thanet District Council and requires them to put up a continuous 2.4 metre high steel fence around the entirety of the listed ride, the oldest of its type in the country and third oldest in the world. If the fence is not up by next Monday (August 11) then the council will, using planning powers, send contractors to the amusement park to erect the fence. The council will then recover the cost of this work from MTCRC. The move follows the fire, which broke out in early April, destroying approximately 30 per cent of the railway's tracks, the workshop where the cars were housed and part of the station. The ride, built in 1920, was the first amusement park ride to be Grade II listed in 2002. Sarah Vickery of the Save Dreamland Campaign said: "Anything which ensures the Scenic Railway is properly protected has to be welcomed." Photo'd sometime last week

A few of mine

I used to be a train spotter when I was younger Today I go on "Railtours round England" and visit Preserved Railways for their Diesel Gala weekends. A few of my Fav Diesel and AC loco's which operate in England.

They are not much different to normal drops, I found Oakwood's "Speed" 97 degree drop quite a normal feeling

Just returned from a great w/end camping with the European Coaster Club at Oakwood Theme Park in Wales from the 1st-3rd Aug, They had some pre-booked ERS (Excusive ride sessions) among other things happening during the days/evenings: ERS (Excusive ride sessions) on: Custom design Euro-fighter “Speed No Limits” CCI’s “Megafobia” “Waterfall” (you sit on a plastic sledge and go down a steep drop before skimming over a long stretch of water, if you get your technique wrong you end up getting soaked) “Treetop Coaster” (This ride is placed in dense fir trees / woods, the night-time Sat evening ERS was pitch- black apart from the glow sticks people were holding). Friday Itinerary was: 10:00 Start of day then free time in the park 17:00 Tug O' War 19:30 Hog Roast 20:00 Play Your Coasters Right 21:30 End of night show and fireworks, Park closed to Public 22:15 - 23:15 ERS, in the dark, on Speed. Sat Itinerary was: 09:00 - 10:00 One hour ERS on Waterfall. Before the park opens to the public 10:00 – 13:30 free time in the Park 14:00 10 Pin Bowling and Crystal Maze 17:00 Treasure Hunt results, "It's a Knockout" 18:30 BBQ on campsite 19:30 Quiz and collect any auction items won. 21:30 End of night show and fireworks, Park closed to Public 22:15 - 23:15 ERS in the dark, on Megafobia. (Cancelled as below) 23.30 – 02.00 ERS in the dark on Treetop Coaster Sunday Itinerary was a free day in the park and travel home when you want. During Friday afternoon Megafobia broke-down while the train was going up the Lift-hill, this was due to the lift-hill gearing failing, there were reports of a lot of smoke coming out of the chain lift shed. The engineers assessed the problem and they said, “ Can’t be fixed this weekend as a couple of new gears need to be ordered, The ride should be up and running by Tuesday”. Everyone was very sad to hear Megafobia had gone down, the Park’s P.A. gave us a few suggestions to compensate for the ERS which was booked for Sat evening. 1)To take a back-stage tour of “Megafobia” at 5pm Sat , go anywhere around / in it apart from walking on the track. 2)Extend the ERS of the “Treetop Coaster” to 2am in the morning. My Partner and I left the campsite at 7.30am 3rd Aug to head for Broad Haven: http://www.visitpembrokeshire.com/broad-haven.aspx This is a lovely seaside village 20 mins drive from Oakwood. After having breakfast at one of the beach café’s we returned home which is 40 miles south east of London happy but exhausted. Enjoy the Pic’s Lap bar busting 3rd drop 2nd hill Megafobia's Lift hill and 1st drop under a nicely placed tree Snake River Falls water slides Speed's 90 degree lift-hill. great views from the top Speed's 4.5g helix Speed's Schwarzkopf sized loop Speed's 3rd Train "Waterfall" http://www.oakwooduk.co.uk/explorepark/family/thewaterfall.htm Car parked in front of Hydro an Intamin River Plunge Oakwood Skyline The Severn bridge, links England and Wales together. Toll costs £5.30 per car Taken at 2.15am this morning nearing the end of the night's ERS on the Treetop Coaster, it flys past with nearly everyone holding a "glow stick / sword".. Perfect Shot of time lapse Water is 2 cold today for a dip Broad Haven beach with the tide in Broad Haven Broad Haven Splash down and everyone gets wet Hydro Slight Dip in the track 3rd drop view Nut's n Bolts Wheel view Wonderful curve POV view of track near the end of the ride View towards the park from behind the 1st drop/curve Other members of ECC Looking up at the 1st drop Smile Wood supports everywhere View of top of lift hill curve from ground level Looking the other way towards the lift-hill One of the return's airtime hill Nice looking supports Far Fan Turn, this is where the park's "sheep" normally graze 8 high

Found this guy's lucky events of riding the Leap the Dips on 3 wheels after one of them broke when on a turn and seeing Skyliner break down and getting repaired. http://www.coasterforce.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22948 His pic's and videos are 1/2 way down the page: Skyliner needs repairing Forcing the car to slide onto the transfer track Broken Wheel Engineer walking the track towards the broken car Leap the Dips Storage

More construction pictures and some "trick" signs:

2 track views of one of the roughest coasters on the planet.

Anyone got $50,000 free.. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250276976658&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm37%26satitle%3D250276976658%26category0%3D%26fvi%3D1 Item number: 250276976658 Up for auction is a 185ft Intamin Gyro Tower which was purchased from Geauga Lake Park. This tower was built in 1974

Nearly gone

Drawing of how the 1st drop might look